This practical guide is aimed at PhD candidates, Research Master Students, and early-career researchers from all academic disciplines. The instructions in the guide intend to inspire young researchers and to help them practice Open Science, by sharing all aspects of research as open possible.

Congratulations to David Fontijn, who has been recognized by the University with the title of full Professor of the Archaeology of Early Europe.

The Utrecht-based VIDI project Lettercraft in Early Medieval Europe, AD 481-751 is working on a new database of Merovingian epistolary communication. We are looking for enthusiastic (R)MA students who would like to join us this Fall as research apprentices for the first phase of data entry and analysis.…

The volume Vernacular Books and Their Readers in the Early Age of Print (c. 1450–1600), edited by Anna Dlabačová (Leiden University), Andrea van Leerdam (Utrecht University), and John Thompson (Queen’s University, Belfast), explores approaches to study vernacular books and reading practices across Europe…

On 25 and 26 October 2024, the first biennial symposium Environmental History in the Medieval and Early Modern Low Countries, is scheduled to take place at Leiden University.

The routine assumption that Upper Palaeolithic early modern humans in Europe were regular fire users who produced fire at will has never been tested against the archaeological record. Utilizing literature, database and microwear analytical approaches, this project seeks to establish the role and forms…

Context and contents of the Izcatqui manuscript in the Royal Tropical Institute, Amsterdam

According to a new study by an international team of researchers from the Caribbean, Europe and North America, the Caribbean was settled by several successive population dispersals that originated on the American mainland.

In a new study published in PLOS One, Leiden archaeologist Anastasia Nikulina, together with an international team from France, Denmark, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands, challenges the long-held belief that early humans had minimal impact on their environment before the rise of farming.

In the early modern period, it was perfectly normal to find recipes, legal documents or medical writings in a book of poems. Holly Riach studied the underlying principles of these ‘miscellanies’ during her PhD.

Lecture, Economic and Social History Brown Bag Seminar

We would like to inform you about the adjusted opening hours of the helpdesk and helpdesk counters during the holidays.

In this dissertation, Boethius’ mathematics and logic and their roles in philosophy are reassessed, and on the basis of these, the connections between mathematics and logic in Boethius and their applications to theological or philosophical topics are explored.

Conference

By analysing neglected (continental) spy centres and integrating these groups of female intelligencers into the traditional, male-orientated historical narratives, this project will proceed towards a gendered history of early modern espionage.

On October 11, the Austria Centre Leiden teamed up with the Leiden Jewish Studies Association to welcome Dr. Lena Sadovski for a lunch time talk. Fifteen colleagues from across the university, including retirees and graduate students, attended Dr. Sadovski's fascinating lecture entitled “When religion…

With a starting grant of the European Research Council (ERC) for promising young researchers, Eiko Fried aims to develop a personalised early warning system, that will reliably forecast depression before it occurs. Fried (Clinical Psychology) talks about this WARN-D, promising to radically transform…

This volume sheds light on the role played by progeny in maintaining dynasties in early modern royal courts as well as the horizontal and vertical interplay between the actors. It attempts to break through the narrative of older research that saw dynasties as a series of male rulers. Instead, these…

It is time for the fifth lecture in the series Manuscript Mondays. We shall have two speakers. Jesse Keskiaho (University of Helsinki, Finland) will start with a talk about the soul. In the second talk Evina Steinova will tell us more about the medieval encyclopaedia. The talks will be followed by a…

This conference explores how reading experiences were shaped both by producers and users of vernacular books. By adopting an international and interdisciplinary perspective (combining book history, literary history, art history, religious studies, and history of knowledge) it aims to contribute to the…

Debates about the ‘end’ of the Roman era, how, when, and even if it ended, are still very much alive and raging. However, what happened after the (long) late antique period is a lesser-known and lesser-studied subject. The post-Roman past needs, however, as much energetic investigation and discussion.…

From 6-8 April 2026 the conference

By comparing the archaeological evidence at Sedgeford and other sites located on both English and Continental coastal zones, what evidence is there for a shared maritime culture between these North Sea communities? Also if evidence is found, can we reveal to some extent a separate coastal identity to…

People in the Early Bonze Age used bronze artefacts as a means of payment. This is the conclusion reached by archaeologists Maikel Kuijpers and Catalin Popa in a PLOS ONE article published on 20 January. The discovery led to a surge of media reports.

On January 8 and 9, a conference will take place at Leiden University, titled: "The Plurality of Early Modern Media: 21st-Century Perspectives on Interdisciplinary Research in the Humanities". This conference marks the 25 years anniversary of the Intersections series (published by Brill) and reflects…

This is an Erasmus+ International Credit Mobility project of Leiden University’s Faculty of Science with Ilia State University in Georgia.

Are magnetic fields older than the first light? And how did they influence the development of our universe right after the Big Bang? Cosmologists from Leiden, Groningen, and Utrecht are now collaborating to investigate this.

Working during Corona brings along various challenges but also unexpected opportunities. Thijs Porck, university lecturer medieval English at the Leiden University Centre for the Arts in Society (LUCAS), was asked to give a digital guest lecture for the University of Costa Rica and shares his experi…

The ERC project Early Medieval English in Nineteenth-Century Europe (EMERGENCE), led by Thijs Porck (Leiden University) is hiring 1 postdoctoral researcher and 2 PhD's. Details on the individual projects can be found below. Deadline for applications: 1 March 2024.

The map application includes information from old and new buildings archaeological projects. This makes it possible to investigate whether water facilities (wells, cisterns) and waste facilities (cesspits, sewers) were the privilege of Leiden’s wealthy elite in the late 16th and 17th centuries or whether…

The Saalian archaeological record at Maastricht-Belvédère (the Netherlands).

Who had a say in making decisions about the natural world, when, how and to what end? How were rights to natural resources established? How did communities handle environmental crises? And how did dealing with the environment have an impact on the power relations in communities?

Climate change, depletion of natural resources, loss of natural and cultural landscapes, and many other (ecological) sustainability challenges urge us to (re)evaluate human interaction with the natural world. This renewed environmental consciousness has invigorated not only scientists working on effects…

In June, the international conference "Practices of Copying and Imitation in Early Modern Architecture (1400-1700)" will take place at Ghent University. This conference seeks to direct attention to verifiable practices and material documentation of copying and imitation in the workshop and on the building…

Effectiveness of an early intervention program for anxiety-prone toddlers in the Netherlands

This thesis explores the theoretical and observational properties of distant massive galaxies that harbour active black holes in their centres and shine brightly at radio wavelengths.

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My current research focuses on criminality and gender interactions in nineteenth-century Europe. This project uses a comparative methodology to explain gender constructions in a criminal and in a court setting.