In a modernist interpretation of migration controls, nation states play a major role. This book challenges this interpretation by showing that comprehensive migration checks and permanent border controls appeared much earlier, in early modern dynastic states and empires, and predated nation states by…

This book was published in conjunction with an exhibition at the Pera Museum in Istanbul. It contains seven articles on the global panoramic visual history from the early modern to modern times and Istanbul's place within this history.

Over the last few years, human Rights have become subject of intense debates in historiography. Sam Moyn’s provocative book The Last Utopia (2010) made in particular clear how important it is to investigate precisely which meaning human rights have been given in a particular context. During the research…

This project investigates how the first generation of Dutch printed books (the incunabula, 1473-1501) affected late medieval spirituality, religious practice and visual culture in the Low Countries.

Antibiotic-resistant bacteria pose a major health threat. Addressing this challenge requires among others the development of new antibacterial compounds. The research described in this thesis focuses on discovering novel antibiotics from soil bacteria, specifically Streptomyces and Paenibacillus.Despite…

For years now, collaboration has been the operative word when it comes to successful space missions. But this can only be achieved with good agreements.

This study offers a new approach to the history of sites, archaeology, and heritage formation in Asia, at both the local and the trans-regional levels.

In the eighteenth century, the Dutch East India Company (VOC) housed its enslaved people on ‘Slave Island’ in Colombo, the capital of Sri Lanka. Today ‘Slave Island’ is under serious threat from property developers. Senior lecturer Alicia Schrikker, together with her Sri Lankan colleagues Iromi Perera…

Are you thinking about studying Arts and Culture: Art History and Museum Studies? Learn more and watch the introduction video.

The Vici project Through the Hands of Signers invites everyone to participate in its kick-off symposium on the History of Sign Language Emergence, Transmission, and Change on July 10 2026.

Last year, LUCSoR welcomed two new Ph.D. students from Iran: Kiyan Foroutan from Ahvaz and Amir Ardalan Emami from Tehran. Kiyan works on a project on the role of the family in medieval and early modern Zoroastrianism in India and Iran (15th-18th centuries). Ardalan works on a much earlier period, the…

Maritime conflict management is the regulation of conflict in relation to the sea. It comprises conflict enforcement, conflict resolution and conflict avoidance. How did victims of maritime conflicts claim and obtain damages or demand compensation or reparation?

On 25 January 2024 H.J. Pak successfully defended a doctoral thesis and graduated.

Which plants in the Mediterranean garden were already known to the ancient Greeks and Romans, and how were they utilized?

This project will construct an inventory of possible conceptions of the resistance of the world to scientists’ claims and theories.

Visiting Researchers at the Leiden University Institute for History

On 28 June, a group of 35 students (13 from Leiden) visited the law faculty as part of the Space Summer School, a 5-day course organised by the LDE Centre 'Space for Science and Society' and NL Space Campus.

This project investigates the rich linguistic history of the crucial language groups in East Africa and includes a search for words that indicate earlier lost languages. These outcomes, combined with recent archaeological and genetic research, will contribute to a new understanding of East Africa’s…

Bridging the gap between the space sector and society, together with students from other disciplines. That’s the aim of the LDE Space & Society Honours Programme, which is launching this year. Applications close 6 October 2024. Read on to discover if it’s for you!

The Leiden student team representing the International Institute of Air and Space Law (IIASL) won the Best Memorials Award and the second place in the European Finals of the Manfred Lachs Space Law Moot Court Competition.

From the very beginning, the Islam has known an oral tradition. It was only two hundred years ago that Muslims starting writing about the history of Islam, on rocks or other hard materials. Arabic epigraphy (study of inscriptions) turns out to be an essential tool in historical genealogy research. Abdullah…

Subproject of the ERC project 'Challenging the Liberal World Order from Within: The Invisible History of the United Nations and the Global South'.

The Hague Space Resources Governance Working Group, hosted by the IIASL, has recently agreed on the Draft Building Blocks for the Development of an International Framework on Space Resource Activities and will present the outcome of its work during the NewSpace Europe Conference in Luxembourg. The Executive…

This dissertation the role of the English dissenting minister Joseph Priestley (1733-1804) as a grammarian is studied.

Fanny Wonu Veys was appointed Professor of Art and Material Culture of Oceania on 1 August. Time for an introduction.

Who still remembers that Leiden attracted a lot of reds from Suriname during the 1970s? The exhibition ‘Dynamic Suriname’ offers a number of surprising insights on the links between Leiden University and Suriname, which is celebrating the fortieth anniversary of its independence this year.

Carsten Stahn has just published Confronting Colonial Objects: Histories, Legalities and Access to Culture. The book is part of the OUP Cultural Heritage Law and Policy Series.

Met NASA’s plannen voor een mogelijke permanente maanbasis rond 2030 neemt de discussie toe over eigendom, toegang en grondstoffen. Bestaande verdragen bieden richting, maar aanvullende internationale afspraken zijn nodig om toekomstige conflicten te voorkomen, zegt ruimtejurist Handel-Mazzetti in het…

On Thursday 24 May 2018, Tanja Masson-Zwaan of Leiden University’s International Institute of Air and Space Law and Prof Mahulena Hofmann of the University of Luxembourg had the honour of addressing the King and Queen of the Netherlands and the Grand-Duc and Grand-Duchess of Luxembourg during the State…

One of ECSL’s most prominent activities is the ECSL Summer Course on Space Law and Policy, welcoming students at all academic levels as well as select young professionals currently active in the space or related sectors. Now in its 34th year, the course has built a vast global network of alumni.

It recently emerged that a Swiss firm secretly owned by the CIA and the West German intelligence service BND had been selling manipulated coding equipment to numerous governments, including allies, to spy on them through a Swiss cover firm for years.

In this thesis we construct an extension associated with the Furstenberg compactification of symmetric space of noncompact type. From this extension we get a cycle in equivariant KK-theory representing the extension. The construction of the extension and the corresponding cycle is a generalization of…

We investigate the buildup of galaxies from various vantage points. The first two chapters focus on the stellar content of galaxies, especially the distribution of stellar masses at birth and potential variations therein in various galactic environments.

As museums face more scrutiny and are being demanded to decolonize, there are opportunities for Dominican museums to adopt a critical perspective and turn their collections and exhibitions into connections to our cultural past, present, and future.

My research focusses on site-specific compositional and performance practices of music for organ and electronics and their musical-spatial values.

Glycoside hydrolases (glycosidases/GHs) are widely abundant enzymes in all kingdoms of life and are important biocatalysts that catalyze the hydrolysis of glycosidic linkages in oligo/polysaccharides, glycoproteins and glycolipids with tremendous efficiency

From 1717 onwards, many Dutch textile workers emigrated to Spain, recruited in the Netherlands through Spanish intermediary agents and diplomatic staff. Bourbon Spain wanted to strengthen its economy by founding royal factories and was in desperate need for skilled foreign labour. This example of labour…

Investigating the contribution of interpreters, informants, hunters and guides in the making of colonial scientific knowledge.

An unprecedented space telescope, an astrolab that makes space ice and molecules that may lead to the origin of life… The Ice Age project has all the prerequisites to become a very fascinating research project – if it is not one already. Leiden astronomers Melissa McClure, Harold Linnartz and Will Rocha…