How do videos, movies and documentaries dedicated to indigenous communities transform the media landscape of South Asia? Based on extensive original research, this book examines how in South Asia popular music videos, activist political clips, movies and documentaries about, by and for indigenous communities…

What was the relationship between women and modern media in different parts of Asia in the 20th century? Under what historical and social conditions did women achieve prominence in popular music in Asia?

Lecture, LUCIS What's New?! Series

The dental remains of 25 enslaved Africans from the site of Newton's Plantation, on Barbados, were subjected to isotope analysis. Previous research had pointed out that the locally born individuals were subjected to high concentrations of lead poisoning. A new study, done by Dr Jason Laffoon among others…

Leiden University is going to partner with the Asian Development Bank, a bank committed to regional development. President of the Executive Board Annetje Ottow signed a memorandum of understanding on this unique partnership in Manila on 27 April.

Leiden University will set up further activities with the Asian Development Bank (ADB).

The much-discussed documentary 'Cobblestone Stories' by American anthropologist Mark Neupert can be seen in Leiden's Trianon cinema on 23 April. In an interview published earlier on this site Neupert explained what makes Leiden so special for him. 'The idea is to show my American students that there…

Rodrigo Ochigame’s project explores how AI redefines scientific evidence, aiming to help scientists critically navigate these transformations with the Veni grant.

Online book launch

How can the emergence of primary justice systems be facilitated and furthered?

The Bloomsbury Handbook of Sonic Methodologies is now available. This more than 850-page book offers methods how to study sound as well as how through sound and listening (new) knowledge can be gained.

Overview of the Asia Programmes offered at Leiden University.

Leiden Asia Departments

The skateboarding world was highly enthusiastic about the participation of skaters in the Olympic Games in 2021, although there was also a lot of opposition. Researcher Sander Hölsgens observes that the discussion has now abated and that the Games have had positive effects for skateboarders and citi…

A fragment of a human skull discovered in sediments extracted from the bottom of the North Sea, 15 km off the coast off the Netherlands, has been identified as belonging to the extinct Neandertal group.

Leiden University has been promoting studies on Latin America and the Caribbean for a long time.

The emergence of metalwork deposition during the Bronze Age in Northwest Europe, c. 2300-1500 BC

Bones contain information about people’s lives such as where they came from, their age at death and which diseases they suffered from. Researchers can deduce a lot from them about a person’s life and about human evolution. This generates leads that could help solve present-day problems, such as how…

Here you find the admission requirements to apply for the international bachelor’s programme in Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology.

Sustainability issues are often highly complex problems, which can only be understood if you combine knowledge on both natural systems and the communities which need to deal with the issues. Throughout your 3-year Science for Sustainable Societies programme, you learn to analyse complex sustainability…

Erik de Maaker and Radhika Gupta received a Seed Grant to initiate research on how heritage has been and can be mobilised to address climate change governance in Himalayan Asia. This project will address a significant knowledge gap on the potentials and pitfalls of climate governance, with an initial…

In our teaching, we give all our students the opportunity to learn about sustainability themes and issues, where possible ones that tie in with the content of their degree programme.

Every year, in the last month of the Islamic calendar, millions of Muslims from around the world come together in Mecca to perform the Hajj, the pilgrimage that all capable Muslims should perform at least once in their lives. In 2013, the National Museum of Ethnology in Leiden organised the exhibition…

One of the highlights of doing our master's programme is the opportunity to follow your own research project in which you combine the experience of doing a detailed and extended research project with the development of important skill-sets.

Every student who wants to apply for the bachelor’s programme in Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology at Leiden University will need to start at Studielink. The application procedure consists of three steps.

Leiden University offers its students a wide range of bachelor's, master's and minors that explore sustainability or climate. Here, you find an overview of those programmes in the academic year 2020-2021.

The two-year master's programme in Japanese Studies, a specialisation of the MA in Asian Studies, offers teaching by leading academics and a multi-disciplinary approach to the study of the East Asian region.

The master's specialisation in Global Ethnography is all about your three-month ethnographic research project. Experienced scholars teach you in extensive courses and by individual supervision how to get to most of your research.

Academic staff and students blog about their research and teaching.

The Global Summit, which took place from 12-16 January 2021, is an initiative by Richard Albert, the William Stamps Farish Professor in Law, Professor of Government, Director of Constitutional Studies at the University of Texas at Austin, and Founder & Director of the International Forum on the Future…

A devastating tsunami engulfed large coastal areas in Asia and East Africa in 2004. With over 170,000 dead, the Indonesian province of Aceh was hardest hit. The survivors proved to be remarkably resilient as they returned to everyday life. Anthropologist Annemarie Samuels went to live in Aceh, and has…

An interdisciplinary study of the Persian Period

Research on Inclusiveness and Diversity at the Faculty of Science at Leiden University

Both within the university and also with outside partners, Leiden University participates in sustainability programmes. These initiatives hopefully contribute to a growing and more robust sustainability movement, locally and world wide.

How do social and political developments influence the process of meaning-making in different parts of the world? Why is a particular discourse interpreted in numerous ways depending on the context it is produced and propagated? And how are culture, politics, history, and language intertwined?

To what extent does the Law Ombudsperson for Children achieve its goals as intended by the legislator when introducing the law?

Andrea Giolai defended his thesis on 3 May 2017.

Published on 26 February 2021.

The Laboratory for Human Osteoarchaeology specialises in the macroscopic and microscopic analysis of human remains. We use cutting edge scientific approaches to address archaeological, historical, and anthropological research questions. In addition to paleopathological, histological, and 3D scanning…

Disciplinary History and Epistemology

The main aim of this research is to understand the dynamics of identity within indigenous Caribbean communities as expressed through the practice of intentional cranial modification. A multidisciplinary approach will be applied to achieve this aim, combining current anthropological and sociological…

On 12 January 2023 ms. Nor Ismah successfully defended a doctoral thesis and graduated.

Inspired by a critical reconsideration of current monolithic approaches to the study of Greek religion, this book argues that ancient Greeks displayed a disquieting capacity to validate two (or more) dissonant, if not contradictory, representations of the divine world in a complementary rather than…

This dissertation provides an up to date description of the Indo European lexical stock of Armenian (ca. 500 entries) with systematic inclusion of unused data that are found in Armenian dialects.

This research aims to study the practice of cremation in Alexandria and Graeco-Roman Egypt, through the examination of its cinerary urns.

The VVI seeks to develop and disseminate socio-legal knowledge and theory regarding the interaction between law, governance and society. More specifically, the Institute studies the emergence, functioning, and evolution of legal institutions.

Central to the research of several cluster members are the social function and contexts of the production and consumption of medieval and early modern art, literature and media:

Fostering multi-polar perspectives that engage more connected, nuanced and pluralistic understandings of the world. Global Interactions encourages and supports research that provides significant new insights on these global processes across time and space.

How are social structures of gender, religion and race/ethnicity learned and embodied in practices of movement?

Museum Studies looks at museum practices from archaeological, historical and anthropological perspectives.