Area Studies: Asia & the Middle East

Research

LIAS has a School of Asian Studies (SAS) and a School of Middle-Eastern Studies (SMES). These designations, and the fields within them, remain foundational to our work. At the same time, the academic community benefits from the presence of cross-regional networks that are defined along thematic and disciplinary lines.

• Ancient Worlds network
  The Ancient Worlds Network brings together staff and graduate students in LIAS-LUCSoR working on the ancient Mediterranean and Near Eastern world.
   
• Anthropology and Sociology network
  The Anthropology and Sociology network brings together researchers of LIAS and LUCSoR working from an anthropological and sociological perspective and researchers of the Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences.
   
• Canonical Cultures network
  Religion, Philosophy, and the Pre-modern World
   
• History network
  LIAS History Workshop brings together faculty and graduate students in LIAS and other Institutes who are interested in writing critical histories grounded in empirical research and theory, irrespective of historiographical approach, geographical focus, or time period.
   
• Foreign language pedagogy network
  LIAS staff include lecturers in Arabic, Chinese, Hebrew, Hindi, Indonesian, Japanese, Korean, Persian, and Turkish.
   
• Political Economy (LPEG) network
  The Leiden Political Economy Group (L-PEG) is a network of scholars of political economy, development, economic history, economics, and international political economy across various Leiden University programs and institutes and beyond.