News
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Municipality of Leiden apologises for role in slavery and announces further researchApology 02 December 2025On 2 December, the Municipality of Leiden will apologise for the role previous administrations played in colonialism and slavery. Mayor Peter Heijkoop...
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The colonial contacts of the firm De Heyder & Co: ‘Completely intertwined with the colonial market’Student research 17 November 2025The Lakenhal depot houses three nineteenth-century sample books in which the cotton company De Heyder & Co kept precise records of who placed which or...
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Was Suriname expensive or not? ‘The economic situation has never been properly assessed’14 October 2025His Surinamese neighbours in Amsterdam gave Russia expert and economic historian Isaac Scarborough an idea: a re-evaluation of the Surinamese economy ...
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A sample of perspectives: Rick Honings sought and found new perspectives on Indonesia30 September 2025Anyone who wanted to get an impression of the Dutch East Indies between 1800 and 1945 quickly turned to travel literature. Large groups of readers dev...
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‘Louisiana wanted to restart the transatlantic slave trade in the mid-nineteenth century’08 September 2025In 1808, the United States banned the transatlantic slave trade. Not everyone was happy about this, as Marcella Schute discovered. In her thesis, she ...
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How the Republic contributed to the French colonial empire: ‘People like you and me invested’24 April 2025In the 18th century, the French colonial empire teemed with protectionist laws. Nevertheless, businessmen from the Republic played an important role i...
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Historical research shows how Leiden University and city council benefitted from colonialism03 April 2025
Leiden University contributed to colonialism and slavery through its research and teaching. And governors and residents of Leiden had an active role i...
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Ammodo Science Fellowship for Sophie Rose's research on the perception of mental illness in the Dutch East Indies03 April 2025Sophie Rose is one of the fellows of the Ammodo Science Fellowship 2024. She will use this fellowship to conduct research at Leiden University.
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'The Butterflies of Upper Digul' now also published in Indonesia11 February 2025Three years ago, Associate Professor Alicia Schrikker published 'De vlinders van Boven-Digoel', in which she chronicled several stories about colonial...
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Healthcare and the Dutch East India Company: Two centuries of arrogance and challengesHistory 20 January 2025The Dutch East India Company (VOC) took healthcare seriously, albeit mainly for business reasons. Former GP Ton Zwaard’s PhD research reveals that alt...
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Household Slavery: 'An Overlooked Method of Enslaving People'17 December 2024When discussing enslavement, attention often focuses on Africans forcibly shipped to South America. Researcher Timo McGregor's new Veni research sheds...
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Exhibition encourages us to reflect on the history of slavery27 June 2024What is the significance of the history of slavery for our present-day society? A special exhibition in the inner courtyard of the Academy Building fe...
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From textiles to teaching: Leiden’s role in colonialism and slavery28 May 2024Using enslaved people as servants, becoming an administrator in the Dutch West India Company or making uniforms for the colonial army. In their own wa...
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Karwan Fatah-Black launches book series on slavery and emancipation20 February 2024How do we account for historical power dynamics when writing new histories of slavery and emancipation? What critical methods can we employ when study...
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‘The university has many roots in the colonial past. How deep and wide were they?’11 January 2024Historians recently started preliminary research on Leiden University’s role in colonialism and historical slavery. Our knowledge about this is too li...