Heritage
Our contribution to society:
With knowledge of heritage we understand identity and appreciate diversity.
News
Our research and teaching
Heritage is the legacy of all generations, from ancient archaeological sites, artefacts and crafts to stories, regional food and today’s allotment gardens. A better understanding of the different meanings attached to these material and immaterial traditions can help bring different social groups closer together. This is how we help resolve society’s major challenges.
Leiden conducts world-leading heritage research in centres where various academic disciplines converge. We draw on extensive knowledge and diverse research methods in our work with a wide range of partners across the Netherlands, Europe and around the globe,. Where possible, we involve the public (citizen science). We focus on the meaning and emergence of heritage as part of social diversity.
Our research includes studies of endangered languages and cultures, archaeological sites, historical museum collections, heritage communities and world heritage. This allows us to contribute to the public debate on, for example, human rights and heritage, ownership and access to colonial and/or contested heritage, landscape and climate change, heritage and well-being, and digital heritage. With the knowledge this yields, we deepen our understanding of identity and cultural diversity around the world.
Research projects
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Futuring Heritage: Conservation, Community and Contestation in the Eastern Himalayas -
Landscape biographies St. Eustatius and Saba -
EMERGENCE: Early Medieval English in Nineteenth-Century Europe -
Perpetuating Bhutan Highland Heritages -
COMET. Human Subject Research and Medical Ethics in Colonial Southeast Asia
Events
Featured
Experts
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Abhimanyu Chettri Topics: diversity, environment, ethography, heritage, politics -
Thinley Dema Topics: culture, ecology, environment, heritage -
Sybille Lammes Topics: ai and society, digital culture, heritage, new media, play and media -
Annachiara Raia Topics: africa, east africa indian ocean, heritage, indian ocean, languages, cultures and worldviews, swahili literature and intellectual practices -
Siyun Wu Topics: anthropology, diversity, heritage, music traditions, national identity -
Jan-Bart Gewald Topics: africa, african history, biodiversity, global history, heritage, migration, migration in africa, mining, social transitions, sustainability, technology and society -
Janine Ubink Topics: african law and governance, customary law and traditional authorities, heritage, law and society, law, governance and development, legal anthropology, legal pluralism, transitional justice -
Dilara Erzeybek Topics: cultural anthropology, digital and audiovisual methods, diversity, environment, heritage, social movements -
Verena Meyer Topics: asia, constructing heritage, heritage, islam, islam and society, south east asia -
Mari Miyamoto Topics: citizenship, environment, food, heritage, mixed methods, politics, religion, sustainability -
Jan Kolen Topics: artificial intelligence, heritage -
Erik de Maaker Topics: anthropology, asia, diversity, environment, ethnography, europe, heritage, sustainability -
Angus Mol Topics: ai and society, cultural interaction, digital humanities, game and play studies, heritage -
Thijs Porck Topics: early middle ages, english language and literature, heritage, languages, cultures and worldviews, medieval history, old english language -
Ariadne Schmidt Topics: colonialism and slavery, early modern history, economic history, gender history, heritage, labour history, social history -
Berthe Jansen Topics: buddhism, heritage, tibetan studies -
Elena Paskaleva Topics: architecture, central asia, critical heritage studies, heritage, islamic architecture, islamic art, material culture of central asia, timurid architecture, uzbekistan -
Sophie Starrenburg Topics: cultural heritage, heritage, human rights, public international law, unesco -
Fenneke Sysling Topics: colonial history, colonialism and slavery, ethics, heritage, history of medicine, human research subjects, informed consent, medical ethics -
Martin Berger Topics: heritage, museums, collections and society -
Stijn Bussels Topics: art history, early modern art history, europe, heritage -
Martine Bruil Topics: cultural heritage, descriptive linguistics, heritage, indigenous languages, language diversity, languages, cultures and worldviews, south-america, south-american linguistics -
Luc Amkreutz Topics: doggerland, european prehistory, heritage, neolithic, public archaeology -
Aris Politopoulos Topics: aegean and east mediterranean archaeology, archaeology of play, archaeology of empires, computer games, digital heritage, heritage -
Mariana Françozo Topics: dutch brazil, heritage, history of collections, museology
Special collections
The latest acquisition is the oldest map of Dutch island Dejima in Japan. Houses, warehouses, wells, a mooring and even a stable. All of this can be seen on the oldest known map of the island of Dejima acquired by Leiden University Libraries (UBL). The map provides a highly detailed picture of a tiny living environment on the isolated island.
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