How have Muslims imagined the world before Muhammad? Stories about pre-Islamic times feature across all genres and periods of Arabic literature, and while many writers have derided the pre-Islamic past as disorderly paganism, others celebrate its memory as a time of Arab nobility and fine literature.…

The use-wear analysis of domestic implements provided new insights of the Single Grave Culture population in the Netherlands.

Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology at Leiden University is known for its student-centred teaching and world-leading faculty.

In his dissertation Michiel Hooykaas outlines the results of six empirical research projects focused at biodiversity awareness in the Netherlands, specifically people’s knowledge about animals.

Dialogue is a multi-dimensional communication mechanism whose processes can only be examined by means of an interdisciplinary approach.

On the 23rd of June Arianna Sacco successfully defended a doctoral thesis and graduated.

The Dutch Center for Travel Writing Studies s a scientific center that develops and coordinates initiatives to promote research into travel writing. It actively seeks contact with external (scientific and social) partners to collaborate on issues surrounding cultural / national identity, cultural contact…

Receiving positive support and seeing yourself as being a quitter may help smokers quit, say Eline Meijer and colleagues. The health psychologists published their study in Social Science & Medicine.

Humanities, Institute for Area Studies

Festival, Graduation ceremony

Festival, Graduation ceremony

A research goal for ABS is to develop miniaturized platforms for research in (stem)cell, in-vitro systems and application in clinical and preventive research. Combined with the high throughput, this development will make it possible to study the dynamics of pathogenesis in human and cellular models…

An interdisciplinary cultural analysis of how the Hindustani double migration informs contemporary processes of identification and problematises the juxtaposition of tradition and modernity.

The mission of Thamyris/Intersecting is to rigorously bring into encounter the crucial insights of black and ethnic studies, gender studies, and queer studies, and facilitate dialogue and confrontations between them.

On 17 October 2017 an international conference took place at the University of Warwick Brussels Office and in the framework of the research project

In tracing intra-site, local and regional craft networks in Late Bronze Age Tiryns (Greece) the project aimed to understand technological changes, (dis)continuities and social practices from the Late Palatial until the Post Palatial periods in Mycenaean Greece.

Does the sitter have agency in the making of a photographic portrait? And if so how?

What did colonial officials and missionaries think they were doing?

Leiden physicists have created a light source that emits individual particles in an identical state through optical fibers. Using this setup, their measurements can last longer and are more efficient, meaning they can perform more in-depth research on bizarre quantum effects, such as interference and…

Cultural identity at the Late Prehistoric settlement of Aguas Buenas, Nicaragua, AD 500-1522

In order to gain a better insight into the basis of the rapid jasmonic acid (JA)-mediated stress response, an integrated approach using a targeted high-resolution mass spectrometry-based (HRMS) platform, was conducted to monitor the metabolism of JA using the model system of cell suspension cultures…

During the one-year master’s programme in Politics, Culture and National Identities, 1789 to the Present you will be studying an academic field that is an entirely new research area, putting you at the forefront of a new way of thinking about European history.

How do we define the works of a film director whose films cross many established boundaries at once?

Evert Jan van Leeuwen’s entry in Auteur Press’s Devil's Advocate series provides a complete study of the aesthetic appeal of Roger Corman's influential first Poe picture House of Usher.

Migration imposes special pressures on the meaning, experience and organization of lifecycle rituals. These pressures are felt most strongly by Muslim migrants to Western Europe. In this innovative study, Nathal M. Dessing examines the effects of migration on the life cycle rituals of Moroccan, Turkish…

This research cluster aims to analyse and interpret the formation and transmission of Graeco-Roman culture by exploring the relationships between cultural products (texts, objects, practices) and their societal and historical contexts.

The funerary textile tradition from the Osmore Valley, South Peru, and its social-political implications (2005)

Christopher Green defended his thesis on 26 February 2020

Egyptian temple culture was thought to be declining in the Ptolemaic era, after the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC. Nothing could be further from the truth, says Egyptologist Carina van den Hoven. Temple culture was very much alive and kicking. PhD defence 16 February.

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.

More on the Dutch webpage.

This dissertation sheds light on politics, education and linguistic identity by studying the case of the College of Jerusalem, founded by the Brothers of the Christian Schools.

Tarini J. Shipurkar was the winner of the 2016 IIAS National Master's Thesis Prize in Asian Studies. She wrote her thesis, entitled ‘Gender on Campus: Redefining Gender Identities at Jawaharlal Nehru University’, at the Institute of Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology, Leiden University.…

This programme examines cultural space, national identity and the politics of tangible and intangible heritage in Islamic Central Asia.

What are the social, cultural, and/or educational consequences and challenges linked to the introduction of the international bachelor's programme in Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology?

In the study of West-East relations, difference often takes centre stage. This holds for both culturalist and postcolonial perspectives. By contrast, in my investigation of Netherlands-Iran political relations in the 1960s and 1970s, I will focus on the role of SIMILARITY. What lay at the root of the…

This proposal aims at the construction of a comprehensive and authoritative scientific grammar for Dutch and Frisian in the form of a virtual language institute: het Taalportaal/the Language Portal.

This study seeks to partially fill the knowledge gap about national culture in Africa, basing its research on data on ethnolinguistic groups (instead of administrative regions).

This talk will be hosted on Thursday, 15 June 2023 at 6:00 pm.

Charles wrote an article 'Assimilating Afro Caribbean Carnivalesque Culture' for the publication 'Understanding América. The essential contribution of Afro-American music to the sociocultural meaning of the continent'

During the two-year Politics, Culture and National Identities, 1789 to the Present programme you will learn from inspired academics and learn how to conduct quality research.

Archiving Medieval and Post-Medieval Archaeological Fieldwork Data from the Eastern Mediterranean (600-2000)

Reworking Culture: Relatedness, Rites, and Resources in Garo Hills, North-East India provides intimate insights into the lives of hill farmers and the challenges they face in day-to-day life. Focusing on the ongoing reinterpretation of traditions, or customs, the book critiques the all too often taken-for-granted…

When did the Mali Empire disintegrate? What does the Sunjata heritage demonstrate about the political situation after 1600?

In the South African context, certain iconic images have been a dominant source for public understandings of historical events. The emphasis given these images tends to overshadow the historical value of other more personal photographic sources – like studio or amateur photography. This project looks…