The 2011 disasters precipitated widespread concern among heritage scholars about the fate of Tohoku’s cultural properties, tangible and intangible. Damage to not only buildings and landscapes but also ‘formless’ heritage, some worried, could weaken social infrastructure and thus slow or undermine re…

Training and Exercising in Crisis management and Emergency Control

This study examines recovery planning committees across Japan's Tohoku region.

Andrew Littlejohn published the article 'Ruins for the future: Critical allegory and disaster governance in post-tsunami Japan' in American Ethnologist about the ruins left by Japan's 2011 tsunami.

This article by Honorata Mazepus and Florian van Leeuwen in the journal Governance: An International Journal of Policy, Administration and Institutions looks at how evaluations of authorities were influenced by four aspects of a governmental response to a hypothetical disaster.

The 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami caused immense destruction and over 170,000 deaths in the Indonesian province of Aceh. The disaster spurred large-scale social and political changes in Aceh, including the intensified implementation of shari‘a law and an end to the long separatist conflict. After the Tsunami…

Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute published Annemarie Samuels' article on the 2004 tsunami in the Indian Ocean. It's a detailed ethnographic account of the experiences of three Indonesian survivors.

Attitudes towards cultural heritage have long been characterised by an ‘endangerment sensibility’ concerned with preventing losses. Recently, however, critical heritage scholars have argued that loss can be generative, facilitating the formation of new values and attachments. Their arguments have focused…

In Humanity’s End As A New Beginning, Emeritus Professor Mineke Schipper reflects on myths about ‘the end’.

On Thursday 30 June Janet van de Bunt will defend her doctoral thesis entitled ‘Disaster Relief Funds’. The defence will commence at 16.15 hrs in the Academy Building of Leiden University, Rapenburg 73. The supervisor is Professor A.G. Castermans.

In this article Vanessa Newby discusses how the ANZUS states of United States, Australia, and New Zealand that sit on the fringes of the Asia-Pacific, are increasingly using their armed forces to deliver Humanitarian Aid and Disaster Response (HADR) as a way of engaging with the region.

This editorial to RHCPP discusses how COVID-19 can be seen as a 'creeping crisis' according to the authors of its lead article (Boin et al, 2020) and how resilience may depend on the real heroes behind the scenes of response to disaster and adversity.

From recurrent oil disasters to the outbreak of contagious diseases or major fires. Public organisations often learn too little from such crises, according to public administration specialist Wout Broekema. Staff frequently fail to communicate information adequately, which means that lessons are often…

For the Dutch Safety Board (DSB), the investigation into the MH17 plane crash was unprecedented in scope. It wasn’t easy, but it provided valuable lessons for international disaster investigations, says Sanneke Kuipers, a crisis expert from the Institute of Security and Global Affairs.

‘There is no such thing as a timeless Japanese soul,’ says newly appointed Professor in Modern Japan Studies Katarzyna Cwiertka. The first month of her professorship turned out to be a crucial test: Japan was hit by a destructive earthquake and tsunami, and Cwiertka had to keep her head in the midst…

Dividing Worlds: Tsunamis, Seawalls, and Ontological Politics in Northeast Japan

For many centuries, news about catastrophic events has been disseminated via media such as pamphlets, chronicles, poems, and prints. This conference welcomes contributions that engage with the cultural dimensions of disasters and reflect on representations of catastrophes in different media.

This socio-legal research focuses on the impacts of environmental displacement on land rights and land-related conflict in Mozambique in the aftermath of cyclone Idai, and on the role of the legal framework in addressing these problems.

Of the 29 students who are still in Japan, the remaining four students in Tokyo have been advised to leave the area affected by the disaster.

Leiden University would like to express our sincere sympathy to students and staff who have been affected by the earthquake and tsunami in Japan. On Tuesday 22 March there is a meeting for Japanese students and staff. Mari Hosho, an exchange student from Japan, studying psychology at Leiden University,…

The presence of religious idioms in people’s responses to vulnerability and misfortune is not unique to Aceh, or to Indonesia. Yet the scale of the tsunami coupled with the historically deeply ingrained presence of religion in Acehnese everyday life has magnified religious discourses on misfortune,…

Promotor: H.J. van den Herik, B.R. Katzy, Co-promotor: K. Sailer

Explaining the origins , patterns and outcomes of crisis management efforts.

Since the disaster in Japan, professors, staff and students of the department of Japanese Language and Culture at Leiden University have regularly been contacted by the media asking for their opinion about the events taking place there. Ivo Smits and Kasia Cwiertka, Professors of Japanese, give their…

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…

Throughout your 3-year Security Studies programme you explore the effects of events (such as war or natural disaster), understand them via relevant academic perspectives, and actively design strategies and solutions to resulting security challenges.

Film and debate

Safety issues of the transport and storage of Chlorine, ammonia and LPG.

As a student in Security Studies you are a socially engaged critical thinker eager to study real-life security cases in an academic setting. You focus not just on the broad context of these issues but also on the role of government, institutions and media.

The CADS Asia Research Cluster extends the legacy of the Institute’s Asia focus into the future, as an important hub in international networks on the study of Asia and through active engagement with colleagues in Asia. Within the Institute the Asia Research Cluster offers a platform for anthropologists…

Lecture

Lecture

Debate, Panel

Large numbers of children all over the world face significant health risks, such as infectious and chronic diseases, malnutrition, injuries and the consequences of natural disasters, protracted armed conflicts and poverty.

LIACS is a partner in RISE_SMA, an interdisciplinary, international network combining excellent scholars and practitioners to enable vigorous knowledge sharing and to develop solutions for contemporary challenges for Social Media Analytics (SMA).

Leiden University regularly welcomes members of the Royal Family to attend opening ceremonies, lectures, presentations and unveilings of works of art.

This article offers a typology for organizational and institutional crisis management that portrays three sorts of crises: a crisis in an organization, a crisis to the organization and a crisis about the organization.

In the Bachelor’s in Security Studies you study 21st century security challenges and learn to devise strategic solutions to a complex world.

Your theoretical knowledge and hands-on research experience fit very well with current labour market demands.

The focus of this programme is the inter-community social relationships and transformations of island networks in the Lesser Antilles across the historical divide.

How did the invention and implementation of the lightning rod change the perception of thunderstorms on a scientific, technical, religious and artistic level, in the Netherlands and beyond, during the period 1752-1830?

Loneliness and social isolation have become a significant problem in contemporary Japan. The financial burden associated with an ageing population has severely constrained the ability of local authorities to address the problem. As a result, policymakers have sought cost‐effective methods of tackling…