On Wednesday 1 September, the first thirteen students of the new BA Urban Studies at Leiden University, received their diplomas in person in The Hague. During a festive graduation ceremony, they were congratulated by rector magnificus Hester Bijl.

The master's specialisation in Visual Ethnography offers students the possibility to graduate by producing their own ethnographic film. The films 'Living Art', by alumna Tina Krüger, and 'Across Gender', by alumna Anouk Houtman, have received two awards.

To what extent did the street patterns in urban districts influence crime patterns?

Two previous English translations of this classic essay by Georg Simmel have been in wide circulation, shaping the worldwide reception of Simmel’s urban theor

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.

Andrew Littlejohn composed a sonic ethnography with sounds recorded in Japan’s northeastern region. To understand the experience of being in the middle of a changing landscape, Littlejohn composed a sonic ethnography called Shizugawa, named after a district in Minamisanriku Town where he recorded.

Leiden’s Pubscape aims at better understanding the social and spatial relation of drink and labour in the 19th century (1816–1894), focussing on places where drink and urban working class met. Were liquor vendors (pubs and liquor stores) situated near factories? To what extent was the emerging pubscape…

Leiden University has launched a unique new interdisciplinary study programme: Urban Studies. Studying Urban Studies, students will research present-day and future urban issues. It’s the first Leiden University programme that’s a collaborative effort of five different faculties.

This book is the first comprehensive presentation of the archaeology of Syria from the end of the Paleolithic period to 300 BC.

This seminal volume covers the entire global history of urbanization since the rise of cities in Mesopotamia in the 6th millennium BC. Leiden historians Wim Blockmans, Leonard Blussé, Luuk de Ligt and Leo Lucassen contributed survey and thematic chapters.

The rise and fall of the cesspit in an urban context

A study programme all about cities and their issues. Three years ago, the bachelor's programme Urban Studies was a newcomer in The Hague. By now, the first theses are being written. André Gerrits, programme director, talks about the programme’s success: 'The intake of first-years has increased from…

Ariadne Schmidt, Isabelle Devos and Julie de Groot provide you with refreshing insights concerning the study on urban singles in the period between 1200 and 1900.

People need to get to know each other to see the positive side of migration, according to photographer and documentary maker Koen Suidgeest. Since the end of September, Suidgeest has been the new city photographer for the region of Leiden. His goal is to photograph as many cultural identities as possible…

This project focuses on urban commercial space in Roman Italy and deals with the impact of economic growth on urban communities in the late Republic and the Imperial period (200 BCE – 300 CE).

Mapping sanitary infrastructure in large urban societies in the Low Countries, 1200–1900

This research investigates the impact of socioeconomic developments on the physical condition of medieval populations in Holland and Zeeland between AD 1000 and 1600 through the analysis of human skeletal remains from three archaeological sites.

Water, Urbanism, and Sustainability in Roman Ostia

From 2020 to 2023, Professor Miguel John Versluys and his research group will participate in an international consortium that has just received a large ERC Creative Europe Culture grant of 1,7m for the project Alexandria: (re)activating common urban imaginaries” (ALEX). This ERC project complements…

By 2050, 70 per cent of the world's population will live in cities. This has major consequences for the lives of city-dwellers and for the environment. Uncontrolled urbanisation calls for an interdisciplinary approach. On 4 September, the first group of students started the new English-language Bachelor's…

Recycling of post consumer plastic waste is problematic in that the environmental benefits are questionable and the costs are significant. It would be better to separately collect the most useful parts through the expansion of the deposit system.