Leiden University Centre for the Study of Religion

18/02/2025

Two Day International Conference on Shiʿi Studies hosted by Leiden University Shiʿi Studies Initiative, in cooperation with the Institute for Arab and Islamic Studies, University of Exeter, and sponsored by The Shiʿa Research Institute and the Jaffer Center for Muslim World Studies. Program…

18/02/2025

The Israel-Palestine conflict regularly sparked intense debates in university lecturer Noa Schonmann's classes. She decided to start a podcast with journalist Rajaa Natour to teach her students to have deep and difficult conversations in a nuanced way.

12/02/2025

Vacancy: 2 PhD Positions on the history of early childcare in Central and Eastern Europe, hosted by the Leiden University Centre for the Study of Religion.

The PhD candidates will become part of a research team exploring a century of early childcare and the invisible work linked to the first 1,000 days of human life in modern central and eastern Europe led by Prof. dr. Sarah A. Cramsey. The positions are fully funded under the ERC Starting Grant scheme (project CARECENTURY). The expected starting date is 1 September 2025. Applications should be submitted no later than 11 April 2025.

PhD candidates exploring the history of early childcare in Central and Eastern Europe

05/02/2025

We bevinden ons in een nieuwe wereldorde sinds de inauguratie van Trump. En niet zomaar een wereldorde, maar een 'Bokito-wereldorde', dat zegt buitenlandexpert Rob de Wijk, hoogleraar in Leiden en verbonden aan het Den Haag Centrum voor Strategische Studies. Je kent hem misschien ook van de populair...

05/02/2025

In haar eerste boek onderzoekt Renske Janssen hoe gemarginaliseerde religieuze bewegingen ingebed waren in het systeem van het Romeinse recht.

05/02/2025

What does a picture of a dark-skinned Cleopatra do in a fourteenth-century manuscript produced at the papal court in Avignon?

05/02/2025

The student produced Radio Palestine/Israel podcast is launching tomorrow, 6 February! Join a live record recording session with journalist Rajaa Natour starting at 17:15 in Lipsius 0.19 (registration is required).

We're excited to share the news: the second episode of Radio Palestine/ Israel dropped today! Produced by Leiden students, the podcast series goes beyond the headlines, offering a collection of voices that challenge and inspire us.  We feature powerful conversations with people from Israel/Palest...

20/01/2025

RIMO Thesis Award 2024-2025

The RIMO Award is presented biennially to encourage research in the field of Islamic and Middle Eastern law. Students from Dutch or Belgian universities, as well as students from foreign universities who write about topics related to the Netherlands or Belgium, are eligible to apply. See:

English On this page, you will find information about the Association for the Study of Islamic Law and the Middle East (RIMO) in English. Click on one of the following topics to read more about the subject: About RIMO RIMO Board Members RIMO Thesis Prize Membership Fees Donations Contact About RIMO....

20/01/2025

Master's student Vincente Fischer de Miranda Rodrigues is the winner of the KHMW Brewer Thesis Prize for History. He was awarded the prize for his research on donatism, which was supervised by LUCSoR staff member, Prof. dr. Jürgen Zangenberg.

Master's student Vincente Fischer de Miranda Rodrigues is the winner of the KHMW Brewer Thesis Prize for History. He was awarded the prize for his research on donatism.

20/01/2025

Mufawwiḍah and Ghulāt: What is the Difference? Mufawwidah and Ghulat: What is the Difference? December 23, 2024 • 6 min read The death of ʿAlī al-Riḍā in 202/818 was a turning point in the history of Imāmī Shiʿism, as Hossein Modarressi and other historians of early Shiʿism have shown....

10/01/2025

🔸 IIAS will be hosting an event that is part of its Buddhist Studies Lectures, “Uncovering Ritual Traces in Javanese Bronze Mandalas”

🔸 Throughout the Buddhist world, mandala depictions take on many forms. They are often sculpted in stone and wood, printed on clay, painted on silk and as murals, drawn in ink on paper – but few of them are cast in bronze.

🔸 This lecture will focus on the only extant examples in 10th-century Buddhist visual culture of large ensembles of small, individual bronze sculptures forming three-dimensional mandala assemblies of deities.

🔸 Dr. Mathilde Mechling is a postdoctoral researcher for the ERC project MANTRATANTRAM. Her research examines the circulation of Buddhist maṇḍala depictions, ritual practices, and ritual agents across Monsoon Asia, with a particular focus on bronze statuary and ritual implements from Indonesia.

⏰ January 15 | 16:00 ~ 17:00

📍 Witte Singel 27A, Herta Mohr Building, Room 0.28

⚠️ This event is in-person and free of charge. Please register as space is limited!

🔗 For more information and registration, please visit https://www.iias.asia/events/uncovering-ritual-traces-javanese-bronze-mandalas



[image: Bronze sculptures found in desa Candirejo, Nganjuk, East Java, in 1913. Photo: OD-2248 (dated 1915), The Kern Institute, Leiden University Library Special Collections]

10/01/2025

𝗬𝗼𝗴𝗶𝗻𝗶 𝘀𝗰𝘂𝗹𝗽𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲𝘀 𝗮𝗹𝗹 𝗮𝗿𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗹𝗱 🇮🇳

Join this lunch lecture, 14th of January at International Institute for Asian Studies

Emma Stein plans an exhibition to reunite life-sized sculptures of a a Yogini temple in a Tamil Nadu village. As the temple declined, the sculptures had moved to museums in India, Europe, and America.

➡️ https://www.iias.asia/events/relocating-tamil-yoginis-shifting-status-temple-town

# South Asian & Tibetan Studies, Leiden University India in Netherlands (Embassy of India, The Hague) MA Asian Studies Leiden University Wereldmuseum Leiden

08/01/2025

Trace the rise and fall of the Islamic Empire, from the prophet Muhammad in the 7th century to the sacking of Baghdad. --In the 7th century CE, the prophet M...

17/12/2024

Organized in collaboration with Leiden University and the Huygens Institute (KNAW), Amsterdam, our very own Prof. Eric Jorink will be co-teaching a 6 ECTS course in Florence from 25 March- 7 April 2025 called 'From Leonardo to Steno: Art, Science and Religion in Tuscany (1500-1700).

Target group: (Prospective) MA-, RMA students and PhD candidates in History, Art History, and related disciplines from the NIKI- NWIB partner universities (UvA, VU, UL, UU, RU and RUG).

Course fee: free of charge for students registered at one of the six participating Dutch universities; € 500 (all other students).

Application Deadline: 15 January 2025.

In this pioneering course, we will explore previously unexplored territory. How did late-renaissance scientists and artists navigate between biblical and ancient texts, and their own observations? How did they negotiate between received scholarly and pictorial traditions and their own – often conf...

12/12/2024

Lovely photos and some insight into the work of Dr. Yves Menheere, who joined LUCSoR last year as a University Lecturer in Chinese Religions.

Last year, LUCSoR welcomed a new colleague: Yves Menheere. At the start of his position at LIAS, he applied for and received a starter grant. Read in this interview what he plans to do with the grant and learn more about his research on Taoist priests. Yves has also shared some photos from his field...

10/12/2024

Photo exhibition “Horvat Kur” at NINO. 10 information panels with texts and photographs on the fieldwork project at Horvat Kur are on display in the hallways of the NINO offices in the Herta Mohr building. Fieldwork at Horvat Kur was carried out between 2008 and 2018 under the direction of LUCSoR colleague, Jürgen Zangenberg, as part of the Kinneret Regional Project.

NINO initiates, supports, and conducts scholarly research in the civilizations of the Near East from the ancient to the early modern period. In particular, it concentrates on the archaeology, history, languages, and cultures of Egypt, Levant, Anatolia, Mesopotamia, and Persia.

10/12/2024

After the death of the Prophet Muhammad, the Islamic Empire expanded at a tremendous pace. Within a hundred years, it stretched from the Atlantic Ocean to the Indian subcontinent. How did such a rapidly conquered territory become one empire? Professor Petra Sijpesteijn has been awarded a Vici grant to answer this question.

After the death of the Prophet Muhammad, the Islamic Empire expanded at a tremendous pace. Within a hundred years, it stretched from the Atlantic Ocean to the Indian subcontinent. How did such a rapidly conquered territory become one empire? Professor Petra Sijpesteijn has been awarded a Vici grant....