Twelve Chinese PhD candidates in the Netherlands who are funded by the China Scholarship Council met with Leiden staff on 26 April 2012 to exchange experiences. Ten days earlier Leiden had welcomed a delegation from Peking University.
Coen Maas shows how politicians use the Middle Ages as a rhetorical argument. It happens today, and it happened in the early modern period (1500-1800). Maas examined how people at that time thought about the Middle Ages. He used old manuscripts as a new source. PhD defence 15 May 2012.
The Arab revolutions are far from over. In Tunisia, Egypt, Syria, Bahrain, Yemen, people are still fighting and dying everyday because they refuse to give up their right to “Bread, freedom and social justice” as one of the Egyptian slogans goes. This ongoing revolutionary process is accompanied by an inspiring cultural explosion.