African Studies Centre - Leiden

Afrika-Studiecentrum Leiden (ASCL)

Leiden University, Netherlands 

The African Studies Centre Leiden is the only multidisciplinary academic knowledge institute in the Netherlands devoted entirely to the study of Africa. It has an excellent library that is open to the general public. 

Prof. Marleen Dekker – AEGIS Plenary Representative 
m.dekker@asc.leidenuniv.nl

Pieter de la Courtgebouw
Wassenaarseweg 52
2333 AK Leiden, Netherlands 

Tel: + 31 71 52 73 376
asc@ascleiden.nl

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News and events: 
Research and publications: 

The ASCL’s research programme is called ‘Strident Africa: Societal and environmental change in the context of 50 centuries of history’. It focuses on the following four major areas: Politics and Security; Society, Religion and Culture; Economy; History. Collaborative Research Groups (CRGs) within ASCL focus on the following thematic areas: Africa in the world; Collaboration and contestation in words; Governance, entrepreneurship and inclusive development; Patterns of Living in Southern Africa, 1780s to the present; Health and well-being: actors, technologies and social engineering; Rethinking African history; and Trans-species perspectives on African Studies. 

More information on research staff

More information on publications 

Main ASCL publications: African Dynamics, Afrika-Studiecentrum series and the African Studies Collection.

Libraries and collections: 

The ASCL library's collection focuses entirely on Africa, both North and Sub-Saharan Africa. It is the most extensive and specialised collection on Africa in the Netherlands, with more than 100,000 books, African newspapers and (electronic) journals and 2,300 films and documentaries. The ASCL Library is proud to have a large collection of books from Africa, and an extended collection of open access materials. More information can be found here

Both AfricaBib.org and Connecting-Africa.net are web services provided by the ASCL.

Opportunities: 

Visiting Fellowship Programme

The Africa Thesis Award. Students from Africa are specifically encouraged to submit their theses for this annual competition.

Network and partners: 

The Leiden African Studies Assembly (LeidenASA) is a network of researchers based at Leiden University with a focus on Africa. The ASCL coordinates LeidenASA.

The ASCL is a partner of LeidenGlobal, a community of Leiden-based academic and cultural institutions. Each of these institutes has expertise in specific areas of the world.