The Crux of the Matter: The Truths and Fictions of Crucifixions How did Roman crucifixions work? And did medieval artists depict the Crucifixion accurately? An ancient historian and a medievalist combine forces to shed their light on matters of the cross. Lieke Smits and Renske Janssen • October 17, 2019
#OTD: Cyclical Experiences of Time in the Digital Age Today, 3 October, is the official city holiday Leiden's Ontzet. Why do we care so much about anniversaries of past events, and how are they commemorated on digital media? Lieke Smits • October 03, 2019
The Omval Defaced: Thoughts on Rembrandt’s Anonymous Interlocutor This post examines a curious late state of Rembrandt's etching, The Omval—largely dismissed in the literature as a defacement or mutilation of the copperplate—and asks what we might gain from giving it another look. Jun Nakamura • September 27, 2019
Heroes Are History When Thomas Carlyle presented On Heroes, Hero-Worship and the Heroic in History it was an instant success. The book has more or less disappeared from the bookshelves, but it’s worth a read, and I’ll tell you why. Leanne Jansen • September 19, 2019 • 1 comment
From radioactive felines to three-legged bunnies? Or: What it takes to communicate 10,000 years into the future (Part 2) Anna Volkmar • September 05, 2019
Milk Matters: Some Reflections on the Use of Human Milk in Hippocratic Recipes In this blog, Glyn Muitjens examines the application of human milk in medical recipes of the Hippocratic Corpus, to demonstrate that its use can teach us something about Greek culture. In fact, human milk played a central role in policing female bodies. Glyn Muitjens • June 27, 2019
The inhuman and the political in HBO’s Chernobyl HBO’s new miniseries Chernobyl, a dramatization of the infamous accident at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, raises some interesting questions about the inhuman character of radioactivity, and the way in which this relates to the sphere of the political. Tijs Brinkman • June 20, 2019
All books are equal, but some books… When I tell people that I work as a scholar in book and publishing studies, it’s often not immediately clear to people what aspects of the book I would then study. In this post, I try to explain some key concepts through George Orwell's Animal Farm. Fleur Praal • June 06, 2019
A Woman of the People, Not a Politician The Netflix documentary Knock Down the House is an ode to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and her female Democrat colleagues. Read more about the perfect campaign, making friends, and impacting the people. Leanne Jansen • May 16, 2019
