Mission Statement

The Leiden Global Interactions Group (LGIG) brings together researchers from various faculties (Humanities, Social Sciences, Archaeology and others) who work on global interactions related to migration and global heritage. The group seeks to explore phenomena specific to the two primary themes, but also how they intersect and complicate distinct divisions between ideas of the global and local.

The impressive breadth of Leiden research makes possible one main objective of the group: to historicize and compare globalizing forces from various contexts around the world. We examine the histories, conditions and outcomes of ‘migration’ in a broad sense, including the movements of people, ideas, and things that inscribe networks across natural and social worlds. Research projects include the study of colonial practices, hybrid religious forms, Romanization, diasporas, migration literature, museum practices, global justice, commercial and social networks, and so on. In addition, the LGIG seeks to organize the diverse Leiden research on global heritage that works to operationalize ‘living’ and ‘mutual’ heritage, re-examine problematic concepts of value, custodianship and authenticity in ‘World Heritage’ rhetoric, and study how heritage is mobilized within globalizing issues such as development, poverty, human rights, governance, citizenship, and transnational activism.

The LGIG has identified three main themes that encompass issues central to migration and global heritage: Migrant worlds, Material ecologies of mobility, and Cosmopolitan moments and histories. In various ways, all three themes address various dynamics of global interaction, whether it’s focusing on the movements of bodies, ideas and things, the vital networks they create, or the histories they maintain and imagine.

See Research Themes