Assyriology Leiden University

Overview

The master's in Assyriology, a specialisation of the Classics and Ancient Civilizations programme, at Leiden University provides you with a multidisciplinary study of the languages, literatures and cultures of ancient Mesopotamia and Anatolia.

The master in Assyriology is a one-year programme that gives you the opportunity to study with internationally acclaimed academics immersed in the latest research and engaged in actively expanding our knowledge of the field. Your teachers are not only experts in languages and cultures of the ancient Middle East, but also active researchers engaged in innovative projects that constantly build bridges between cutting-edge research and the courses in your programme. The programme offers basic and advanced language and script training in the three major languages that were written in cuneiform (Akkadian, Sumerian and Hittite). We encourage all our students to work with original clay tablets, kept at the Netherlands Institute of the Near East in Leiden.

You will be able to tailor your study programme to your personal interests by creating your own combination of courses from the Assyriology programme or from other programmes within the Faculties of Humanities and of Archaeology. We encourage all students to consider applying for a study visit abroad. As a student of Assyriology you can join research programmes at one of our partner universities.

What you will learn

Your future employers will not only be interested in your knowledge of Classics and Ancient Civilisations, but also in the skills that you have developed during your studies. Therefore, it is important that you are aware of the skills that you are training in your MA programme.

In the MA programme you learn how to analyse a problem, how to formulate a research question, how to select and assess your sources, how to assess secondary literature, how to give a clear and well-argued oral presentation either for specialists or for a wider audience, and how to write a clear and well-argued paper. You will be training the following transferrable skills:

• critical thinking (formulating questions, checking assumptions, assessing sources and scholarship)
• analytical skills (selecting, ordering, sorting out, and solving a problem)
• oral presentation skills (speaking, listening, discussing, receiving feedback)
• writing skills (reporting, summarizing, presenting an argument, with structure and style)
• independence (self-discipline, initiative, motivation)
• project management (planning, demarcation of a topic, discipline, meeting deadlines)
• flexibility (adapting to changes)
• creativity (curiosity, developing new ideas and innovative topics)
• academic integrity (acting with honesty, fairness, and responsibility)
• collaboration (working together with other students on a joint project)

Career prospects

As a graduate of an MA in Classics and Ancient Civilizations at Leiden University you are qualified to work as a junior academic researcher in an academic environment or carry out further research work on a PhD programme. It is also possible to find employment within the fields of publishing or teaching, at policy-making departments of governmental bodies, within the education sector, or within cultural tourism.

Our graduates end up working in a diverse range of positions, examples include:

• Policy officer for education
• Curator of classical antiquity at a museum
• Education officer at a museum
• PhD candidate at a university
• Research analyst at a consultancy firm
• Teacher of classical languages at a secondary school
• Teacher at an institute for special needs education
• Policy officer at the provincial department of a political party
• Chief desk editor at a publishing house

Accreditation

Accredited by NVAO, the Accreditation Organisation of the Netherlands and Flanders.