ABOUT US
The ELNWS serves as an organisation to unite the broad field of non-western studies in Europe into one body. It wants to enhance co-operation among its members and to serve as a platform to improve modes for the exchange of students, staff and collections. It also tries to strengthen the position of its participants in applying for both European and national subsidies.
History
In the late 1990s, Dutch universities experienced a progressive decline of student numbers of many of their traditional (monodisciplinary) language and culture studies. The decline of student numbers, if not taken any action, would in the long run undoubtedly result in the discontinuance of many of these studies. The Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Science recognized that the loss of the language and culture studies was not acceptable and decided in 2003 to support the plans of the Dutch universities to improve the quality, appeal and image of the departments involved.
National cooperation was one of the goals set by the universities to maintain the threatened departments. Leiden University, however, accommodated the lion's share of language and culture studies (all in the “non-western” area) who were not taught at any other university in the country. National co-operation was not possible, so Leiden University had to look for foreign partners to work with.
To investigate the possibilities for co-operation in teaching activities with other European universities, Leiden University organised a conference on the “Internationalisation of Non-Western Studies” in 2004. Around 100 scholars from different European universities came to Leiden to discover if and how co-operation would benefit all parties.
During the conference, Leiden University suggested the inauguration of the European League for Non-Western Studies (ELNWS). This initiative was welcomed by the participants and their universities. About fifteen of the universities present at the December meeting officially joined the ELNWS. In the years that followed, this number steadily increased to more than twenty universities.