As of April 1, 2021, Dr. Saskia Gieling will be the new managing publisher of Leiden University Press (LUP), the academic press of Leiden University. Gieling brings a wealth of experience in scholarly publishing to her new position. She succeeds Anniek Meinders who has led LUP as managing publisher for more than eight years. Saskia Gieling studied Arabic and Persian languages ​​and cultures at Radboud University and obtained her Ph.D. in 1998 with the dissertation The sacralization of war in the Islamic Republic of Iran, published in 1999 under the title Religion and war in revolutionary Iran by I.B. Tauris. She has worked at Amsterdam University Press since 2010 as Senior Commissioning Editor. Her main responsibility is the Asian Studies Programme that she set up in 2013, which now consists of fifteen book series with international editorial boards. From 2000 to 2010, Gieling was a policy advisor at the Leiden University Fund and the Faculty of Humanities in Leiden. Anniek Meinders will leave LUP on April 15 and is looking forward to a new step in her career. Meinders has expanded LUP with international authors and has set up new book series in areas such as colonial and global history. The highlight for Meinders as LUP managing publisher is, of course, the jubilee edition of Huizinga’s Herfsttij der Middeleeuwen and the acclaimed translation Autumntide of the Middle Ages. Before coming to LUP, Meinders worked as a publisher at Amsterdam University Press and at Brill.

Kurt De Belder, University Librarian and Director of LUP: “I am delighted that Saskia Gieling will lead Leiden University Press at a time when crucial changes are taking place in publishing scholarly books. Gieling has proven to be an enthusiastic, decisive and trust-inspiring publisher who pays a lot of attention to the author. She succeeds Anniek Meinders, who has designed and expanded LUP and who has created an excellent publishing programme”. Saskia Gieling: “I am very much looking forward as managing publisher at LUP to follow in the footsteps of Anniek Meinders and to build on what she has achieved in recent years”. Anniek Meinders: “With gratitude I look back on the magnificent years at LUP and the successful collaborations with our authors, editorial board and series editors. I am proud of what we have built with the LUP team and I would like to thank Kurt De Belder for his confidence and vision. With Saskia Gieling, I leave LUP in very good hands and I wish her every success in the further development of the publishing programme”.