Leiden University Centre for Digital Humanities (LUCDH) has had a new director since 1 February. Associate Professor Angus Mol wants to connect people and knowledge in his new role.

In June and July 2012 a Leiden Fieldschool was conducted at the late pre-Columbian site of Anse Trabaud in southeastern Martinique. High levels of preservation and waterlogged contexts revealed spectacular finds.

The emergence of 'illiberal democracies' and the protection of human rights in Europe.

The energy transition is already a huge challenge for society, but sustainable use of resources is even more complicated. Yet it is at least as urgent. Ester van der Voet has been working on it for decades, for example within the United Nations. Since February, she is a professor at the Centre for Environmental…

ChatGPT, translation machines and bots: for Carole Tiberius, they are a piece of cake. On 1 January, she was appointed professor of Computational Linguistics. 'There ae two elements to the field: computer science and linguistics.'

Cosmologists can measure with increasing precision how the universe is expanding and changing. This is producing unexpected results and causing cracks in our picture of the universe. At the ESOF session The Dark Side of our Mysterious Universe, cosmologists, astronomers and philosophers will discuss…

Monika Baar started working in Leiden in September 2015. She's currently the project leader of the ERC Research Project 'Rethinking Disability'.

Do you often feel drained after a day at the office? The new SPS Monitor measures how sensitive you are to various stimuli. Psychologist Véronique de Gucht developed the questionnaire. 'I want to demystify high sensitivity.'

The Sustainability Monitor 2023 shows that Leiden University is taking its sustainability efforts seriously.

Many people have fled to the Netherlands since the outbreak of war in Ukraine, including students. But even before this war, students with refugee backgrounds were eager to study at Leiden University. How does the University help young people from various backgrounds find their way around the Dutch…

At a time when statues of figures from history have an uncertain future Valika Smeulders has just become Head of History at Amsterdam's Rijksmuseum. What changes does she want to make? And how does she look back on her Languages and Cultures of Latin America degree programme in Leiden?

The EU fundamental right to ‘freedom of the arts and sciences’: exploring the limits on the commercialisation of academia (AFITE) AFITE is an interdisciplinary five-year research project. It is funded by the Netherlands Organization of Scientific Research (NWO), as part of its Vidi scheme. Its principal…

Twenty-two year old student of Leiden University College The Hague, Sara Kemppainen on her role as European Union Delegate at the G(irls)20 Summit, founder of WIL, UWC Alumni, Summit Coordinator and Bachelor student committed to bringing human welfare to the center of tech policy.

PhD defence

Research conducted in this group aims at furthering our understanding of how communities and individuals deal with social change, conflict and trauma through remembrance and commemoration as well as forgetting in the arts.

The Role of Law in Libya’s National Reconciliation (RoLLNaR) was a research project that ran from 2017 to 2020. It identified and assessed the role of law – both actual and potential, enabling and constraining – with regard to major challenges of reconciliation in Libya. The project was led by Dr. Suliman…

PHM offers you the tools to navigate through, and give direction to, the complex and changing health care landscape by using an interdisciplinary approach. Become the broker to improve health and societal outcomes for citizens and patients.

Social, Economic and Organisational Psychology focuses on the application of scientific psychological knowledge of social processes within and between groups of people and individuals, in organisations, but also during economic and consumer decisions.

Debate

Our Winter School alumna Ginevra Montefusco defended her Master thesis this March with the title Food in the Margin: a feminist analysis of sense of place in Barriera di Milano, Turin (supervisors: Alessia Toldo and Egidio Dansero).

Carlotta Rigotti was invited by the Council of Europe to provide an overview of online and technology-facilitated violence at the Moroccan Parliament, as part of the joint programme 'Support for the National Mechanism for the Prevention of Torture and the Development of the Role of Parliament in the…

For the second year in a row, the Austria Centre Leiden sponsored a festive gathering for the Paula Hyman Mentorship Program at the Annual Conference of the Association for Jewish Studies, which convened in San Francisco, California, USA in December 2023. This meeting allowed Hyman Committee Members…

Edited by Michael Kowalski

2020 was an eventful year. You can see that in our photos: one and a half metres distance, an empty university, attending ceremonies online and working from home. The image editors have selected the twelve most eye-catching photos of the past year..

All master’s students in Political Science conclude their studies with a thesis, showcasing their academic skills and personal interest. For some, it is the ‘last hurdle’; others see their thesis as a first step in their development as scientists. To acknowledge the importance of the thesis and to stimulate…

'We believe that developing a protocol to help people fight cancer is extremely valuable, given that cancer is such a prevalent and devastating disease. If you believe so too, you can support us in realising this mission.' Master's student in Psychology Saskia Heijnen starts crowdfunding to make her…

Fatemeh (Simin) Tabassi Mofrad has recently received a project grant (€ 25,000) from LUF/Gratama Foundation for her ideas in investigating sex-by-genotype interactions in brain functions. She has a multidisciplinary research perspective which enables her to look at research issues from different angles.…

Spirits play a important role in post-colonial and minority literature as a means of processing black pages from history, according to literary scientist Chia-Sui Lee. PhD defence 11 January.

Diplomatic services across the world are trying to keep up with the times. In Abu Dhabi Jan Melissen, Senior Fellow International Relations and Diplomacy at ISGA and the Clingendael Institute, experienced how non-Western spaces can be among the more stimulating ones for practitioners of diplomacy to…

Professor Roberta D'Alessandro, from the Leiden University Centre for Linguistics, has been appointed a member of the Global Young Academy (GYA) from 20 January 2014. The GYA, consisting of 155 members, provides a rallying point for outstanding young scientists from around the world.

Colleagues from the Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences work on a variety of topics that contribute to a healthy society. Erik Bähre, Tessa Minter and Natashe Lemos Dekker presented their work during the Healthy Society Event on 9 June 2022.

Franc Weerwind studied Public Administration at Leiden University from 1986 to 1992. Right now, mr. Weerwind is the mayor of the municipality of Almere. The editors of Leidraad, the alumni magazine of the university, had a talk with him in context of the recurring ‘workplace’ section in the magazine…

On the occasion of the conferral of an honorary doctorate to children’s rights activist Graça Machel, a fund has been established that will enable two female students from South Africa to come and study in Leiden.

Leiden professor Ineke Sluiter was appointed president of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW) on 1 June. She was presented with the gavel by her predecessor Wim van Saarloos.

This summer, the Universe is closer than ever. With the online astronomy summer programme Space in Your Living Room!, the Leiden Observatory brings astronauts and Leiden astronomers to the homes of children all across Europe.

For more than 25 years, archaeologists have worked at the site of Schöningen, in Germany, where many spectacular rare finds have been excavated. To honor the tireless men and women, the photo book

After a succesful first lecture, the Leiden physics institute LION is launching an online series of (Dutch language) lectures about physics, intended for a broad audience, named the Tatiana Afanassjewa lectures. Upcoming speakers are science historian Dirk van Delft, neutrino physicist Dorothea Samtleben…

Several cases inspired by the Urgenda case have now been filed. For example, by the Portuguese, concerning widespread forest fires, Swiss women of a somewhat respectable age (known as the ‘KlimaSeniorrinnen’) who suffer from the heat, and the mayor of a French city situated by the sea who fears the…

Italian PM Meloni’s election promise to limit the number of boat migrants entering the country looks like being fulfilled with help from Albania. A deal was recently approved that provides for two reception centres for asylum seekers in Albania. Dr Mark Klaassen, an expert in immigration law, questioned…

There are numerous ways in which Asia and the West influence one another. Having a good understanding of the countries of Asia and their inhabitants improves the contacts between these two world regions. Leiden experts have studied Asia for decades from the perspective of different disciplines. Read…

The project “Localizing the Women Peace & Security Agenda Across Multiple Governance Challenges” funded by the Global Transformations and Governance Challenges Seed Grant Program, is seeking a student assistant to assist the project leaders on a variety of administrative tasks from April 2022-January…

Mozambican politician and child rights activist Graça Machel speaks October 27 at Leiden University about her work.

Anke Ramakers, Assistant Professor in criminology at the Institute of Criminal Law and Criminology at Leiden Law School, together with Finnish researchers Mikko Aaltonen and Pekka Martikainen, has published an article in the Elsevier journal 'Advances in Life Course Research', on the role of labour…

Firearms and violence in Europe–A systematic review by Katharina Krüsselmann, Pauline Aarten, Marieke Liem

As of 1 September Miranda van Eck will be the new Scientific Director of the Leiden Academic Centre for Drug Research. She succeeds Hubertus Irth, who led the institute since 2016. Van Eck has been appointed for a period of four years.

On Thursday 23 May, Carlotta Rigotti, postdoctoral researcher at eLaw, gave a guest lecture on the regulation of image-based sexual abuse (IBSA) in the European Union at Kyoto University.

Between November 2022 and December 2023, 45 one-off and 14 structural security measures were taken for academics or university staff. This is what it says in the External Intimidation, Hatred and Threats against Academics Monitor published by the Universities of the Netherlands (UNL), the Dutch Research…

Dr. Sara Brandellero and Dr. Kamila Krakowska Rodrigues from Leiden University Centre for the Arts in Society will lead a collaborative research project funded by Horizon Europe Work Programme on Culture, Creativity and Inclusive Society. #DemocracyinAction studies arts and culture-based grassroots…

In the past half a century, China has transformed from an underdeveloped and inward-looking country to a major player in world politics. The country asserts itself more boldly on the world stage; not only in relation to nearby countries and places such as Taiwan, Japan, and other countries that share…

Christian Lequesne introduces the upcoming special issue on Ministries of Foreign Affairs in this blog post.