In September, the Una Europa ELSEA project, Enhancing Scholarship in Eastern Africa, officially started. Now that the project has been running for a couple of months, it’s high time to check in and see how the project is going.

The LUCL has a new Scientific Director. Professor Sjef Barbiers took over the reins from Lisa Cheng with effect from 1 January. 'This is a great opportunity to contribute to a wonderful institution.'

Lecture, LUCIS Meets | Masterclass

PhD defence

At the Taalgala the award for best popular scientific publication was awarded to linguist Ronny Boogaart for his book 'Een sprinter is een stoptrein zonder WC' about the guiding force of language.

How can you see something that’s invisible? Well, with Euclid! This future ESA telescope will map the structure of the Universe and teach us more about invisible dark matter and dark energy. Scientific coordinator of Euclid and Leiden astronomer Henk Hoekstra explains how this works.

Since 2017 guest researcher Gerrit de Wit has been working together with Congolese linguists and the Boa community to develop the oral Boa language into a written one. He tells us about 2 unique projects, which are steadily unearthing and describing the structure of a new language.

What does it take to truly be ‘one of us’ and what role does language play in this process? In short, what is the difference between ‘a language we understand’ and ‘our language’? This is the question Professor Terkourafi will address in her inaugural lecture on Friday 20 April.

Michaël Peyrot has been appointed professor of Comparative Indo-European Linguistics at the Leiden University Centre for Linguistics with retroactive effect from 1 January. He is looking forward to passing on his love for the subject to a new generation of students.

Universe Awareness (UNAWE) started a crowdfunding campaign together with Design & Data GmbH, with a central role for the plush 'astronaut' Rosetta. This stuffed toy is used for interactive classes, in order to teach pupils across the world about astronomy and space sciences.

On 8, 9 and 10 October 2021 'Share the LUVE' takes place. During this graduation show the works of this year's graduates of the Visual Ethnography master of Leiden University will be screened. So mark your agenda and enjoy three days full of film, photo, artwork, exhibitions, good conversations and…

In the opinion article ‘Maak praten over de dood niet tot een morele plicht’ (Don’t turn talking about death into a moral obligation) Annemarie Samuels and Liesbeth van Vliet, argue together with Marike de Meij and Sander de Hosson that it is important to have conversations about death and dying but…

We are glad to present our new research report on Exploring the Frontiers of International Law (EFIL). International Law has traditionally been one of the flagship areas of the Leiden Law School. The report provides a taste of our rich research agenda in international law.

On Saturday 22 October, the KOG filled up with prospective students looking for their next course of study. The lecture halls were packed to the brim with curious potential lawyers. Between study presentations, information could be gathered throughout the building at the designated information market…

The master's specialisation in Visual Ethnography offers students the possibility to graduate by producing their own ethnographic film. The films 'Living Art', by alumna Tina Krüger, and 'Across Gender', by alumna Anouk Houtman, have received two awards.

Jan Aarts, Leiden professor in experimental physics, has been appointed Ridder in de Orde van de Nederlandse Leeuw. He received the royal distinction from the mayor of Leiden Henri Lenferink in the Hooglandse Kerk.

Debate, Roundtable discussion

Ingrid Tieken-Boon van Ostade has received a special award: the Order of St. Mellitus, in recognition of her services to the history of the Bishops of London.

Based on the results of a language-switching experiment, PhD candidate Fatemeh (Simeen) Tabassi Mofrad MA and Professor Niels Schiller have discovered that the traditional categorisation of brain areas is not sufficient. They published their research findings in the scientific journal NeuroImage.

Language research generates a wealth of information about people: from our history and cultural differences to the way we learn. Leiden University shares its knowledge and passion for this topic via de MOOC on ‘Miracles of Human Languages’ and the web dossier on Language Diversity.

On 7 October, a court in Athens, Greece, convicted leaders of the far-right Golden Dawn party as directing a criminal organization. Marina Terkourafi, professor of Sociolinguistics, discusses the landmark ruling for the Leiden International Studies Blog.

According to Nivja de Jong, second language acquisition is 'the most fascinating subject in linguistics'. As a recently appointed professor of Second Language Acquisition and Pedagogy, she studies the question of how best to teach people a new language.

How did manioc, a poisonous root, become the staple of Amazonia and change the lives of prehistoric Amazonian peoples? Veni grant recipient, Konrad Rybka aims to unravel this mystery using a variety of research methods across different disciplines.

Neuroscientist Simeen Tabassi Mofrad has been awarded a Rubicon grant to conduct research on cortical and allelic determinants of age-related cognitive decline at University of Oxford. She holds the first rank among all Rubicon applicants in NWO Domain Social Sciences and Humanities (SSH).

The Trojan War plays an important role in Greek mythology. But there is much more to Troy than mythology. The exhibition ‘Troy. City. Homer. Turkey’ can be viewed from 7 December to 5 May 2013. Leiden linguist Alwin Kloekhorst wrote an article for the exhibition catalogue on the language of Troy.

Researchers from the Leiden University Centre for Linguistics (LUCL) and the University of Ghana are organising the first-ever pan-African summer school for deaf academics from the African continent (from 1 – 15 August).

Three researchers of Humanities have been awarded with a VIDI research grant. With a VIDI they can spend five years researching the topic they submitte. The grant amounts to a maxium of eight hundred thousand euros.

As of 1 July, Gijsbert Rutten is Professor by special appointment of Historical Sociolinguistics of Dutch at Leiden University. Rutten, who also works as Director of Education at the Leiden University Centre for Linguistics (LUCL), will, among other things, research the historical relationship between…

Manon van der Heijden and Leo Lucassen, and Maarten Mous will receive NWO Open Competition funding. This funding amounts to a maximum of 750,000 euros and is intended to carry out research into a subject of their your own choice, without thematic preconditions.

Could water be present in planet-forming disks before the formation of rocky planets? The James Webb Space Telescope may have found evidence for that. Webb has for the first time observed water in the inner disc around young star where at greater distance, giant planets have already formed. The research…

A fascinating description of a global language, A Grammar of Mandarin by Jeroen Wiedenhof combines broad perspectives with illuminating depth. Crammed with examples from everyday conversations, it aims to let the language speak for itself. The book opens with an overview of the language situation and…

A large interdisciplinary NWO research project attempted to discover the cognitive origin of the human ability to learn linguistic rules. This is not so simple, according to linguist Andreea Geambaşu and her colleagues. PhD defence on 11 December.

Historical linguist Lauren Fonteyn is awarded a substantial Digital Infrastructure grant as well as being selected as member of the prestigious Young Academy Leiden (YAL).

Russia’s premeditated attack on Ukraine in February 2022 changed not only the security landscape of Europe. It also altered – at least for now – the structures of leadership and influence within the West.

Europe’s security suddenly looks uncertain now President Trump has started negotiations with Putin. What does this mean for the Netherlands? What do we need to do?

The KHMW (Koninklijke Hollandsche Maatschappij der Wetenschappen) has decided to grant the Keetje Hodshon Prijs voor Taalwetenschappen to LUCL’s Jurriaan Witteman for his 2014 dissertation titled Towards a Cognitive Neuroscience of Prosody Perception and its Modulation by Alexithymia.

Willemijn Heeren has, together with dr. Lei He (Department of Linguistics, Tübingen & Center for Forensic Phonetics and Acoustics, Zürich), received a research grant from the International Association for Forensic Phonetics and Acoustics to start a pilot project on “Between-speaker variability in dynamic…

Leiden University Lecturer Lettie Dorst wins a prestigious Comenius Senior Fellow grant for a project about machine translation and its use in higher education.

When professors become emeriti, it usually does not mean they stop working. The Centre for Linguistics (LUCL) will therefore soon have a first: a symposium is going to be organised where all the speakers are emeriti professors. 'Science will always be part of you are.'

Why do we sometimes speak more slowly or more rapidly, and why do we sometimes have a longer pause between uttering particular words? This has to do with whether you are about to use a noun or a verb. This is the finding from research by an international team led by linguist Frank Seifart from the University…

Using speech analysis to resolve crimes. That's what Meike de Boer (26) is aiming to do with her PhD research. 'By analysing how a person pronounces

September 26 is the European Day of Languages. There are 24 official languages in Europe but some 200 languages in total are spoken on our continent. What good are all these different languages? And should we all learn Azerbaijani or Swedish? We asked Lisa Cheng, Professor of General Linguistics.

Arts and culture

The application procedure for the Air and Space Law programme is broken down into three parts. More information about the procedure can be found on this page.

The doors of the new Gorlaeus Building are officially open! With an additional lab wing, new lecture halls and offices, a library, a brasserie, and spaces for student associations, the building offers a vibrant and inspiring environment for research, study, and social interaction. Explore on your…

In 2021 many of our students and staff won fantastic prizes and were awarded important research grants. This is our traditional review of these successes as the end of one year marks the beginning of another.

Are you in a position of talent coach, coordinator, mentor, dean, or teacher and looking for university programmes that provide an extra challenge for the students of your school? The Leiden University Honours Academy provides such a programme, where vwo-students from the final three years of high school…

We perform multidisciplinary research at molecular, cellular, and organismal levels of animal biology to increase fundamental understanding of health and disease.

Our library contains around 23,000 books, journals and historical documents under the care of a specialized librarian.

Your time at Leiden is about more than just studying. Some of your best experiences will stem from being a part of our lively and diverse student community, as well as from life in the beautiful city of Leiden.