This February Metje Postma will stop teaching and retire. But she is not done with the discipline yet: she will finish her PhD and there are still five films on the shelf that she plans to complete.

Leiden Law Cast is a podcast made by Leiden Law School, Leiden University, for everyone who wants to learn more about current legal issues.

How has progress been made on diversity and inclusion at Leiden University over the past decade? Attendees reflected on this at the D&I Symposium 2024: Untold Stories. And in the workshops, students and staff discussed the next steps toward a more inclusive community.

The Week of the International Students, from 14 – 18 November is an initiative of Nuffic. The aim of this week is to showcase the importance of an international experience for both Dutch and international students. This year’s theme Meet the world, make the change highlights the positive change students…

The brightness peak of the ring around M87's supermassive black hole has shifted 30 degrees counterclockwise in a year. This is shown by new images released by the Event Horizon Telescope consortium.

For their research many neuropsychologists use the brain scanners at the LUMC. At the start of the pandemic, the rules for visiting the hospital became stricter and a large amount of psychology research looked as though it would fall through. Thanks to good protocols the researchers can now pick up…

‘We could share our knowledge more with others and apply it more widely,’ said Annetje Ottow, President of the Executive Board, while presenting the new Strategic Plan on the University’s 447th Dies Natalis. The new Strategic Plan therefore focuses on innovating and connecting, among disciplines and…

In prehistoric times there was a huge wave of migration, from the steppes in Russia and Ukraine to West Europe. The newcomers’ genes began to dominate. Archaeology research in Leiden into burial mounds in the Veluwe and Utrechtse Heuvelrug areas of the Netherlands yielded this spectacular conclusion.…

Annetje Ottow is the first female president of the Executive Board of Leiden University, which means a return to her Alma mater.

It was challenging to get civil servants from the first Trump administration to speak about their work experiences, but sociologist Jaime Lee Kucinskas succeeded. The picture that emerged from her findings, she says, is far from positive. 'The more I spoke with them, the more emotions I saw. They were…

In his leaving interview, Martijn Ridderbos doesn’t have to think long when asked what he is most proud of. ‘Bringing people together; creating things together. Reducing the gap between researchers and the staff who support them because the latter are essential. We’ve achieved that and the seeds have…

Professor Eline Slagboom has been studying multiple generations of families for over 20 years. She collects data on why some people age healthily and others decline early.

Rector Magnificus Carel Stolker will retire on 8 February. If there’s one theme running through his career, it’s the links between the University and society. In this series of pre-retirement discussions, Stolker will talk one last time to people from within and without the University. In this first…

Talking about suicide is important, but anything but comfortable. To make this difficult subject easier for students and staff to discuss, the university is organising a campaign week in line with the national campaign ‘1K Z1E J3’ (I see you) being run by Stichting 113 Zelfmoordpreventie (113 is the…

Facility, Library

In this podcast episode of Beyond Japan, Oliver Moxham and Andrew Littlejohn explore how disaster heritage fosters debate around the relationship between humans and their environments.

Education

Sufyan Al Karaimeh, a guest researcher at the Faculty of Archaeology, is currently involved in the Aerial Archaeology in Jordan (AAJ) Project. Over the past 25 years, the individuals involved in this project have not only compiled an expansive collection of photographs but have also helped discover…

In this NRC article, sociologist John Boy together with Martijn Lampert and Lonneke van den Berg discuss the three biggest paradoxes of Generation Z: limitless freedom but experiencing enormous stress, being culturally independent but economically dependent and being highly idealistic but also constantly…

Education, Finance

In het LUMC in Leiden onderzoeken ontwikkelingspsychologen hoe kinderen en jongeren omgaan met emoties. Daarvoor maken ze een mri-scan van de hersenen van de deelnemers (9 - 16 jaar). De 11-jarige Olivier in het Jeugdjournaal: ‘Ik vind het leuk om het onderzoek te helpen.’ Wil je ook de wetenschappers…

Organisation

Organisation

Thijs Porck, teacher at English Language and Culture, has won the faculty teaching prize. He was lauded for his enthousiasm, his creative ways of teaching, and his commitment to his students.

Facility

Education, Organisation

Education

Facility

An international team of astronomers, led by Will Rocha of Leiden Observatory, using the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope have discovered that the key ingredients for making potentially habitable worlds are present in early-stage protostars, where planets have not yet formed.

'You don't have to kick the door open', Judi Mesman tells participants of the Leadership for a better tomorrow symposium. During this inspiring afternoon, students, teachers and partners will discuss leadership with Judi and each other. 'To really understand leadership, you have to look at patterns.…

Monique Tekstra-van Lochem decided to develop a book of her own that all children can recognize themselves in. In May "Hey, who are you?" will be released, a children's book in which twenty fictional children from all over the world take you with them into their daily lives.

Het is nog lastig in te schatten wat de gevolgen zijn van de aangekondigde bezuinigingen. Een week na Prinsjesdag kan decaan Koen Caminada al wel wat vragen van binnen FGGA beantwoorden. ‘We staan er relatief goed voor, maar de gevolgen kunnen groot zijn.’

‘Jelena Prokic, university lecturer and researcher at the Leiden University Centre for Digital Humanities, will be preparing students for the challenges and opportunities of the digital world. In September, six modules will start on subjects such as statistics and digitally searching through texts.…

Twee keer per jaar vertelt Gert Renkema ons meer over het proces en de gang van zaken rondom de financiën van FGGA.

Not experiments and lab coats, but computers and artificial intelligence: this year's Nobel Prize in Chemistry went to the inventors of the groundbreaking AI model, AlphaFold. This programme accurately predicts protein structures based on their genetic code—a crucial step in understanding biological…

The first block is almost over and that means you will soon be able to evaluate the courses you attended.

Last Thursday the Dutch House of Representatives held a debate on children being put into care when the childcare benefits scandal (toeslagenaffaire) had caused problems for their families. Four Leiden University academics were asked by the House to produce a fact sheet for this debate, bringing together…

There are approximately 60 million skateboarders worldwide. And yet in the academic world, this culture is not always looked upon seriously. Visual anthropologist Sander Hölsgens believes that this has to change. Last summer his book 'Skateboarding in Seoul' and the accompanying film 'Reverberations'…

The POPcorner, Career Service en Community Engagement Service are here to support you during your studies. This monthly newsletter provides an overview of all our activities in May!

Although it can be a challenge at times, parents should keep communicating with their teens. Also about how they parent. Research by developmental psychologist Loes Janssen shows that parenting can be perceived quite differently by family members and mood plays an important role. Parents often parent…

A group of united astronomers have successfully convinced Europe’s leading astronomy journal Astronomy & Astrophysics to institute a name change policy for transgender people and others. ‘It’s really frustrating that such a large organisation needed an initiative from outside to adopt a more inclusive…

Professor Pieter ter Keurs has spent his entire career studying collecting. Now, he is retiring. ‘I hope the focus on collections will carry on.’

How long does it take our master’s students to find a job after they have graduated? How far ahead should you start sending out applications? Where do most Public Administration students end up after graduation? How do most students go about finding work? That was the start of the kick-off meeting Career…

Being rejected always hurts, but so does having to reject someone. Social psychologists have discovered that at interviews to select suitable housemates students dehumanise candidates to make it easier to reject them. That may sound harsh but, according to the researchers, it is also logical.

Recently, in the midst of coronavirus situation, Professor Corinne Hofman and her team became part of the NWO project Island(er)s at the Helm. Both the application process as well as the start of the project were challenged by the limitations set by Covid-19. ‘As a preparation we travelled through the…

As of 1 August, Anika Bexkens has been appointed Professor of Evidence-Based Clinical Practice for Child and Adolescent Mental Health. Her research focuses on the optimal application of scientific knowledge in practice. ‘Scientists and practitioners often speak past each other.’

How do you make lobbying and rhetoric both challenging and understandable for high school students? Professor Jaap de Jong found the answer in climate activist Greta Thunberg. Together with his colleague Arco Timmermans, he developed a digital guest lecture on how to present a convincing story.

We spoke with Mathilde Witkam about her research as a dual PhD candidate at the Dual PhD Centre. Her dissertation is about the effect of open government on public trust. Mathilde: ‘Trust in government ensures that people are more honest in their tax returns; less control saves time and money.’

“A group of students does trigger something different than a research agency,” says Sophia de Rooij, chairman of the board of the Amstelland Hospital in Amstelveen. She reflects on a successful first year of cooperation with the Leiden Leadership Programme. While students got a taste of what working…

Laughing, crying or even having a moan together: close friends are worth their weight in gold in good and bad times. Researcher Lisa Schreuders explains the effects on body and mind. Can we give that magical click a helping hand? And what advice does she have for first-years in their new city?