Positive emotions are important for our health and sense of well-being - they make our lives meaningful. Now, Henk van Steenbergen and his colleagues have published an authoritative new volume on the latest scientific research on positive emotions.

Within the broader scope of the interdisciplinary programme 'Social Resilience and Security', we seek to provide a broad and deep understanding of the dimensions and etiology of transgressive behaviours, the effects of interventions, and resilience against such behaviours.

In their recent blog, Marieke Liem and Jolien van Breen reflect on the representation of immigrants amongst homicide victims - is there evidence that people from immigrant groups are over-represented amongst homicide victims? And if so, can we discover the reasons why? Find out more through the link…

Giliam de Valk, assistant professor at the Institute of Security and Global Affairs, was one of the speakers at the third congress of the National Thinking Tank Integral Security on 6 February.

One of the effects of climate change is the phenomenon of desertification, a process that occurs in semi-arid and arid areas and causes land degradation as well as vegetation loss. Due to the lack of resources, vegetation self-organizes to sustain itself by forming large-scale spatial patterns.

Every year Leiden University celebrates the lifting of the siege of 1574, with the 3 October University. This year the event will be held on the 4th of October between 11 am and 1 pm. Visit the tent in the city centre of Leiden, to hear three of our scientists talk about their research on the theme…

In Belgium Radio 1, Marieke Liem (professor of Violence and Interventions) gives a scientific perspective on serial killers and explains the typical Hollywood image of serial killers is not in line with reality.

Researchers from five different discplines work together in this interdisciplinary initiative.

Dr Kim Duistermaat (NVIC) en Niels Groot (TU Delft)

Recent figures from Statistics Netherlands show that the total number of homicides has decreased in 2020. But the number of homicides among young people increased. Many have interpreted this to mean that homicide among teenagers in increasing. Marieke Liem, Professor of Social Resilience and Security,…

RESOCIAL ('User vulnerabilities and Resilience on SOCIAL media platforms and the metaverse: a sociolegal and design perspective', an NWO-NWA Synergy Grant Project) seeks to identify, measure, and thereby mitigate human vulnerabilities on social media platforms (including the metaverse and immersive…

The Leiden Institute of Education and Child Studies aims to conduct high-quality research that addresses major social issues. This inspires its BSc, MSc and PhD programmes.

Our research examines mental health risk and resilience in young people. We do so by integrating cultural, social, cognitive and neurobiological factors and their interactions.

Disclaimer: Manuscripts related to the Resilience Center are for academic purposes only and are not intended for mass distribution or copying. Please refer to applicable laws for fair use, including copyright holders' restrictions on publications.

In light of climate change, it is crucial to determine whether plant species can adapt to future climates to avoid extinction. Plants adapt to various conditions by altering their functional traits, such as leaf size or photosynthetic rate. Some traits appear linked and vary together between species,…

Lecture, Tuesday Talks: Science Insights

Global Challenges is the research programme of the Leiden Institute of Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology.

LUCIS’ research on Islam and society is guided by three overarching themes, which are fundamental to our research programmes.

Investigating domestic crafts and subsistence activities through experiments and material analysis

Knowledge of mental distress and resilience factors over the time span from before to after a stressor is important to be able to leverage the most promising resilience factors and promote mental health at the right time. To shed light on this topic, we designed the RESIST Study, in which we assessed…

How can we ensure a more resilient and sustainable supply of Rare Earths in the EU in the future?

Vast, often populated, areas in dryland ecosystems face the dangers of desertification.

How did Angkor interact with regional urban centers? How did the settlement system impact the society's agricultural system and regional resilience?

Meet the people of the Resilience Center

BrainTrain: an initiative from Leiden University in which a team of students visit high schools to make adolescents more resilient against disinformation on the news and on their socials. In an interactive two-hour guest lesson, high school pupils discover how easily their brains can be tricked into…

Towards Health and Resilience in Volatile Environments - People differ in how they are impacted by and respond to stressful experiences. Why is that?

This paper examines the need and possibility for developing online resilience-based approaches in response to COVID-19 vaccine conspiracies, often linked to the far right.

In the academic year 2023-2024 the SRS interdisciplinary programme will offer four courses for interested students who are entering the third year of their Bachelor's degree. You can sign up for these courses in your elective (minor) space. You can follow the courses individually as an elective, or…

Prof. dr. Marieke Liem, Professor Social Resilience and Safety at ISGA, discussed the facts and fiction surrounding serial killers on Dutch NPO Radio 1.

Ten projects have been selected during the fourth call in the Seed Funding Programme launched by EUniWell. Marieke Liem, Professor Social Resilience and Security, has received a grant for the MASTERY project.

With this grant the researchers seek to shed light on the factors which play a role in transmitting jihadist ideas, and explore possible ways to mitigate this transmission.

Lex Bohlmeijer, creator of the Good Conversations podcast at De Correspondent, is recording a podcast in Theater aan het Spui in The Hague. In his Good Coversations podcast, Lex talks politics, arts, journalism and science, with a wide range of guests who have an exceptional and often unknown story.…

In Dutch magazine Elsevier, Marieke Liem explains the issues with using the term ‘troubled person‘ in reports on homocide.

How do digital technologies affect adolescent mental health and resilience? How do we foster a secure online environment? How should we deal with increasing rates of online crimes among adolescents? During the mini-symposium ‘The effect of the online world on adolescents’, presented by the interdisciplinary…

Commissioned by ‘Politie en Wetenschap’, Pauline Aarten, Assistant Professor at Leiden University, and Marieke Liem, Associate Professor at Leiden University, published their new research last week. The study

Six researchers from Leiden University have been awarded NWO Open Competition funding.

Master’s students in the Honours Class ‘Leiden, City of Refugees?’ were asked to contemplate the concept of ‘the other’ from both an academic and an artistic perspective. The result was the exhibition ‘The Invitation’ which was presented at Stadsbauhaus on 4 June.

Judicial officers have some leeway in how they act. In most cases that's fine, but it can also lead to abuses, such as ethnic profiling. It is easy to forget that these are not isolated decisions, but are also part of a framework of formal policies. Professor Maartje van der Woude calls for more comprehensive…

The state, and specifically the idea of nationality, is almost all-determining in social life in the Netherlands. It determines how people identify, how we interact with each other, and what (in)equality in society looks like. However, ultimately, the idea that we can divide people into different nationalities…

To achieve societal impact, you need to do more than solely writing academic articles. That's the idea behind the Master Honours Class 'Leiden Revisited', in which students demonstrated with art how residents at the outskirts of Leiden experience the city. 'It's the perfect way to start the debate.'

With 'The unruly reality of a new government: Navigating between networks and serving in a 'vulnerable' neighbourhood', Mony Klaus has won the FSW Thesis Prize 2023. Written as part of the Master's programme in Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology, the thesis examines how a new government…

During last summer, the Faculty of Law offered an Honours Class about the theme 'Governing Crime and Migration'. Hillary Mellinger, one of the participating international students, tells us about her experiences.

The Case of the Painted Plaster

EU Cyber Direct – EU Cyber Diplomacy Initiative supports the European Union’s cyber diplomacy and international digital engagements in order to strengthen rules-based order in cyberspace and build cyber resilient societies. To that aim, we conduct research, support capacity building in partner countries,…

How can we promote more durable solutions to protracted refugee situations and which roles can connectivity and mobility of displaced people play to improve protection and resilience?

The outreach and engagement platform BrainTrain consists of five enthusiastic students of the masters programme Forensic Family Science. As part of their project, the students visit high-schools to teach adolescents about the brain, make them experience that their own reality is not always the only…

Liwen Meng has been granted a CSC fellowship to initiate her PhD project, which will delve into the role of nature in buffering stress response. Her research will be carried out under the supervision of Dr. Henk van Steenbergen.