Lecture, LAC Asia Academy

As South Korean president Moon Jae-in prepares to leave office, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has thanked him for trying to improve relations. Assistant Professor Christopher Green explains in the Calgary Sun what impact North Korea's gesture of goodwill might have.

On Friday morning, 18 October, Rector Magnificus Hester Bijl and Professor Remco Breuker welcomed Korea Foundation President Gheewan Kim.

North Korea is generally thought to be an isolated country. But, according to PhD candidate Tycho van der Hoog from Leiden’s African Studies Centre, the opposite is in fact the case. North Korea actually has strong alliances with countries in southern Africa. Van der Hoog is trying to shed more light…

Ambassador Hyoung Chan Choe of South Korea paid his first visit to Leiden University Nov. 22, where he was received by President Annetje Ottow and Professor of Korea Studies Remco Breuker.

Assistant Professor Christopher Green was interviewed on ABC Australia about the recent COVID-19 outbreak in North Korea. Green says that the statistics the isolated country has given are ‘essentially nonsense’.

South Korean smash hit Squid Game is on track to becoming the most successful Netflix production ever. The series is number one in over 90 countries. Professor and Korea expert Remco Breuker can see why South Korean pop culture is becoming so popular, also outside Asia.

The president of South Korea, Yoon Suk-yeol, has chosen not to use his presidential compound. Professor Remco Breuker states in Time that this marks a change in South Korea’s approach to the compound.

North Korea may seem like an isolated country but it has strong ties with African regimes. This alliance, which trades in arms despite international sanctions, is increasingly operating out of the liberal world order’s sight, PhD candidate Tycho van der Hoog warns.

In the Western world, kimchi is on an unstoppable rise, but in South Korea the dish is actually losing popularity. Professor Katarzyna Cwiertka explains how this is possible in the video series 'The World of the Korean Wave'.

Lecture

Koen de Ceuster, university lecturer for Korea Studies at the Leiden University Institute for Area Studies, was interviewed on the NKNews Podcast about art in North Korea. He speaks about the role of art in North Korean society, art ‘business’, and argues why it is not possible to separate propaganda…

Brandon Valeriano (Cato Institute) and Aleydis Nissen (Leiden University) publish an article on the soft power of K-pop in The Diplomat.

Lecture, LAC Asia Academy

Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s Vision 2030, an effort to reduce the country’s reliance on oil, may open up new opportunities for Korea. Spearheading the way is Hallyu — the Korean wave, led by K-pop and dramas as a soft power to open new business opportunities in the Middle East, especially…

As a woman, working in Japan and Korea can be pretty tough, Yorum Beekman discovered. It prompted her to pursue a PhD on the subject: ‘I thought: hey, that’s interesting!’

On 31 August 2022, a delegation from the Korean Ministry of Government Legislation visited the International Institute of Air and Space Law (IIASL) at Leiden University as part of their official visit to the Netherlands. The delegation’s visit was aimed at exchanging knowledge and experience on interaction…

K-pop band BTS joining the Korean military is a compulsory obligation, one with increased meaning as tension builds on the Korean Peninsula and around the world, postdoc Aleydis Nissen writes in an article in The Diplomat.

PhD defence

Lecture, LIAS Lunch Talk Series

Lecture, Lunch Research Seminar

PhD defence

With the aid of physics and a minuscule magnet, researchers have discovered a new structure of telomeric DNA. Telomeres are sometimes seen as the key to living longer. They protect genes from damage but get a bit shorter each time a cell divides. If they become too short, the cell dies. The new discovery…

Human Rights organisation Amnesty International recently set up a walk that passes by important locations in Leiden in relation to human rights. The Kamerlingh Onnes Building, home to Leiden Law School, has been included in the route.

Library, Social

If you have a guest or visitor who needs access to the network drives or a ULCN account, you can have him or her registered in the guest management system (GMS) via your GMS contact person.

Employees going on business trips can make use of the University’s collective travel insurance scheme. This means that you do not have to take out your own business travel insurance when travelling abroad for your work. The University has taken out collective travel insurance via ACE.

Welcome to the Expertise Centre for Teaching and Learning (ECOLe). Here you will find information on didactics, teacher development, teaching innovation, assessment and the use of teaching tools at humanities.

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'…

Studying how single DNA molecules behave helps us to better understand genetic disorders and design better drugs. Until now however, examining DNA molecules one-by-one was a slow process. Biophysicists from Delft University of Technology and Leiden University developed a technique that speeds up screening…

What is life like as an academic? Twelve PhD candidates will report on their daily work in videos and blogs on the Faces of Science website (in Dutch). They include three researchers from Leiden who are researching topics such as North Korean support for African liberation movements, how differently…

Are you looking for some listening material for the upcoming long weekend? Staff members and alumni of the Faculty of Humanities have been creating various podcasts over the last few months. A selection is shown here:

Lecture

Christopher Green has won the Teaching Prize 2024. The assistant professor of Korea Studies was presented with the prize during the opening of the faculty year in the Hortus.

In recent decades, women in Japan and South Korea have been catching up in terms of educational achievements and economic activity. Yet the number of women in leadership positions is still lagging behind. PhD candidate Yorum Beekman investigated why this is.

Beneath the glittering surface image of K-pop idols lies the Dorian Grey-like heart of an industry that abuses and discards its trainees and stars. It is a system of absolute power, that will be unable to uphold its image of a positive global influence. According to Aleydis Nissen, researcher at Leiden…

After two years of corona restrictions, it was ‘back to normal’ in 2022. Migration, elections, the history of slavery, Russia, and Ukraine were much-discussed topics. We compiled an overview of the most-read news items and other events of the past year.

Older people are often approached from the perspective of their limitations when there is often much they still can and want to do. According to Professor Tineke Abma, art is a good way to continue to participate.

From the effects of hormone fluctuations in women via the interior structure of giant planets to the prehistory of the languages: six Leiden researchers have been awarded a Consolidator Grant by the European Research Council.