We report new computational and experimental evidence of an efficient and astrochemically relevant formation route to formaldehyde (H2CO). This simplest carbonylic compound is central to the formation of complex organics in cold interstellar clouds and is generally regarded to be formed by the hydrogenation…

Although nanoparticles are extensively used in various applications like consumer products and have most probably entered the environment, little is known about the effects of these particles on living organisms.

Human civilization consumes a huge amount of fossil fuels, which has resulted in an atmospheric CO2 level which has not been higher in over 800 millennia.

This series provides a venue for scholarly work—research monographs and edited volumes—that advances our understanding of the history of slavery and post-slavery in any period and any geographical region. It fills an important gap in academic publishing and builds upon two relatively recent developments…

This book concerns cultural production in contemporary Latin American cities: chaotic cities where the ideal of order has become fragmented and the walls of the lettered city have become porous. New and multifarious urban trajectories—intersecting, colliding, superimposing—trace the image of the postmodern…

A Twenty-First Century Guide

Islam is a religion as well as a cultural practice that takes on a diversity of forms, some of them contradictory. This has always been the case, and it is becoming increasingly apparant in the modern world through migration, globalisation and the digitial media. The minor Islam: Religion and Society,…

The interdisciplinary minor American Studies offers a survey of U.S. history, literature and culture from the establishment of the first colonies on the North American continent in the 15th century to the present.

Did you know that after succesful completion of the minor American Studies, you can apply for the master’s programme North American Studies? Find out more below.

The Van Vollenhoven Institute for Law, Governance and Society (VVI) is part of the Leiden Law School.

This book discusses theories of crisis management and the radical right, to shed light on how responses to crisis influence radical right parties in their presence, discourse, and evolution. The book offers a comparative perspective by examining case studies with various traditions of radical right…

On the 2nd of July, Axel Palmér successfully defended a doctoral thesis. Leiden University Centre for Linguistics congratulates Axel on this achievement!

Changing the world (a little bit)

On the 1st of November, Andrew Wigman successfully defended a doctoral thesis. The Leiden University Centre for Linguistics congratulates Andrew on this achievement!

Get to know us through our online and in-person events for prospective students!

Graduates of the LL.M. Governance of Migration and Diversity, depending on their bachelor qualification, will obtain civil effect in the Netherlands and will be able to access the Dutch bar

We prepare you for your career by adressing the legal issues that impact the rights of children across the globe. Read more information about career preparation

Law and legal institutions play an important role in the organisation of society. They can be used to address and regulate social problems ranging from migration and terrorism to corruption, and from pollution and climate change to social and gender equality. But laws and institutions, and the way in…

Law and legal institutions play an important role in the organisation of society. They can be used to address and regulate social problems ranging from migration and terrorism to corruption, and from pollution and climate change to social and gender equality. But laws and institutions, and the way in…

Punching Back is a detailed ethnographic study that demonstrates that young Muslim women who kickbox develop agentive selves by challenging gender norms, challenging expectations, and living out their religious subjectivities.

'Mariana Gkliati delivered a presentation entitled: 'Accountability of the Europepan Border and Coast Guard Agency: The Litigation Route' at the Refugee Law Initiative's 2nd Annual Conference in London, on Monday 5 June

Dr. Moritz Jesse, associate professor of European Law at the Europa Institute of the University of Leiden, spoke at the Social integration in EU law: Contents, limits and functions of an elusive notion – Seminar, which was organized as a part of the MOVES – Free Movement of Workers & Social Security…

Assistant Professor Briitta van Staalduinen has received the Best Dissertation Award from the American Political Science Association, Section on Class and Inequality. Her dissertation, Ethnic Inequality in the Welfare State, aims to reconcile the persistence of ethnic inequalities in expansive welfare…

On 17 March 2022, Ilke Göçmen from Ankara University organised a Conference within the framework of a Jean Monnet Chair on ‘Legal Issues in Turkey – European Union Relations’.

In the PhD project of Teuntje Vosters, which started in January 2016, she analyses the history of NGOs and their influence over time. The research question of her project is: to what extend and in what circumstances were NGOs successful in influencing European refugee policy between since 1900?

Consensus among Member States on the return of failed asylum seekers is currently lacking. For that reason, the Head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, wants new legislation that provides for a uniform policy. Armin Cuyvers, Professor of European Law, commented on the issue on Dutch radio…

This research project is funded by a subsidy from Instituut Gak.

A better understanding of Morocco and the Arab world is crucial for international relations and for Dutch society. This was the key message of Minister of Education, Culture and Science Jet Bussemaker and Ahmed Aboutaleb, Mayor of Rotterdam, at the opening of the renewed Netherlands Institute in Morocco…

On Tuesday 30 May 2017 Jorrit Rijpma, Associate Professor at the Europa Institute, together with his colleagues Prof. Thomas Spijkerboer (Free University) and Dr. Maarten den Heijer (University of Amserdam), delivered a key note address at the Nordic Asylum Law Seminar in Reykjavik, Iceland.

The Netherlands and Morocco: relations between the two countries go back a long way. Assistant professor Nadia Bouras is researching these relations. Of Moroccan migrant workers, she says, 'In the seventies the predominant idea was that everyone had the right to their own culture and religion. That's…

It is often thought that immigration threatens the solidarity on which redistribution relies. But looking at the post-war period, PhD candidate Emily Anne Wolff finds that this is not the case.

Municipalities are becoming more and more selective when it comes to the nationality, age and sex of the asylum seekers they are willing to take in. This is the outcome of an investigation by Dutch newspaper NRC. And the Central Agency for the Reception of Asylum Seekers (COA) agrees with the results.…

Khadija Kadrouch-Outmany defended her thesis on 16 September 2014.

As a graduate of the Faculty of Humanities, there are unlimited possibilities. Do you want to know more about the sectors and jobs Humanities' graduates end up? Click on the name of the alumna/alumnus to read their story!

During the two-year Colonial and Global History programme you will learn from inspired academics and learn how to conduct quality research.

The Dutch asylum application centre in Ter Apel is overburdened, an issue that is currently a prominent feature in the Dutch media. In podcast De Verbranders, PhD students Neske Baerwaldt and Wiebe Ruijtenberg engage in dialogue, and use different angles to examine themes related to migration, borders…

Xiao Ma defended her thesis on 26 September 2018

The staff of the Europa Institute possess extensive expertise on European Union law and European Human Rights law generally. Current research focuses on five areas of particular relevance for European integration.

As a practice in which human beings were held captive for an indefinite period of time, coerced into extremely dependent and exploitative power relationships, denied rights (including rights over their labor, lives, and bodies), often vulnerable to forced relocation by various means, and forced to labor…

As Lila Abu Lughod pointed out in 1989, North Africa has been one of the geographical ‘zones of prestige’ for the development of canonical approaches and crucial theoretical debates regarding the comparative study of Islam.

How does global change across time and space lead to convergence and loss of variation or increasing diversity and conflict?

This is the first reference work to describe the history of embroidery throughout Central Asia, the Iranian Plateau and the Indian Subcontinent from the medieval period through to the present. It offers an authoritative guide to all the major embroidery traditions of the region and a detailed examination…

The thesis addresses the long-term dynamical evolution of hierarchical multiple systems.

This study explores regional variation in the use of utterance-final particles by analyzing spoken Taiwan Mandarin data recorded from spontaneous conversations.