Leiden University is the first Dutch university to join the Healthy Universities international network. Lifestyle workshops, rewards for good behaviour and the latest interventions encourage students and staff to live more healthily. The experiences gained through this network will be used in scientific…

Tahir Abbas, Associate Professor in Terrorism and Political Violence at ISGA, explained how polarisation and social exclusion were at the root of radicalisation around the world. Papers ‘The News’ and ‘Dawn’ wrote articles about it.

We are excited to announce that Marie Schwed Shenker's research paper, co-authored with Dr Eduard Fosch-Villaronga (Associate Professor at eLaw) and Professor Bart Custers (Professor of Law and Data Science), has been accepted for presentation at the 16th International Conference on Social Robotics…

Many people were using social media to follow last weekend’s march on Moscow by the Wagner mercenaries. And they weren’t the only ones: intelligence services were also watching with great interest. What kind of information do they obtain from social media and what are the advantages and disadvantage…

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…

Rogier Creemers, assistent professor in Modern Chinese Studies, wrote an article about China's social credit system in the Schweizer Monat. In the article he argues that it is not the most dangerous among China's technology projects.

On June 10, Michelle Achterberg received the prize for best dissertation from the Dutch Neurofederation, the network of Dutch neuroscientists, for her thesis 'Like me, ore else...'. Achterberg obtained her doctorate cum laude from the Gravitation Program 'Samen Uniek' of the Leiden Consortium on Individual…

If male budgerigars can successfully open a puzzle box with food, they become more attractive to females. Biologist Carel ten Cate and Chinese colleagues published experimental evidence for this in a paper in Science on 11 January. Various Dutch and international media wrote about the paper.

In this thesis,

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.

What would happen if families with little money were to receive an extra amount every month with no conditions attached? Would it help with their worst financial problems? In order to find out, the municipality of Amsterdam will conduct an experiment with 300 families over the next two years. During…

The Social and Cultural Plan Bureau (SCP) published the report “The social state of the Netherlands”. In this research is it stated that there is no such thing as a political shift to the right. In view of the fact that the right wing is better represented in the House of Commons, this is a remarkable…

Exploring logging's real impact: Insights from Anthropologist Tessa Minter in the Solomon Islands.

The institute that focuses on Public Law is as broad as the field itself. The Institute of Public Law has six departments, each with its own research agenda.

How can young people grow up successfully and contribute to the present and future society? The consortium that is researching this will receive 22 million euros within the scope of the Gravitation programme.

Postdoctoral researcher Joost de Moor, who joined the interdisciplinary Global Transformations and Governance Challenges (GTGC) initiative at Leiden University since April 2021, will spend 50% of his time doing research for the project

What does an unequal society lead to if it's not responded to by politicians? What happens when people are no longer waiting for something good to happen to them? An international perspective can give us possible answers.

'Audible locality' is the first thorough study on the cultural ramifications of recording technology on ethnic sensibility in Southeast Asia. Exploring chronologically the representation of Indonesia's regional culture through recording media, it recounts the Dutch East Indies colonial society's initial…

The Service Centre International Staff provides advice and different services to all international employees and guest researchers pursuing their academic careers in Leiden.

De minor Economie en Beleid van de Universiteit Leiden leert je oplossingen te vinden voor problemen waar het Nederlandse openbaar bestuur elke dag aan werkt.

The following dissertation reconstructs Paul Natorp's philosophical psychology. It argues that psychology's main object is the lived experience of concrete subjects, understood as a transcendental structure of logical-reflexive conditions for the recognition, appropriation, and evaluation of objective…

This handbook is aimed at a wide readership interested in developing an understanding of the political, economic, and social complexity of Eastern Europe. It covers Central Europe, the Baltic republics, South Eastern Europe, and the Western Balkans, as well as all the countries of the former Soviet…

The Graduate School of Social and Behavioural Sciences aims to provide a stimulating environment for conducting PhD research at an internationally competitive level within one of the excellent research programmes offered by its institutes.

Growing health inequalities, rising healthcare costs, an ageing population and a shortage of healthcare personnel are just a few of the many challenges healthcare faces, in the Netherlands and internationally. To tackle these challenges an interdisciplinary approach is required by combining knowledge…

The authors of the article expect automation to improve accuracy in less complex programmes but worsens with increased complexity

Over the last decades, income inequality has increased globally. How do social policies affect this increasing trend? How do international trade and technological progress affect inequality? What is the profile of income inequality in China?

Social science research helps us understand human behaviour and social structures. These are determined by various factors, which makes the research complex and increases the likelihood of drawing the wrong conclusions. The choice of research method and analysis is therefore extremely important. It…

What insights do eleven social Facebook-accounts of Dutch and Belgic foreign fighters offer with respect to the phenomenon of so-called returnees?

On Wednesday 23 May, a jointly organized Lunch Seminar between the research programs Interaction Between Legal Systems and Reform of Social Legislation takes place. In this very special seminar we have the honour of receiving Prof. Jason Beckfield from Harvard University.

Sara Polak, American Studies expert and University Lecturer investigates how American presidents deal with the media and how new, social media influence our collective memory and the political game. ‘Social media algorithms influence us and our political choices in ways we do not foresee’, Polak say…

There was a lot of interest. In front of nearly a hundred researchers, supporting colleagues and Martijn Ridderbos, the Vice-Chairman of the Executive Board, Lotte van Dillen, Research Director of Psychology and Saskia Goedhard, Director of Humanities Operations jointly opened the new lab with a classic…

On 8th October 2018 Daniel Carter presented part of his PhD research on the effects of precarious employment on intra-EU migration at the ‘Science Day’ at the Ministry of Social Affairs and Employment and in the Hague. He presented a paper he is currently working on, which assesses the recent Proposal…

Prisoners who have little or no contact with the outside world are more prone to reoffend. What makes visits so important?

On 14 December 2022, students of the course Social and Ecological Activism in the Visual Arts (as part of the Creative Strategies for a Society in Change minor) presented and performed their final collective project at BAK, basis voor actuele kunst, Utrecht: the Water Cultures Institute group role-playing…

Political games have existed throughout history, but what is the role of 'play' in the way the American political world has developed? University lecturer Sara Polak has received an ERC Starting Grant to investigate this.

Leiden LIS Budget Incidence Fiscal Redistribution Dataset on Income Inequality (2017), assembled by Jinxian Wang and Koen Caminada (Version 1, November 2017), presents the disentanglement of income inequality and the redistributive effect of social transfers and income taxes in 47 LIS countries for…

Leiden LIS Budget Incidence Fiscal Redistribution Dataset on Relative Income Poverty Rates (2019), assembled by Koen Caminada and Jinxian Wang (Version 1, February 2019), presents the disentanglement of relative income poverty measurers and the anti-poverty effects of social transfers and income taxes…

Is aggression always bad? PhD research by psychologist Simone Dobbelaar shows that it is not. In fact, children who occasionally fiercely defend themselves and stand up for their peers often feel better mentally.

Nanoplastics influence the behaviour of larval zebrafish, says new research by the Institute of Biology Leiden (IBL) and the Institute of Environmental Sciences (CML). The researchers observed that a certain type of nanoparticles leads to stress reactions in the sugar balance, resulting in hyperactivity…

Political scientist Rebekah Tromble (Leiden University) and computational sociolinguist Dirk Hovy (University of Copenhagen) analyse how much hostility and sexism Clinton faces on Twitter, as well as who seems to be behind such attacks.

It is often claimed that social media can contribute to democratic decision-making by bringing politicians and citizens into dialogue with one another. But is this potential always realised, and how? Most researchers look at politicians and their online communication strategies. In this New Media &…

The World of the Fullo takes a detailed look at the fullers, craftsmen who dealt with high-quality garments, of Roman Italy. Analyzing the social and economic worlds in which the fullers lived and worked, it tells the story of their economic circumstances, the way they organized their workshops, the…

Why are we unable to address health-care inequality? This was the topic of the inaugural speech of Professor Jet Bussemaker on Friday 15 February 2019. She analysed why current policy does not suffice when it comes to protecting vulnerable groups and fighting inequality. She proposed an agenda that…

A number of European countries have started evacuating their citizens and there is a threat of military intervention by neighbouring countries: the situation in Niger is deteriorating rapidly. A military coup has thrown the country into turmoil, partly aided by social media.

Lecture, LUCL Colloquium - Series '24/'25