Human Rights at Risk brings together social scientists, legal scholars, and humanities scholars to analyze the policy challenges of human rights protection in the twenty-first century.

On 29 april 2020, Beth Van Schaack defended her thesis 'Imagining Justice for Syria: Water Always Finds Its Way'. The doctoral research was supervised by Prof. C. Stahn.

This political theory specialisation focuses on the concepts of legitimacy and justice—political philosophy’s core themes. Immersing yourself in theories, philosophical and theoretical methods, and complex cases, you will make the leap from opinion to analysis.

Leiden Bio Science Park (LBSP) is the largest knowledge centre in the Netherlands in the field of life sciences & health and is also highly regarded internationally. The clustering of high-quality education, research, care and business attract students, scientists and entrepreneurs from all over the…

Firearms and violence in Europe–A systematic review by Katharina Krüsselmann, Pauline Aarten, Marieke Liem

Every day, Veilig Thuis employees receive hundreds of reports of domestic violence and child abuse. Despite their efforts, they are heavily criticised due to the long waiting times. Mariëlle Bruning, Professor of Children and the Law, appeared on talk show ‘Eva’ to discuss the Dutch care and welfare…

Isabel van Vledder and Dieuwertje van der Vlugt, 2 astronomy students from Leiden University, have mapped the entire Milky Way galaxy in dwarf stars for the first time. This result is the most comprehensive model ever for the distribution of these stars. The findings appear in a new paper in Monthly…

The first year students of Bachelor Security Studies finished their final block with the course Integrated Project 1. As part of the programme's teaching philosophy ‘Explore, Understand, Do’, students were required to combine the knowledge and understanding they’d gathered throughout their first year,…

Medewerkers van de Universiteit Leiden trappen maandag 10 maart de estafettestaking af van de Nederlandse universiteiten tegen de kabinetsbezuinigingen.

Met de val van Balkenende IV laait de discussie over het functioneren van politieke partijen binnen ons democratisch bestel weer op. Opgeblazen ego’s, overambitieuze politici en partijpolitieke machtspelletjes zouden echte democratie in de weg staan. Maar die discussie is niet nieuw.

What did it mean to be enslaved in in the Indian Ocean world in the 18th and 19th centuries? Over the last decades, historians have mined French, British, Portuguese and Dutch records for quantitative data on the European slave trade. This project focuses on the experience of being a slave and seeks…

International trade plays a critical role in global food security, with global consumption having highly localized environmental impacts.

In this article, Makszin developed a conceptual framework for the operating mission of an independent Central Bank and traced changes in the operating mission of the Hungarian National Bank over its recent 27-year history together with Sebők and Simons. This study aims to understand the dynamics of…

On 22 June, Najib Amin defended the thesis 'State-building, lawmaking, and criminal justice in Afghanistan: a case study of the prison system’s legal mandate, and the rehabilitation programmes in Pul-e-charkhi prison'. The doctoral research was supervised by Jan Michiel Otto and Pauline Schuyt.

From colonial times through to the present day, large numbers of Javanese have left their homes to settle in other parts of Indonesia or much further afield. Frequently this dispersion was forced, often with traumatic results.

On 10 March 2021, Pieter Huizing defended his thesis 'Parallel Enforcement of International Cartels and Its Impact on the Proportionality of Overall Punishment'. The doctoral thesis was supervised by Prof. T.R. Ottervanger.

On 28 February 2019, Kabir Duggal defended his thesis 'Principles of Evidence in Investor-State Arbitration, Burden, Standards, Presumptions & Inferences'. The doctoral research was supervised by Prof. dr. E. De Brabandere.

Cryptocurrencies have exploded onto global financial markets, with the value of a single bitcoin growing from around 800 USD in 2016 to 67,000 USD in 2021.

Matthew Hoye argues for a regulatory analytical perspective to look at the sanctioning of Afghanistan.

The first comprehensive and authoritative history of work and labour in Africa; a key text for all working on African Studies and Labour History worldwide.

On 11 November 2021, Mariana Gkliati defended the thesis 'Systemic Accountability of the European Border and Coast Guard'. The doctoral research was supervised by Prof. P. Rodrigues and Prof. L. Besselink (UvA).

In this research I assess the impact of the recently discovered gas reserves south off Cyprus on the escalation of the Cyprus conflict.

The research group on governance of crises studies phenomena, dynamics and actors related to crisis governance. The Leiden University Crisis Research Center (CRC) is part of this Research Group.

Jan Aart Scholte, Professor Global Transformations and Governance Challenges, is a co-author of this book that offers the first full comparative study of citizen and elite legitimacy beliefs toward global governance.

On 21 March 2019, James Welch defended his thesis 'The Grotius Sanction: Deus Ex Machina. The legal, ethical, and strategic use of drones in transnational armed conflict and counterterrorism'. The doctoral research was supervised by Prof. dr. P.B Cliteur.

Mei-Wen Chen defended her thesis on 29 June 2016

Promotor: Prof.dr. E.F. Smets, Co-promotor: T.R. van Andel

Social Aspects of Space in the Configurational Architecture of Frankish Castles in the Holy Land, 1099-1291

This article assesses Russian rhetoric toward Ukraine from 2004 to 2019 by analyzing statements by the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Reasserting America in the 1970s brings together two areas of burgeoning scholarly interest.

Using object assemblages to reconstruct activities, modes of deposition and abandonment at the Late Bronze Age dunnu of Tell Sabi Abyad, Syria.

In this article, Gerrit Dijkstra and Jos Raadschelders from the Institute of Public Administration, argue that Bosnia-Herzegovina survives so far on the basis of negative legitimacy.

The European Council and the European Commission have a similar role in agenda setting. Both place issues on the EU agenda. However, these institutions have distinct designs. They have different political attributes (the European Council has considerably more political authority) and information-processing…

Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology at Leiden University is renowned for its international orientation and broad range of theoretical, methodological, and regional expertise.

Irna Hofman defended her thesis on 10 January 2019.

The project investigates the implementation of policies and practices related to reconciliation and the strengthening of government capacity in the Odesa and Kharkiv regions of Ukraine.

On 19 February 2020, Richard Jiang defended his thesis '‘Greening’ the WTO Ban on China’s Export Duties'. The doctoral research was supervised by Prof. M.C.E.J. Bronckers.

A History of Modern Political Thought in East Central Europe is a synthetic work, authored by an international team of researchers, covering twenty national cultures and 250 years. It goes beyond the conventional nation-centered narratives and presents a novel vision especially sensitive to the cross-cultural…

On February 20th, Gulnaz Sibgatullina succesfully defended her doctoral thesis and graduated. The Leiden University Centre for Linguistics congratulates Gulnaz on this great result.

Hekmat Dirbas defended his thesis on 14 February 2017

The role of domestic and wild resource exploitation in Bronze Age subsistence

This project proposes to connect two discourses highly present in contemporary literary criticism in China, as well as on the world literary scene and academic circles: the discussion on emigration literature and the concept of ‘essayness’ derived mainly from (post)modern Western theories of the ess…

Why is there no Northeast Asian security architecture? Assessing the strategic impediments to a stable East Asia. In this article, published in 'The Pacific Review', the authors Wang (Peking University) en Stevens (Leiden University) discuss the reasons why.

Lecture, Lunch Research Seminar

The research conducted is centred around three themes. Within the different themes a multi-level approach is used, focussing on issues at the level of the health care system, the level of organizations and networks of organizations and at professionals within organisations.

In the master’s programme in Archaeology, you can follow courses on the archaeology of Europe, deepening your understanding of the continent’s long history.

Check your application deadlines here.

The Institute of Political Science has a multi-dimensional research programme that promotes the unity of the institute as an intellectual community rooted in the social sciences and especially political science, while enabling overlapping groups of colleagues to develop particular research agendas within…