On the 2nd of September Jiyan Qiao successfully defended a doctoral thesis and graduated.

Almost three years after receiving her honorary doctorate, Dr Graça Machel returned to Leiden University. Over the course of two days she spoke with students, researchers, and other interested persons, about human rights – particularly those of women and children – in a world in which these are continually…

This is a joint PhD of the Faculty of Social and Behavioral Sciences at Leiden University and the Evolutionary Ecology Group at Antwerp University.

Clinical development of drugs for central nervous system (CNS) disorders has been particularly challenging and still suffers from high attrition rates.

Physicists have studied the astrophysical neutrino signal as reported by the IceCube collaboration from a different angle with their ANTARES detector. The Milky Way centre was an obvious prime suspect to be a source, but this hypothesis is now only closer to debunked than confirmed. Publication in Physical…

How have human-environmental entanglements changed in the Gulf of San Miguel, Darien, Panama, from the first traces human practices through to the present?

Analysis of drug adversity

How can zebrafish research help to understand and fight human cancer?

In Humanity’s End As A New Beginning, Emeritus Professor Mineke Schipper reflects on myths about ‘the end’.

This thesis describes the design and development of subunit‐selective inhibitors of particular catalytically active subunits of human constitutive proteasomes and immunoproteasomes.

Does foreign aid promote human rights?

‘Space Antenna LISA will open an unprecedented window on the Universe,’ says astronomer Elena Maria Rossi. The mission will be the first one to detect Gravitational Waves from space. These can tell us more about the beginning of our Universe and the formation of black holes. With an NWO grant of twelve…

African Studies is a field notoriously lacking in African scholars. Miriam Siun, research master student in this field, noticed this from the moment she started the programme. She decided to take matters into her own hands and hold a seminar reflecting on this issue.

The factors that dynamically sculpt the inter-regional correlation of brain patterns are poorly understood. Here, we test the hypothesis that they are shaped by the catecholaminergic neuromodulators norepinephrine and dopamine.

The studies described in this thesis deal with glycosidases, in particular alpha-galactosidases.

This project investigates the well-preserved agricultural terraces of the Inn valley and the evolution of resource use in the inner Alps.

Course, Terra Incognita Masterclass

Dr. Brackney is a modern European intellectual and cultural historian with a Ph.D. from Yale University. Before coming to Leiden, she held postdoctoral teaching posts in the History & Literature program at Harvard University and the Pozen Center for Human Rights at the University of Chicago.

This summer school focuses on the emergence of sexual orientation, gender identity (SOGI) and intersex issues in different areas of international law, such as human rights law, refugee law, international economic law, and international criminal law. Further information for this summer course will be…

Eduard Fosch-Villaronga, Associate Professor at eLaw, contributed to 'Cyber–Physical–Human Systems', a book exploring the latest developments in interactions between cyber–physical systems and humans.

Imagining Urban Complexity introduces passionate and critical perspectives on the link between the humanities and urban studies.

Promotor: G.R. de Snoo, W. Kustiawan, Co-promotor: H.H. de Iongh

Between the humanities Dean Mark Rutgers and his busy schedule we can find board secretary Jonique van Hooff. Her task is to make sure that the Dean gets to smoothly do his job. 'I get very happy when, after trying to figure things out with busy schedules, I manage to properly arrange things.'

At the Faculty of Archaeology, three new professors are appointed with effect from February 1, 2018. They are Ann Brysbaert, Marie Soressi, and Joanita Vroom. How do they react to their appointments, and what will be their foci in the following years?

Marcel Belderbos (31) studied History and International Relations and for a year he has been working at the Faculty of Humanities as a research policy officer. He is fascinated by the cooperation between various actors within the faculty. And: ‘I truly believe that the world will become a better place…

When you think of humanities, you may not immediately think of a new super server. Yet one has just been commissioned. University lecturer Jelena Prokic from Leiden University Centre for Digital Humanities explains more about this development.

For her research, PhD candidate Liselore Tissen put one famous painting after another through a 3D scanner. The resulting reproductions were indistinguishable from the originals. But what does this mean for our interpretation of art?

On Thursday 20 May 2021, Tania Li delivered the annual Van Vollenhoven Lecture.

Mouse models are commonly used to assess the immunogenicity of therapeutic proteins and to investigate the immunological processes leading to antidrug antibodies. The aim of this work was to develop a transgenic (TG) Balb/c mouse model for evaluating the immunogenicity of recombinant human insulin (insulin)…

Architect Elisa Meijer is the face of the Humanities Campus. She knows all the buildings, from the Reuvensplaats to the Matthias de Vrieshof, like the back of her hand. In her role as Housing Adviser she has now spent more than three years dealing with everything necessary for the development of a new…

Collecting as much information as possible about administering a new medicine to people can save a lot of money.

Vocal learning is a trait shared by songbirds and humans. It is also a trait that is restricted by the brain rather than by a species' vocal apparatus. In this dissertation, functional MRI is employed in both species in order to explore potential common neural mechanisms underlying the ability to develop…

The Hofstad group is known mainly because of Mohammed B., the murderer of Theo van Gogh. PhD candidate Bart Schuurman examined this Dutch jihadist group based on interviews and confidential police files. How and why did the group come about? What drove some of the group members to commit terrorist…

Leiden archaeologist Professor Wil Roebroeks receives the 2021 Gutenberg Research Award of Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU).

You can ask virtual assistant Siri about the weather, but you can’t have a real conversation with it yet. You can’t refer to anything that’s been said before, or ask the system why it says what it says. Stephan Raaijmakers, Professor by Special Appointment from TNO, hopes to change this.

Amino acids are the building blocks for life on earth. They may originate in space and reach the Earth via comets and meteorites. Daniël Paardekooper examined part of this hypothesis. PhD defence on 5 July.

Pui Chi Lai (35) has a lot on her plate, being a study adviser and coordinator of studies for two bachelor's programmes and two master's programmes. Alongside her job, however, she does not sit still and follows a PhD trajectory at the University of Macau.

Associate Professor Asghar Seyed Gohrab considers it his role to tell students about Iran, the country where he was born and raised. His research focuses on the connections between the present and the past on the basis of the ‘magical triangle’: Persian literature, politics and religion.

Museum Boerhaave amplifies its collection with original letters and pictures from Einstein and Lorentz. Professor by special appointment Dirk van Delft, also director of Boerhaave, accepted the documents on 12 March.

Art historian Elizabeth den Hartog has been studying medieval sculpture at Leiden University for 32 years. Like a detective, she searches buildings, books and archives in the hunt for the cultural meaning of unique sculptures.

PhD defence

‘My name is Karin van der Zeeuw, I’m 56 and I’ve been working in the Faculty of Humanities for 39 years now, in various positions. Alongside a full-time job as the Head of Educational Support and Educational Logistics, I also care for my mother-in-law, who’s 87, and my 76-year-old sister, who lives…

Sarah Michiel is the Institute Manager of NIMAR and has been living in Morocco since 2012. Due to the coronavirus, she has been working in Belgium since 20 March, where she grew up. The NIMAR office in Rabat is currently empty and all visits and conferences have been cancelled. Sarah is trying to run…

Prior to arriving to Leiden, Dr. Abazon completed her Ph.D. at Yale University's Department of Comparative Literature, where she also taught courses ranging from Introduction to Zionism to World Cinema.

As a young boy, Gabriel Inzaurralde, lecturer and researcher in Latin American studies, wanted nothing more than to become a writer. He still writes and passes on lessons from Latin American literature and culture to his students. 'My lectures are a constant attempt to reopen closed minds.'

Peter Burger is a university lecturer at the master in Journalism and New Media and co-founder of Nieuwscheckers. He now teaches the course Factchecken at Leiden University. He also supervises theses and internships and conducts research into the trustworthiness of news and messages on social media.

Career preparation, whether or not present in the curriculum, is becoming increasingly prominent in many educational institutes. Atse Fokkens (39) notices this in his work as a career adviser and internship coordinator. He welcomes the fact that more attention is being paid to preparing students for…

Subproject of

In this article, Lydie Cabane, Assistant Professor at the Institute of Security and Global Affairs, discusses the emergence and diffusion of ‘global health’ as a concept. In addition to bringing a fresh perspective on the origins of global health, the paper contributes to the globalization debates by…