From a successful April Fool’s prank and alumni love stories to a fabulous float on 3 Octobe: these were the highlights of our year on our social media channels. Hope you’re following us?

This special issue of the peer-reviewed journal Amsterdamer Beiträge zur älteren Germanistik (Brill, 2021) brings together articles that explore new digital ways of analyzing and annotating Old English vocabulary.

Jelle van Buuren, university lecturer at ISGA, discusses the role that social media played in the storming of the Capitol last Wednesday

On the 9th of April, Manolis Fragkiadakis successfully defended a doctoral thesis. The Leiden University Centre for Linguistics congratulates Manolis on this achievement!

Press coverage for the Nature Physics-paper about topological materials by Anne Meeussen, Erdal Oğuz, Yair Shokef and Martin van Hecke

The Faculty of Archaeology, Leiden University is a partner in the new university-wide Data Science research programme that advocates the use of data science in various fields of research.

Most people know what law is. But what it should be or where it comes from is what interests the researchers from the Institute for the Interdisciplinary Study of the Law. Key to their approach are topics that go right to the heart of philosophy of law. What is a state? What are the limitations of…

It’s been a turbulent, bizarre and extraordinary year, 2020. Coronavirus turned the lives of everyone at our University upside down. Out teaching, research and all the events that are held in a year: nothing was the same as before. That this affected all of us is clear from the highlights and many reactions…

Can a robot perform a religious ritual just like a monk? And what exactly is a religious ritual? Robots and religion seem to be two different subjects, but according to university lecturer Elpine de Boer, both can make us think about what it means to be human and what we consider to be of value. Together…

The commercial media in China are more likely to promote the stability of the regime than to undermine it. Political scientist Daniela Stockmann analyses in her new book, Media Commercialization and Authoritarian Rule in China why this is the case. ‘Many journalists do not want a disrupted society.’

UnMiSSeD studies the interaction between misinformation and science in societal debates using a mixed qualitative-quantitative approach.

On Friday 10 December 2021, the Center for Law and Digital Technologies (eLaw) of the Leiden Law School, hosted its annual Research Colloquium exploring the theme 'Law Gone Digital'. The event gathered presentations by eLaw PhD candidates and professors on a wide range of topics at the interface of…

The trial of Dutch rapper Ali B is receiving massive media attention. Party due to himself, the trial can be followed by the public. How will this affect the upcoming verdict? Dutch newspaper ‘De Volkskrant’ spoke to legal scholars and experts including Jan de Keijser.

The production of sustainable energy can take up to 1000 times more space than fossil fuels, environmental researcher Paul Behrens concludes in a publication in Energy Policy. Various media reported on this remarkable outcome.

Africa has a population of 1.5 billion people. By 2050, this number is projected to rise to 2.5 billion. The continent’s impact on the global economy, societies but also on the environment, will therefore increase drastically.

On Safer Internet Day (Tuesday 6 February), UNICEF Netherlands organised a symposium on the theme of 'Children's rights in the digital world' in collaboration with Leiden University and Kennisnet. Simone van der Hof and Ton Liefaard contributed to the symposium.

Symposium and Workshops

The brains of adolescents react more strongly to receiving rewards. This can lead to risky behaviour, but research in Leiden has shown that it also has a positive purpose: it makes learning easier. The publication of an article on the research findings led to a lot of media attention.

Stay tuned for updates on relevant media appearances of Jeroen ten Voorde.

With over 200 participants, the first day of the Multidisciplinary International Symposium on Disinformation in Open Online Media (MISDOOM) was a great success. With researchers and practitioners from communication science, media studies, computer science, data science, and journalists and online media…

The issue of how to deal with a development such as digitalisation in the public domain raises difficult questions for the municipality: who is responsible and when do you intervene?

Stay tuned for updates on relevant media appearances of Henk van Steenbergen.

The explanation from physicist Scott Waitukaitis for the screaming and bouncing gel balls in a hot pan has been covered in several media, including the Washington Post.

Electoral promises are not always realized in the coalition agreement, and that is often at the expense of households. On an average they pay 4 billion euros more than planned. That is what the PhD research of Wimar Bolhuis shows. Several media reacted on his PhD research.

Neanderthals were the first people to make glue, but how did they do that? Leiden archaeologists discovered how, and their findings did not go unnoticed.

Africa is online. Leiden Africa expert Mirjam de Bruijn is fascinated by the fast development of mobile telephony and social media in Africa. She maintains a website on the topic, focusing on isolated, marginalised and conflict-ridden areas in Middle Africa.

Humanities, Centre for the Arts in Society

Simona Demková, Assistant professor at the Europa Institute of Leiden University, publishes her book ‘Automated Decision-Making and Effective Remedies: The New Dynamics in the Protection of EU Fundamental Rights in the Area of Freedom, Security and Justice’.

Stay tuned for updates on relevant media appearances of Ellen de Bruijn.

Stay tuned for updates on relevant media appearances of Anna van Duijvenvoorde.

On 15 May the new website about the research programme Digital Society has been launched.

On 27 February, 2019, Kampala International University (KIU) was the venue of the conference ‘Digital Health and Development in Data Science in Uganda’. Professor Mirjam van Reisen from the Leiden Centre of Data Science was one of the main speakers.

The master's programme in Heritage and Museum Studies at Leiden University focuses on the relationships between past and present, the role of heritage in our society, and how our heritage can contribute to improving the quality of life and the environment.

Governments worldwide invest huge sums in their digital services and data strategies. Efficiency and effectiveness are key. But these are not achieved for some people at least, says Professor of Public Policy Sarah Giest. This makes the intended digital inclusion far from inclusive, as she will explain…