Recently, the Dutch Health and Youth Care Inspectorate sounded the alarm about the state of the Dutch youth care. What is going wrong and what needs to be done? In a special broadcast from youth care institution Via Jeugd, Op1 talks to adolescents, staff, State Secretary Maarten van Ooijen, and Professor…

De Nederlandse regering is van plan om een ‘clausule’ in te dienen bij de Europese Commissie om een opt-out te krijgen op het gebied van het asielrecht. Op die manier zou Nederland niet langer gebonden zijn aan het EU recht en daardoor een strenger asielbeleid kunnen voeren.

On 1 February 2017 there was a hearing in the committee on European affairs of the second chamber of the Dutch Parliament on the issue of

Contacts between English and Dutch speakers had a profound impact on the literary landscape and book culture of England and the Low Countries. This conference crosses conventional chronological, linguistic, geographical and disciplinary boundaries to explore the cultural history of relations between…

Recent fieldwork at the vast desert region in north-eastern Jordan has revealed an immensely rich heritage of an area that is difficult to access and archaeologically less known. Professor Peter Akkermans was interviewed about his groundbreaking research in this area, known as the Black Desert.

The Jordan Times has interviewed Peter Akkermans about the damage done to the Early Islamic archaeological site of Khirbet Al Umari, Jordan.

Pieter Omtzigt, leader of the ‘Nieuw Sociaal Contract’ (‘New Social Contract’) party, has withdrawn from talks to form a new Dutch government. Government finances are a divisive issue, and Ronald Plasterk’s decision to withhold documents on government finances seems to have particularly broken trust.…

On 22 April the 5th edition of the book Introduction to Dutch Law (edited by Jeroen Chorus, Ewoud Hondius and Wim Voermans) was presented to dr. Geert Corstens, former president of the Dutch Supreme Court.

As a result of the refugee crisis and the terrorist attacks in Paris and Brussels, the Royal Netherlands Marechaussee (RNM) is stepping up immigration controls in the Dutch borderlands. These measures are part of the so-called Mobile Security Monitor (in Dutch: Mobiel Toezicht Veiligheid), “Schengen…

China is actively attempting to silence critical voices about the country, including in the Netherlands. This is the main conclusion of a report on Chinese interference and intimidation within the Dutch media landscape. The media are often not well prepared for this.

As a result of the refugee crisis and the terrorist attacks in Paris and Brussels, the Royal Netherlands Marechaussee (RNM) is stepping up immigration controls in the Dutch borderlands. These measures are part of the so-called Mobile Security Monitor (in Dutch: Mobiel Toezicht Veiligheid), “Schengen…

Lecture, LUCL Colloquium series

After the Second World War almost three million people emigrated from the Netherlands to countries such as Canada and Australia. The government information was anything but objective, Professor by Special Appointment of Dutch Studies/Dutch Literature Ton van Kalmthout concludes in his inaugural lect…

The latest scientific articles by the Rectores Magnifici of Dutch universities will soon be freely available online. They aim to set a good example to researchers in the Netherlands. Carel Stolker from Leiden University is one such Rector.

The Leiden Research Profile Area Political Legitimacy organizes a public symposium on the 12th of May 2016 on the legitimacy and future of the Dutch Senate.

Prof. dr. Frank den Hollander, professor at the Mathematical Intitute, has expressed his concerns about the departure abroad of Dutch academic talents in an interview with the Dutch newspaper Volkskrant.

Around the sixth and seventh centuries, South and Southeast Asia saw a great religious change: Saivism largely took over from Vaisnavism. We’re going to look at the way in which Saivism, the religion of the god Siva, presented itself with respect to Vaisnavism. In particular we’ll investigate the role…

Hegemony and World Order explores a key question for our tumultuous times of multiple global crises.

A linguistic prehistory of the Tarim Basin in Northwest China

The bachelor’s in South and Southeast Asian Studies is a unique multidisciplinary programme that integrates the culture, religion, history, sociology, economics and politics of the region. As a student, you can choose to study Hindi, Sanskrit, Tibetan or Indonesian.

The one-year, English-taught master's programme in English Literature and Culture focuses on the interaction between literature and key political and social issues such as identity, migration, memory and the metropolis, but also between literature and the literary tradition, and literature and film.

The public disclosure of documents under the Dutch Open Government Act (Woo) is often delayed, especially when the information is considered socially or politically sensitive. Dr Annemarie Drahmann, Associate Professor of Constitutional and Administrative law, explains the case on platform for investigative…

On 13 October, Assistant Professors Public Administration Toon Kerkhoff and Gerrit Dijkstra discussed whether leaking secret government conversations is a punishable offence.

The Yearbook for Dutch Book History publishes Open Access articles in the Dutch and English language on all aspects of the book history of the Low Countries. For the 32nd edition of 2025, they particularly welcome contributions within the theme of “Books across borders.”

A series of sessions on the literary heritage of Anglo-Dutch relations (c. 1050-c. 1600) will be held at the Society for Renaissance Studies (29 June - 1 July 2021).

Bert Koenders, Professor Peace, Justice and Security at the Institute of Security and Global Affairs (ISGA) appeared live on the ‘BNR de Wereld’ special broadcast ‘De Grote Vredesshow’ (The Great Peace Show). The radio show was hosted live from Wijnhaven in collaboration with the Faculty Governance…

Financial support that wealthy countries provide to poorer countries in order to help them combat climate change and the associated emissions was the central topic of this year's UN Climate Change Conference in Baku. Annemarie Drahmann, Associate Professor of Constitutional and Administrative Law, discussed…

Special visit of seven ambassadors of the Arabic-speaking world to the University Library

Jan Melissen discusses the political side of the repatriation operation for Dutch citizens stranded abroad in Dutch newspaper 'de Volkskrant'.

The success of Dutch radio astronomy in the last century was largely due to Leiden astronomer Jan Hendrik Oort. He made astute use of circumstances in the post-war period. Historian Astrid Elbers' research focuses on this golden period.

He did an English-taught degree, completed a master’s abroad and now teaches on an English-taught programme at Leiden University College The Hague. Jan Meijer is the definition of an international researcher and he’s proud of it.

On the 24th of October, Nurenzia Yannuar successfully defended her doctoral thesis and graduated. The Leiden University Centre for Linguistics congratulates Nurenzia on this achievement.

As a critical commemoration of its centenary, this book presents a mosaic of one hundred carefully curated fragments by expert authors, shedding light on politics, economy, society, culture, gender, and arts in a hundred years of Turkey.

Gold Matters: Sustainability Transformations in Artisanal and Small-scale Gold Mining: A Multi-Actor and Trans-Regional Perspective.This project explores whether a transformative approach towards sustainability can arise in Artisanal and Smallscale Gold Mining (ASGM).

This is an Erasmus+ International Credit Mobility project of Leiden Law School with the Holy Spirit University of Kaslik.

Aesthetic formations and cultural repertoires give meaning to our reality in ways that are never neutral. Focusing on the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) and its global interlocutors, this project brings together a team of scholars from Leiden University who bring in inter-disciplinary, inter-area…

Age of Rogues is a study of the frontier cultures of revolution that shaped the making of the modern Middle East. Rebels, revolutionaries, and racketeers played central roles in the violent process of imperial disintegration as it unfolded in the frontiers of the Ottoman, Habsburg, Romanov, and Qajar…

Designed for high-achieving students, Leiden University's master's in Middle Eastern Studies (Research) offers you unmatched resources and expertise.

Now and then we organise book launches to present the latest publications, both academic and popular, in our broad field.

The Global Politics of Confucianism, a monograph contracted with Columbia University Press, analyzes the interaction between Confucianism and globalism in past and present, using history to critically engage Confucianism’s place in contemporary international relations and policy debates.

The master's in Assyriology, a specialisation of the Classics and Ancient Civilizations programme, at Leiden University provides you with a multidisciplinary study of the languages, literatures and cultures of ancient Mesopotamia and Anatolia.

On 29 February there appeared a column by Maaike Warnaar in the Volkskrant on the Iranian elections.

Cell biologist Erik Danen has been awarderd a grant of half a million euros to study how tumor cells spread throughout the body en develop drug resistance. This was announced mid-August by the Dutch Cancer Society Fund (KWF).

The Yearbook for Dutch Book History publishes Dutch and English articles on the book history of the Low Countries, in all time periods (including the Middle Ages). For the 30th Yearbook, to be published in 2023, they welcome in particular contributions for the theme ‘Technology and Transformation’.…

The Russian military assault on Ukraine has profoundly shocked knowledge institutions in the Netherlands, as represented by Universities of the Netherlands, the Netherlands Association of Universities of Applied Sciences, the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Dutch Research Council,…

The Dutch universities, university medical centres and Research Council have reached an agreement with Elsevier Publishing on a national open science partnership. The partnership includes open access publishing and reading services for Elsevier journals and open science services for disseminating and…

Back after pandemic interruptions, the Dutch Network Science Society Symposium took place on May 19th, 2022. The event brought together researchers from around The Netherlands studying complex networks and representing various disciplines, including mathematics, physics, neuroscience, computer science,…