Participating in discussions as a student, at an administrative level? Jonatan Wirix-Speetjens has done so for the past two years as assessor of the Faculty of Humanities. Ebrar Kaya will take over the position of assessor starting this September. In this interview we look back and ahead at the asse…

Bram Geurds (20) is fascinated by politics. When he was 12, a political debate on TV caught his attention. And he decided he wanted to be mayor one day. Unsurprisingly, Bram is studying political science and is politically active. It might seem like he’s on course to become a professional politician.…

This year, the Netherlands and China reflect on fifty years of diplomatic relations at ambassadorial level. How has the relationship between the countries developed over the past half century? An interview with university lecturer Vincent Chang.

On Monday, 4 July 2022, the graduation of the two-year Advanced MSc International Relations and Diplomacy (MIRD) programme was commemorated in the iconic Academy Building in Leiden. Students and guests were welcomed by the Program Director, Professor Madeleine Hosli.

Palestinian national Abu Zubaydah was captured by the CIA in March 2002 and has remained in detention ever since, without any form of trial. Leiden professor Helen Duffy is doing all she can to secure his release or a fair trial. Her hopes now lie on international pressure and the UN Working Group on…

The Academy of Creative and Performing Arts (ACPA) recently appointed a new academic director. Erik Viskil is taking over from Henk Borgdorff, who held the post for the past four years. What has been achieved in those years? And what does ACPA’s future look like? In this double interview we discuss…

A delegation from Leiden University visited the Netherlands Institute Morocco (NIMAR) in Rabat at the end of February.

For thirty years, the Dutch Newspaper AD conducted an annual search for the best herring. This came to an end when economist Ben Vollaard, based on a statistical analysis, claimed it was rigged. But that claim doesn't smell right, says Leiden statistician Richard Gill. ‘The way you code and process…

This Thursday, January 18th 2024, our esteemed colleague Jan Zaanen passed away. Jan was one of our star scientists, larger than life, with an unabashed, boisterous drive for the best of physics at the Institute Lorentz, at the Leiden Institute of Physics and in the full international scientific community.…

The slogan of the Faculty of Archaeology, ‘The Future of the Past starts at Leiden University’, might sound like empty marketing speak. But there is something to it. The past can teach us a lot about climate change and that could make us fear the worst for our future. Archaeologist Gerrit Dusseldorp…

Four PhD candidates from Leiden University started the two-year Europaeum Scholars Programme this month. They have now completed the first week of the programme. How was it and what do they expect from this programme?

More papers, more grants, more students: constant growth is still the gold standard at universities. Neuroscientists Anne Urai and Claire Kelly argue that this mentality obstructs us in resolving such complex societal problems as the climate crisis. Their alternative? The university as a doughnut.

From assistance in the event of natural disasters to peace-keeping missions. As a communication adviser, Leonoor van Poelgeest goes to all those destinations where the Royal Navy are active. Why did she choose this work and how has her Public Administration study helped her?

It was his thesis supervisor during his master's in Film and Photographic Studies who encouraged Shivan Shazad to pursue a second master's in diversity policy at Ghent. He is now Manager of Diversity and Inclusion at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam.

A number of young researchers recently took part in a knowledge mission to Indonesia, aiming to build a lasting relationship with the country. How did they find the trip, what did they do, and how are they creating new connections with scientists in Indonesia?

It’s an important theme at the University and beyond: student well-being. Even before coronavirus, research showed that loneliness and the pressure to succeed were causing particular problems for students, and these problems have only increased since the pandemic. Work is underway to improve the sit…

At least six people are off to a good start of the summer, because they are the recipients of a Meijers grant. For the next few years, these researchers will be able to devote themselves to their PhD research. Let’s meet these new PhD candidates!

Online, hybrid, on campus... It was an unpredictable year, also for the Faculty of Humanities. Luckily, there were also non-corona related stories. Let's review 2021 with this list of the most-read news articles per month.

The freedom to be who you are – woman, man, homosexual, heterosexual, transgender, religious, atheist, and so on – is perhaps the Netherlands’ greatest attribute. The principle of equality and the right not to be discriminated against are in the very first article of our constitution. Yet there is a…

There is a real chance of war closer to home, political and military leaders in Europe have warned. What does Frans Osinga, Professor of War Studies, think about the threat and what we should do?

‘Teaching is not merely a profession; it’s a calling.’ These were the words of Ayo Adedokun on winning the LUS Teaching Prize at the opening of the academic year on 6 September. The prize is for the best lecturer of the year.

Kool made a conscious choice to work for a non profit organisation. Recently, inspired by the pandemic, she also made a career switch.

Jaïr van Rhenen studied Medicine in Leiden and is now a GP in the largely religious Veenendaal. Before this, he worked as a tropical medicine doctor in Lesotho. ‘If you have the prospect of an afterlife, you often respond differently to illness.’

This February Metje Postma will stop teaching and retire. But she is not done with the discipline yet: she will finish her PhD and there are still five films on the shelf that she plans to complete.

Professor Bussemaker and Professor Koenders draw lessons from the handling of the current corona crisis. In a blended guest lecture with some 60 students in Wijnhaven and some 250 online participants, they entered into a discussion led by Willemijn Aerdts. The guest lecture took place on May 25.

During International Student Week, from 14 to 18 November, we would like to put our international students into the spotlight. Ricardo Alexandre de Jesus Vaz (21) from Portugal is in his first year at FGGA and a student in the Master International Relations and Diplomacy (MIRD).

The intake of bachelor’s students from classic immigration countries whose prior education was in the Netherlands does not reflect the growing diversity in society. This is according to data from Statistics Netherlands.

The COVID Radar app is citizen science at its best. More than 200,000 users in the Netherlands are answering questions about their health and behaviour to help predict the development of the pandemic. Niels Chavannes, Professor of General Practice at Leiden University Medical Center, explains how the…

Eleven lecturers from Leiden University have been awarded Comenius grants that will allow them to work with their teams on an innovation project within their own teaching. They have been awarded three grants of 100,000 euros within the Senior Fellows programme and four grants of 50,000 euros within…

The war between Russia and Ukraine, the conflict in Gaza or the global rise of the far-right: topics that stir up emotions but are also regularly discussed in classes at Political Science. Moreover, with a diverse group of students, there is a great diversity of life experiences, backgrounds and opinions.…

After two years of corona restrictions, it was ‘back to normal’ in 2022. Migration, elections, the history of slavery, Russia, and Ukraine were much-discussed topics. We compiled an overview of the most-read news items and other events of the past year.

The Netherlands-Flemish Institute in Cairo (NVIC) is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year. Thousands of students and researchers from eight partner universities in the Netherlands and Flanders have been able to gain valuable experience in Egypt through the institute. Good reason for a celebrat…

Countries that import plastic waste recycle an average of at least 63 percent of it. This is surprising, as we previously believed that the vast majority was incinerated or ended up as litter. This was discovered by PhD candidate Kai Li and his colleagues from the Institute of Environmental Sciences in…

AI ultrasounds: LUC alumna empowers women in rural Africa

During Cyberweek, from 17-24 October, the Faculty of Governance and Global Affairs (FGGA) highlighted its research and teaching on cybersecurity, digital developments, and their impact on society.

A variety of age checks are required, both in order to protect children and to ensure that they can participate online, a new study funded by the European Commission finds. The article on the study, co-authored by Simone van der Hof, Professor of Law and Digital Technologies at eLaw, was published in…

‘The climate crisis is the greatest threat we face,’ says Leiden University environmental scientist Paul Behrens. ‘And yet, there is hope. In the near future, I think we will wonder why we didn’t make these changes earlier.’

Exhibition

Lecture

Lecture, Histories Connected: Special Guest Lecture

Lecture, Seminar

Lecture, CMGI Brown Bag Seminar

Lecture

Conference

Lecture

Conference, Histories Connected: Faculty Roundtable

Lecture

Lecture

Lecture, MAIR Seminar