The circular economy is typically seen as the progressive alternative to our wasteful linear economy, where raw materials are used to make the products that feed today’s rampant consumerist hunger, which are then thrown away. In a fascinating article, archaeologist Maikel Kuijpers reflects on the recycling…

My work is motivated by the necessity to extend Standard Model of Particle Physics in order to explain three observed phenomena that this great theory fails to accommodate

The Violence and Violence Prevention research group at Leiden University focuses on understanding and preventing violence in modern societies. The group offers two key educational programmes: the Minor Violence Studies and the Governance of Violence specialisation within the Master’s in Crisis and Security…

Scientific research at the molecular level on a collection of medieval skeletons from Norton Priory in Cheshire, United Kingdom, could help rewrite history after revealing they were affected by an unusual ancient form of the bone disorder, Paget’s disease. Osteoarchaeologist Carla Burrell, attached…

In 2011, the Udhruh Archaeological Project was launched, bringing together teams of Jordanian and Dutch archaeologists to investigate the region and reconstruct ancient water harvesting techniques in the extremely arid landscape of Udhruh. Access to fresh water remains one of the most pressing global…

This minor focuses on how our thoughts, emotions and behaviour are influenced by other people, and how we influence other people.

Henk Versnel's work on ancient religion has been seminal. For his 80th birthday, a group of scholars assembled to celebrate and analyze his oeuvre.

Health inequities, obesity among children, loneliness, performance stress among youngsters. What are the drivers behind such ‘wicked problems’ and how might they be related? This interdisciplinary minor offers you the possibility to work with societal partners to gain a deeper understanding of real-life…

About 15 km to the south of the ancient city of Petra, archaeologists from the University of Leiden have discovered an impressive network of ancient water conservation measures and irrigated field systems.

In ancient times, the desert in the Udhruh region in Jordan was transformed into a green oasis. An intricate network of underground water channels was part of an ancient system of water management, storing water and preventing loss through evaporation. Archaeologist Mark Driessen found a new way to…

We are interested in understanding the mechanics of soft materials, of which biological materials are prominent examples.

We are cosmologists, in other words we use physics to study the Universe, how it started and evolved into the structure that we observe around us.

The War, Peace and Justice group unites scholars and practitioners to explore war dynamics, peace promotion, and justice’s role in conflict and global affairs.

New sampling and analytical strategies give archaeologists a better understanding of the nutrition and survival of ancient populations. Publication in PLOS One.

The Leiden Political Economy Group (L-PEG) is a multi-disciplinary network of scholars with a research interest in (comparative / global) political economy based at Leiden University. Our members belong to various institutes and faculties across Leiden University, and from other universities across…

This PhD project studies immigrant groups in ancient Babylonia and aims at investigating their identities, socioeconomic status, and integration into an ancient multicultural society.

Dr Bleda Düring deemed it was time for an archaeological approach on the imperialisation of Assyria. ‘While there are lot of archaeological studies of Assyrian sites, they are not really trying to address this broader picture of imperialism and how this imperialisation actually worked.’ These imperialisation…

In the world of Ancient Greece the interpretation of supernatural signs was a versatile tool to facilitate decision-making. This is the central hypothesis of the PhD dissertation of historian Kim Beerden. Defence on 14 February.

Truth is stranger than fiction. In 1997 Juan Maldaceña discovered a remarkable dictionary that translates equation for equation the physics of black holes in string theory into the more conventional physics of quantum mechanics of interacting particles. The remarkable possibility exists that…

Promotores: P. Stevenhagen, E. Fouvry (Univeriste Paris Saclay)

Promotor: Prof.dr. P. Stevenhagen & Prof.dr. K. Belabas (Univ. de Bordeaux)

Enforcement of group cooperation fails because of discriminatory punishment, according to research by Welmer Molenmaker and colleagues. When group members have different backgrounds, punishment turns into a double-edged sword: no longer used just to prevent group exploitation, but also to break the…

Pyrotechnology – the manipulation and control of fire – is one of the defining characteristics of humanity, and has impacted nearly every technology that we used in the past and study archaeologically in the present. Our PhD researcher Femke Reidsma joined EXARC's podcast for May’s #FinallyFriday to…

Systematic aerial surveys carried out in Jordan’s Eastern Badia region since 1998 and about 10 years of simplified satellite image analysis have led to the discovery of multiple prehistoric sites, according to archaeologist Peter Akkermans. The Jordan Times interviewed him about the new insights.

The thesis focuses on synthesis strategies in oligosaccharide campaigns, and the influence of protecting groups.

The Educational Sciences programme group of the Institute of Education and Child Studies at Leiden University provides courses in the field of student education and the learning and development of children in the school context.

Course, Intervision

A unique archeological find near Tombos in Northern Sudan. Archaeologist Sarah Schrader from Leiden University, working with a team of international researchers, has discovered a grave of a ritually buried horse that is over 3000 years old. Both the grave and the skeleton are in perfect condition. The…

The focus of our theoretical research is understanding the behaviour of soft condensed matter, physical matter which is deformed or structurally altered by thermal fluctuations or small stresses.

The programme group Research Methods and Statistics offers support to researchers from a variety of research projects within Education and Child Studies.

To what extent can Nietzsche's Amor Fati be seen as a Stoic concept?

The main focus of this research project is to investigate why people in Eastern Arabia chose to reuse ancient tombs and how this can be linked to collective memory.

An international team of astronomers, including Leiden PhD student Elia Pizzati, has observed several ancient quasars that, surprisingly, appear to be floating alone in the early universe (less than a billion years after the Big Bang). Until now, astronomers, based on models, assumed that quasars are…

The development of space resource activities is happening now. In the absence of a clear framework to govern these activities, there is a need to examine the concepts that are being discussed in order to ensure that they meet existing treaty obligations regarding on-orbit operations and space resource…

The main purpose of DNAmarkerpoint is to better understand the ecology, evolution and biodiversity through the study of ancient- and modern DNA.

We explore the particle physics and quantum world at the time of the big bang.

Interest groups play an important role in democratic society.

The program group Forensic Family and Youth Care Studies is located in the Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences of Leiden University near Central Station.

The group Theoretical Physics of Life Processes, led by Helmut Schiessel, focuses on the physics of chromatin, the DNA-protein complex that fills the nuclei of eukaryotic cells.

The program group Learning and Behavior Problems in Education is located in the Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences of Leiden University near Central Station.

This book offers novel perspectives on the national and international dimensions of the post-war welfare state in Western Europe and North America.

For hundreds of years, children in Ancient Egypt learned to read using The Satire of the Trades, a text in which a father gives advice to his son through descriptions of different professions. PhD candidate Judith Jurjens investigated how this worked in practice.

The Persian Empire (539-330 BCE) was the first world empire in history. At its height, it united a territory stretching from present-day India to Libya - and it would take 2,000 years before significantly larger empires emerged in early modern Eurasia. This territorial sweep is both a source of fascination…

The programme group Parenting, Child Care and Development is located in the Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences at Leiden University near Central Station.

Promotor: Prof.dr. W.T.F. den Hollander, Prof. dr. E.A. Verbitskiy

This historical study argues that the Mandaean religion originated under Sasanid rule in the fifth century, not earlier as has been widely accepted. It analyzes primary sources in Syriac, Mandaic, and Arabic to clarify the early history of Mandaeism.