Omar Achfay recently joined the Institute for History as PhD candidate. Below, he introduces himself.

For each university unit, the ICT Shared Service Centre (ISSC) has an appointed ICT contact person responsible for applying for ICT facilities for research, teaching and operational management.

On November 16 a festschrift in honor of Dr Olivier Nieuwenhuyse was presented in a moving event at the Faculty of Archaeology. Professor Bleda Düring, a personal friend of Nieuwenhuyse, was one of the initiators. ‘If he had been here, he would have loved this book.’

The secular West is struggling with the rise of AI, but so too is Muslim Southeast Asia. What can we learn from each other?

Jasper Knoester is the dean of the Faculty of Science. How is he doing? What kinds of things is he doing and what does his day look like? In each newsletter Jasper gives a peek into his life as dean.

What is the effect of a certain regime on a country’s migration policy? Political scientist Katharina Natter compared the migration policy of autocratic Morocco with that of democratising Tunisia. Her findings challenge some of the core assumptions.

With the addition of over 16,500 new catalogue records, the collection of Johannes Tiberius Bodel Nijenhuis (1797-1872) is now almost entirely searchable online. The private collection of the Leiden map collector laid the foundation for the special collection of maps and atlases of Leiden University.…

Over 160 years ago, the Hague-based photography pioneer and traveler Alexine Tinne (1835-1869) captured current South Sudan and its inhabitants on film. These photographs represent some of the earliest images taken in the heart of the African continent.

On 8 and 9 June, the second edition of EU Cyber Direct’s Closing the Gap conference took place at the Egmont Palace in Brussels, Belgium. This year’s edition was organized by François Delerue and Dennis Broeders as part of their participation in the EU Cyber Direct project, of which the Institute of…

A ‘world class institute’ with a ‘vibrant atmosphere’, doing research on a continent that is ‘becoming increasingly important’. That is how Annetje Ottow, president of Leiden University’s Executive Board, described the African Studies Centre Leiden (ASCL) on its 75th anniversary celebration on 8 September…

Researchers found a way to run programmes that should be impossible to carry out on an imperfect quantum computer. Such programmes are very computationally demanding and the quantum computers that currently exist are not yet up to that task. Unless you use a clever trick, Simon Marshall and Vedran Dunjko…

Organisation

BPS MSc student Guus Ruiter: This year I followed this new course called Design, Analysis, and Practical Use of Biologicals at the LUMC given by Rawi Ramautar and developed for both BPS MSc and Pharmacy students. During this course, there were many different speakers, in particular from biotech companies…

Professor Peter Bisschop has been awarded an ERC Advanced Grant. He will invest the 2.5 million euros in his research into puranas: ancient texts, commonly written in Sanskrit, that are up to fifteen hundred years old.

This fall, LUCIS will have the pleasure of welcoming Professor Hugh Kennedy from SOAS University of London to Leiden. He is the fourth Abdulaziz Saud Al-Babtain Cultural Foundation Visiting Professor in Arabic Culture at Leiden University.

Conference, Final conference

Luning and Hein receiving a LUF grant to research the intricate relationship between infrastructure projects and their impact on geopolitics, economics, politics, and culture in Africa

Leiden Child Law Department at Leiden University in the Netherlands formally entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the African Child Policy Forum (ACPF)

Webinar

How can you ensure that your research hits the headlines? How can you bring your research output, such as PhD research or a publication, to the attention of the public?

The United States used threats to influence the nuclear programs of Iran, Libya and South Africa. How effective was this diplomatic coercion?

Costanza Franceschini discusses the Sea-ing Africa project, offering unique anthropological research opportunities in Ghana and Morocco for Masters students.

On 10 March 2023, the Amsterdam Centre for Tax Law (ACTL) of the University of Amsterdam (UvA) organised the Conference ‘Towards eXplainable Artificial Intelligence (XAI) in Taxation: The Future of Good Tax Governanceon’.

Organisation, Research, Social

Trail, FGGA's own internship platform, will be one year old in November. High time to get to know the organisations and companies that are making use of Trail. What do these organisations stand for? What are the tasks of an intern? And what do FGGA students have to offer?

The Voices of Africa platform is ten years old and has just recently won the annual popularisation prize of the Netherlands Graduate School of Linguistics (LOT). High time for a chat with Jenneke van der Wal, Maarten Mous and Nina van der Vlugt about the importance of the platform and plans for the…

Ancois de Villiers, PhD candidate at the Institute of Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology, received the PeerJ Award for Best Student Presentation at the International Mediterranean Ecosystems Conference.

How can academics build global networks and why is this important? Join this webinar on 22 May at 12 noon CET to hear perspectives and experiences related to these questions from Una Europa, an alliance of 11 leading European research universities. Registration is not required - simply join the…

Professor Ian Lilley, the Faculty of Archaeology’s Willem Willems Chair in Archaeological Heritage, was invited by Her Excellency Mrs. Marion Derckx, Ambassador of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Australia, to present the 2022 commemoration speech for Netherlands Memorial Day on May 4th at the Netherlands-Australia…

On behalf of its students and staff, the Executive Board of Leiden University would like to express our condolences to all those affected by last Friday’s earthquake in Morocco. We would also like to offer support to all students and staff who have family or friends in the area. In the meantime, several…

Join this lecture from professor Daniel Aldrich at the Spanish Steps in Wijnhaven on Wednesday 3 November. Dr. Sanneke Kuipers, associate professor in Crisis Governance, will be the moderator of the lecture and she and professor Aldrich give us a preview of the event.

Amphorae are usually associated with the ancient Phoenicians, Greeks and Romans. ‘​​​​​​​Yet, in some cases, such as Byzantium, amphorae existed for centuries after Antiquity. Another, even later instance of the amphora's afterlife can be found in the Iberian Peninsula, from where the latest specimens…

Attention to the colonial past may be increasing, but many aspects of it are still underexposed. Dutch newspaper De Volkskrant, in collaboration with, among others, Leiden researchers Anne-Marieke van der Wal-Rémy and Alicia Schrikker, therefore created a 'canon of the Dutch underexposed past', which…

Over the last 5-6 years Burkina Faso has become seriously implicated in the rapid and dramatic changes in the geopolitical situation in the Sahel. The country, once reputed for its stability and safety, has come under the spotlight for the number of violent attacks and of internally displaced people.…

On 1 September 2023, 280 students received their Bachelor Diploma of International Studies. The students were awarded their diplomas in the historic Pieterskerk in Leiden: the UNESCO world heritage site, where the university was originally founded in 1575. A large audience of about 700 people consisting…

In the confrontational ‘House of Misconceptions’, visitors put themselves in another person’s shoes and have to justify their existence. The performance is the result of a unique collaboration between the Liquid Society art collective and Professor of Law and Society Maartje van der Woude and her st…

Using enslaved people as servants, becoming an administrator in the Dutch West India Company or making uniforms for the colonial army. Many people from Leiden played a role in colonialism and slavery. Historians are conducting preliminary research and finding striking examples.

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…

For long, the government showed little empathy for military veterans with physical or psychological scars. This is what PhD research by Theo van den Doel has revealed. The Ministry of Defence looked at each case through a legal lens. Veteran support has improved enormously since, but the policy does…

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

An evening program in the University Library and Middle Eastern Library in Leiden for everyone who has something to do with the Middle East; from Tajikistan to the Mahreb and from Istanbul to Sanaa. View the oldest books and clay tablets from the collection and listen to the most fascinating stories…

Ten Leiden researchers have been awarded a Veni grant by the Dutch Research Council (NWO). The grant, of up to 280,000 euros, will enable them to elaborate their ideas over a period of three years.

Educational innovation provides both opportunities and challenges for lecturers. How do you put your innovative ideas into practice or how do you choose the right learning resources for your teaching? From now on, lecturers can go for support and inspiration to the new Leiden Learning & Innovation Centre…

An all-optical transistor, a molecule-sized sensor and a new kind of single-photon source for quantum communication. All dreamed applications of fundamental physics that are one step closer thanks to Robert Smit. On 12 June, he defended his PhD thesis with distinction.

It is with great sadness that we have learned of the passing of our former colleague dr. Karin Willemse, who passed away on Saturday 18 March 2023.

LUNHA strives to redefine global health by prioritizing justice, fairness, and inclusion in Africa. Through collaboration with diverse stakeholders, LUNHA aims to reshape global health research and foster a broader engagement with social sciences and humanities.

Lecture, Studium Generale

Is it ethical to freely redistribute photographs taken in colonial contexts, historically and today? Christoph Rippe, PhD-candidate Cultural Anthropology, suggests that people might not have been always fully aware of what happened to their photographs after they were taken. 'But nowadays, with the…