What developments preceded modern Standard Dutch? PhD candidate Iris Van de Voorde conducted research on ‘pluricentricity’, or the idea that language norms arise in different places and spread outwards from there. PhD defence on 19 April.

With a well-attended award ceremony at the entrance of the Johan Huizinga Building on Tuesday 20 December, we concluded the World Cup prediction competition of the Institute for History in which 57 colleagues of 17 different nationalities competed for glory.

From 1 October, two new Directors of Education will start at the Institute of Biology Leiden (IBL). Dennis Claessen as the new director for the master's programme of Biology and Marcel Schaaf as director for the Biology bachelor's programme. Claessen and Schaaf have been appointed for a period of four…

The war between Ukraine and Russia is playing out not just on the battlefield but also on the geopolitical playing field of gas. Conflicts at the start of this century about this energy source were, says PhD candidate Ilia Barboutev, a precursor to today’s war.

The Russian threat to Europe, pro-Palestine protests, the passing of psychologist Andrea Evers and speculations on extraterrestrial life. These were among our most popular articles of the year.

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A group of biology students are working on a solution to the world’s plastics problem by getting bacteria to make biodegradable plastic.

Suddenly there they were, the Russian soldiers near the border of Ukraine. Since then, reports of tensions between Russia on the one hand and the United States and Europe on the other have dominated the news. What is going on? An interview with Russia expert André Gerrits.

During the summer, a sizzling battle for the first place in the European Championship pool took place at the Institute for History. A total of 63 football fans and other competitive colleagues played along in June and July in the hope of winning a medal.

After the new government announced its plans to cut expenditure on academic education, the Faculty of Humanities launched the flash campaign ‘Stop the Catastrophic Cuts to Universities!’. Now academics across the university have been explaining why their discipline is needed.

Bart Schuurman sheds light on the alarming trend in both the frequence and geographical spread of these incidents with The Parliament Magazine.

President Zelensky of Ukraine has asked the UN International Court of Justice to issue an urgent order to stop Russian military activity in his country. According to Zelensky, Russia has twisted the concept of genocide to justify aggression.

Claartje Levelt is professor of First Language Acquisition. She researches how babies and toddlers learn their mother tongue. Besides her work, she enjoys being involved with music.

From the effects of hormone fluctuations in women via the interior structure of giant planets to the prehistory of the languages: six Leiden researchers have been awarded a Consolidator Grant by the European Research Council.

Everyone has been watching the attack on Ukraine, a war on the European continent, with a sense of foreboding. It will bring devastation, loss, suffering and worry and it raises questions. With these words, Rector Magnificus Hester Bijl opened the meeting on the war in Ukraine at Wijnhaven on Thursday…

Many of the language rules we use today were formulated in the 17th and 18th centuries. In a dual track at the universities of Leiden and Brussels, PhD candidate Eline Lismont investigated why some rules became successful while other rules were quickly forgotten.

Dutch politics is becoming increasingly polarised, and forming stable governments seems more difficult than ever. In the heat of the election race, a psychologist and a historian offer cool-headed advice.

The war in Ukraine is entering a new phase with the announcement of a partial Russian military mobilisation and the intention to annex four Ukrainian regions. Why is Putin making these decisions just now and what consequences will they have for the course of the war? We talk to professor and Russia…

Samen met andere studenten bracht Fien Lurvink hulpgoederen naar Oekraïne en nam vluchtelingen mee terug.

During her work for the European Union, Sophie Vériter witnessed how young people in countries like Ukraine and Moldova were exposed to Russian propaganda. After mapping out the EU’s disinformation policy, the PhD candidate now advocates for a revised approach.

The GDPR privacy legislation is no impediment to handing out sanctions to Russian oligarchs or reuniting children placed in care with their parents, says privacy experts Anna Berlee, Marlies van Eck, Simone van der Hof, Simone Huting, Friederike van der Jagt and Jeroen Terstegge.

Anneleen van der Meer discusses Russia's alleged use of chemical weapons in Ukraine in an article for The Conversation.

The thermostat in Leiden University’s buildings will be turned down by two degrees. The temperature will also be adjusted in rooms that are cooled. This is the University’s response to the government’s call to use less energy.

A number of our PhD candidates has done their defense in the first half year of 2021. Our institute is extremely proud of our young doctorates who have accomplished this task with their hard work. Congratulations on your achievement. We wish you a successful career and a bright live.

LACDR is proud on her young doctorates who have done their defense in 2024. Congratulations to all for their achievement and we wish everyone a successful career and a bright future.

Again we had an unusual year, but also this year graduations still continued. We are well aware of the fact that at the start of your PhD track you had never imagined a graduation ceremony in the current context. Nevertheless, our warmest congratulations to the graduates at LACDR in 2021:

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Many PhD candidates, as well as research master students at the Faculty of Humanities, are members of a research school related to their area of expertise. Research schools aim at the collaboration of researchers from different faculties in the same university (interfaculty schools) or in different…

PhD defence

A beautiful speech by vice-dean Bart de Smit, a mini-lecture on exoplanets and the presentation of three faculty awards. That's how we started the new year at the faculty. Together with colleagues and students, we raised our glasses to a new year full of great collaborations, science and education.

From a meaningless block of plastic to an advanced component that contributes to the energy transition. The technicians and scientists of our faculty think it out in detail and make it a reality. This special project shows that they need each other.