Dark matter is one of the biggest mysteries of the Universe. Its properties cannot be explained with the known laws of physics and elementary particles.

Announcement of a new publication by Janneke Verheijen, lecturer at the Institute of Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology.

During a closing exhibition, participants of the Master Honours Class 'Leiden: City of Refugees?' present their invitation to an imaginary group of 'others'. By combining science with art, students learn to look at society in a different manner.

We are pleased to invite abstracts for a conference on ‘Advancing Social, Economic, and Cultural Rights in a Polarised, Digitalised, and Unequal World’ to be held at Leiden University on 4 and 5 September 2025, in collaboration with Netherlands Network for Human Rights Researh (NNHRR).

The Israel-Palestine conflict regularly sparked intense debates in university lecturer Noa Schonmann's classes. She decided to start a podcast with journalist Rajaa Natour to teach her students to have deep and difficult conversations in a nuanced way.

The human trafficking of Eritrean refugees is a booming business, where money is made with smuggling people, but also using violence, hostage situations and even torture. Modern communication methods like money transfer via mobile phones play a vital role in this, conclude professor Mirjam van Reisen…

When we think of the history of Dutch slavery, the areas that spring to mind are primarily the Antilles and Suriname. However, until the end of the eighteenth century there were also Dutch plantation colonies in neighbouring Guyana. Bram Hoonhout’s book ‘Borderless Empire’ describes this forgotten h…

The Rijksmuseum van Oudheden (RMO) was due to open its doors to the small photography exhibit Frank Scholten: Archaeology and Tourism in the ‘Holy Land’ in April. Since the organisers, Leiden University and the RMO, have had to temporarily close, researchers Karène Sanchez and Sary Zananiri would like…

Sarah de Rijcke and Paul Wouters (CWTS) are partners in a new European consortium funded by the Swedisch Riksbankens Jubileumsfond: Knowledge in science and policy.

The world around us is changing. What does that mean for the future of Europe, on this turbulent world stage? And what does it mean for our teaching, and for the expectations that Leiden University has of its students? These were the key questions during the opening of the 2018-2019 academic year on…

‘In recent publications about the slave trade the same rhetorical weapons are used as two centuries ago in the battle for the abolition of the British slave trade. It is a topic fraught with emotions, but that should not prevent historians from being as careful and impartial as possible in their research,’…

Fear and hatred of Muslims are rising rapidly to the surface in the United Kingdom, Assistant Professor Tahir Abbas writes in his new book. British politicians and journalists play an insidious role in this, he says.

How should we deal with the post-corona phase? In a video (in Dutch) for the Association of Public Administration, Erwin Muller, Professor of Safety, Security and Law at Leiden University and former vice-chair of the Dutch Safety Board, reflects on the recovery phase and the corona crisis.

The British people have voted in favour of Brexit: the United Kingdom will leave the European Union. How will this vote be transformed into a legal and political reality?

How can the United Kingdom find coalitions for a Brexit? Alexandre Afonso, Assistant Professor at the Institute for Public Administration, analysed how the Members of Parliament voted up to now and presents a graph with possible coalitions on several withdrawal agreements. The article is published in…

Unilever is considering staying in the Netherlands after all. This follows from draft legislation by the GroenLinks party introducing an exit premium that large companies leaving the Netherlands would have to pay to compensate lost tax income. Dutch radio programme BNR and newspaper the Volkskrant asked…

Marije Groos was a PhD researcher at the LUCAS. She completed her thesis on socio-political engagement in Dutch literary periodicals of the fifties. Her promoters are Yra van Dijk, professor of Modern Dutch Literature, and Ton Anbeek, emeritus professor of Modern Dutch Literature.

Lecture, Ancient History Research Seminar

Sixteen master’s students from a variety of disciplines are helping The Hague Police to find new clues in a cold case.

With the departure of Tesse Stek to the Royal Dutch Institute in Rome for three years, Andrzej Antczak will take over the role of Departmental Head for World Archaeology in September 2018. We spoke with him to learn more about his background, ideas, and plans for the future.

‘Countering violent extremism – the international deradicalization agenda’ is the name of the book Tahir Abbas published last month. In this interview the associate professor in Terrorism and Political Violence at ISGA tells about the backgrounds and goals of the book.

Leiden University announced on 19 March 2020 that there would be no more face-to-face teaching for the rest of this academic year. That was a big decision with big consequences, but students in Leiden are staying positive and trying to make the best of it. Read on to be inspired by how Leiden students…

An international team of researchers led by Alice Booth (Leiden University, the Netherlands) have discovered methanol in the warm part of a planet-forming disk. The methanol cannot have been produced there and must have originated in the cold gas clouds from which the star and the disk formed. Thus,…

The theme of the project is the way education has adapted to the Covid- 19 circumstances

Is the possibility of computers making decisions for us in the future realistic? Holger Hoos, professor of Machine Learning, gives his opinion about the future of artificial intelligence in the television show ‘The future is fantastic’ on NPO3.

Security and safety challenges are at the top of the list of the most pressing issues of contemporary society.

Leiden University College The Hague again receives the 'Top rated Programme' seal from the Keuzegids Universiteiten 2019 (Dutch University Guide).

Last week Russia and Ukraine met for the first time since the outbreak of the war. The talks took place in Belarus.