Healthy University Leiden was founded by working with a taskforce, a focus group and seminars.

This thesis investigates the connection between tonal realization and tone change (tone sandhi) in Wenzhou Chinese, and whether and how such a connection is conditioned by prosodic structure and focus marking.

This project employs a systematic experimental approach to examine the interaction of these two hitherto independent lines of research (tone sandhi and focus realization) in six dialects of Chinese, which lie on a continuum between dialects with dense tonal distributions and sparser distributions. In…

This project aims at investigating the syntactic role of focus in ellipsis across languages.

This thesis aims at contributing to our understanding of the semantic and prosodic properties of object foci in Greek, employing theoretical and experimental tools.

In recent decades, climate change has led to more frequent and severe drought events, causing serious consequences such as increased forest mortality and significant crop yield losses. Understanding how drought affects plants, especially economically important herbaceous species, is crucial for predicting…

The earth has more than 7 billion inhabitants, all of whom leave behind traces of pollution. However, not all forms of pollution have the same harmful effect. Leiden scientists help determine where we should put our priorities.

Research in the Natural Computing and Optimization cluster covers theoretical foundations, the development of new algorithms, and interdisciplinary applications of natural computing methods.

People who are often stressed can feel calmer by making certain adjustments to their breathing. Possibly this also positively affects concentration and attention. Psychologist Roderik Gerritsen studied the effects of breathing differently for the first time, and explains them. Gerritsen receives his…

Mechanical forces are known to play an important role in bacterial colonies. In this dissertation, we study the self-organization at various stages of growing bacterial colonies, and focus on the mechanical effects of cell growth.

Ancient Greek is well-known for displaying relatively free word order. This dissertation examines word order variation in the Koine Greek of the New Testament Greek in a variety of domains: declarative clauses, questions and relative clauses. In particular, I examine the way in which word order corresponds…

Lecture, LUCL Colloquium - Series '24/'25

Drug induced organ toxicity is the main problem of the drug development and drug usage in the clinic. The liver and kidneys are the most sensitive organs towards drug induced toxicity.

Following China and Italy, it appears that the United States is becoming the next epicentre of the coronacrisis. Can the US handle this crisis? Is president Trump dealing with the situation correctly? We asked Leiden America expert Sara Polak.

Lecture, Com(parative) Syn(tax) Series

Speech Prosody 2024 includes several poster sessions, the description of which you can find below.

We would all like to live in a world in which individuals feel safe, conflicts are resolved peacefully and the interests of future generations are taken into consideration. At Leiden University legal scholars investigate to what extent public international law meets the needs of a globalised society.…

Why do climate models still prioritise economic indicators over human impact? In a podcast of Land & Climate, environmental scientist Inge Schrijver highlights a critical blind spot in how climate change is assessed.

A flood of news reports, push notifications and even extra news broadcasts: on Wednesday, the world was shocked by the storming of the Capitol in Washington. Americanist Sara Polak discusses the events.

Young Academy Leiden (YAL) will change its board this month and welcome six new members. Outgoing chair Rachel Plak and incoming chair Ahmed Mahfouz talk about what the platform has achieved for young academics over the past year and what the plans are for the future.

The more opportunities a child has to learn and develop, the stronger his or her future position in society. Leiden University investigates how the brain picks up information, and how learning processes can be influenced positively.

LUC's Liberal Arts and Sciences programme offers you the opportunity to specialise in one of six Majors while keeping the Global Challenges at the centre of your studies.

On 3 November 2022, Mariëlle Bruning, Professor of Children and the Law, spoke as an expert on child protection at a roundtable discussion with Dutch Lower House members of the Standing Committee on Justice and Security.

We study how communication can heal and harm when patients are confronted with an illness. Most of our studies focus on serious illnesses such as advanced cancer. Communication lies at the heart of medicine, yet we do not always know which specific communication helps patients. Moreover, many complaints…

Stopping people at the border does not result in less refugee migration, but providing relief in the region where migrants come from does. What else would be wise for the next government to do in terms of immigration?

What would happen if families with little money were to receive an extra amount every month with no conditions attached? Would it help with their worst financial problems? In order to find out, the municipality of Amsterdam will conduct an experiment with 300 families over the next two years. During…

Social, Economic and Organisational Psychology focuses on the application of scientific psychological knowledge of social processes within and between groups of people and individuals, in organisations, but also during economic and consumer decisions.

Panel discussion

The Leiden University Institute for History is responsible for the main part of the historical research carried out at Leiden University. The institute has a wide-ranging academic scope.

Hoe kan het dat universele mensenrechten wereldwijd niet hetzelfde in de praktijk worden gebracht?

Unemployed people often need not only a financial safety net but also a stimulus to look for work. PhD candidate Heike Vethaak researched the effects of incentives used by benefit agencies, such as compelling people to widen their job search.

The COVID-19 pandemic and associated measures during the first lockdown in the Netherlands in March 2020 caused major changes in daily life. Parents worked from home and children followed school online. Therefore, the families were forced to spend more time together. This is particularly difficult for…

Electronic versions of our publications can be obtained by sending an e-mail to Esther van den Bos: bosejvanden@fsw.leidenuniv.nl

On Friday the 5th of November, members of the CADS Institute engaged in a lively roundtable lunch discussion on navigating boundaries in ethnographic fieldwork. The roundtable was intended to share experiences and open up questions about navigating proximity and distance when engaging in research relationships.…

Shyness is perfectly normal, Michiel Westenberg stated in his farewell lecture. But that doesn’t mean that social anxiety shouldn’t be identified and addressed in good time. ‘Serious shyness has strong genetic roots; you don’t just get over it.’

The Institute of Criminal Law and Criminology conducts extensive research on imprisonment. Sending a person to prison is the most severe form of punishment that can be applied in the criminal justice systems of European countries. In most countries, the number of prisoners has risen in recent decades.…

A Dutch-language video shows children their new life during the corona crisis and gives them some guidelines to help them feel less worried. The short animated video was made by two German researchers with whom child psychologists Anke Klein and Annelieke Hagen are working. ‘With our translation, this…

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

Wouter Veenendaal, a political scientist at Leiden University, is an analyst for the Freedom House report. Freedom House is an American non-profit organisation dedicated to democracy, political freedom and human rights. In short, the report describes the degree of freedom and the state of democracy…

From street harassment to coercive control: gender-based violence has many faces. University Lecturer Mischa Dekker has studied street harassment in the Netherlands and France, and supports institutions and organisations in embedding structural change.

Political scientists study topics that affect society, but their work often remains out of the spotlight. Not always: the research of Leiden political scientist Simon Otjes does have a visible impact.

Political scientists study topics that affect society, but their work often remains out of the spotlight. Not always: the research of Leiden political scientist Simon Otjes does have a visible impact.

Peter Slort is the highly driven portfolio holder for Diversity with the Dutch National Police. Since November 2016 he has been spreading the importance of diversity throughout the police organisation.

YAL raises its voice on policy matters.

Many dangerous diseases such as COVID-19, Ebola and Q fever have jumped from animals to humans. But it is not only because of these diseases that we should include animals in our health policy, but also because of their right to health, writes PhD candidate Joachim Nieuwland. PhD defence on 13 May.