LEGITIMULT examines how Covid-19 measures by governments impact multilevel governance and democratic governance in 31 European countries

Human-driven environmental damage is increasingly recognised as a global crisis. Should large-scale destruction of ecosystems be considered a crime? The concept of ecocide has gained renewed attention, particularly following a proposed definition for inclusion in international criminal law, raising…

Music and language both communicate through sound, including timing and pitch. While language mainly conveys semantic meaning, instrumental music does not, and is typically seen as expressing emotion. This project investigates how well listeners recognize intended expressive feelings in music, instructed…

To answer questions that look beyond individual entities, network science studies the interactions taking place in complex systems. These complex systems can often have temporal information on when an interaction occurs.

In this thesis, we investigate how deep generative models (AI models that can create new designs) can be better utilized for technical and industrial design. Our goal is to generate designs that are not only realistic (plausible), but also efficient, reliable, and usable in complex 2D and 3D applica…

The Netherlands has a long history of mosquito-borne diseases, particularly malaria, until 1970 when it was declared malaria-free.

Drug development is hampered by the limited predictive value of conventional 2D culture systems, which fail to recapitulate the complexity of the disease microenvironment and contribute to high clinical attrition rates.

Modern scientific discovery increasingly depends on High-Performance Computing (HPC) systems that combine traditional processors with specialized accelerators such as GPUs.

Arts and leisure, Arts and leisure

Through a comparative analysis of participation in outdoor recreation in Europe, this project seeks to investigate how social inequalities are embodied.

Do understudied animals contain hidden species?

How does environmental heterogeneity shape biodiversity across spatial and temporal scales?

High Performance Computing (HPC) is becoming ever more important as a research tool in many research areas across all research domains. A University facility, providing serious computational capabilities, combined with easy and flexible local access, is a strong advantage for these research areas. It…

Nick Cohen interviews Andrew Gawthorpe about the current geopolitical situation, particularly focusing on America's disastrous war with Iran and its broader implications.

Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) Spectroscopy is a non-destructive analytical technique that is used to study the nature and characteristics of molecules with an atomic level precision. It has a wide range of applications especially in synthetic chemistry, biological and biochemical research groups…

This PhD project investigates the impacts of recognition of sign languages on communication and instruction for deaf learners in primary schools in Uganda.

The proposed project evaluates how the vulnerability of migrant men and women was constructed in political, public and media discourses, and how differences in the constructed vulnerability influenced the decision to migrate, the migration process, and the subsequent settlement process.

This thesis analyses the existence and the functioning of the urban labour market in the early Roman empire by looking at the crucial influence of social structures, such as the family and non-familial labour collectives.

The volume is one-stop shopping for crisis studies and a number of closely related fields, providing a window onto the latest thinking in the field. The articles reflect cutting edge, state of the art scholarship and pose key questions for research and practical development.

Source: Bioorg Med Chem, Volume 23, Issue 14, pp. 4034-49 (2015)

How do religious narratives persuade their readers to believe their message? And how can it be that some readers even come to treat fantasy and science fiction as authoritative religious texts? These are the core questions treated in Markus Davidsen’s new book Narrative and Belief: The Religious Affordance…

Didactics

Research how ‘custom’, ‘traditions’ and ‘heritages’ take on new meanings in the uplands of South and (mainland) Southeast Asia.

A linguistic prehistory of the Tarim Basin in Northwest China

A mixed qualitative/quantitative approach to medieval disability aids using both literary and artistic sources.

PhD defence

Research Network Institute for History 2026-2029

For almost a millennium, it was rewritten time and again: the Old Javanese literary prose work Uttarakāṇḍa. The tradition soon split into two major branches: a Javanese and a Balinese one. However, until now, scholarly editions have focused solely on the Balinese version. Unjustly so, argues PhD candidate…

On 11 June 2026, Alexander Schniedermann successfully defended his PhD thesis at Leiden University, titled 'Standardization in Science. Effects and Issues of Guidelines for Biomedical Reporting'.

On Architecture Day, residents of The Hague had the chance to take a look inside Spui Campus.

Julia Röhrig, a graduate from Universiteit Leiden’s Political Science master’s programme, has won the 2026 Daniel Heinsius Prize of the Flemish and Dutch Political Science associations. Her thesis about the impact of populism on state compliance with European Court of Human Rights rulings, according…

This project explores how people think and talk about space and time: two essential dimensions of human life. Combining field-based language documentation and cognitive research across communities in Ethiopia’s Omo Valley, it investigates how environments, subsistence economies, and cultural and linguistic…

The Faculty of Archaeology is pleased to announce that alumni Dr Diederik J. H. Halbertsma (NINO, Leiden University) and Dr Michel de Vreeze (Durham University) have been awarded a grant from the Shelby White and Leon Levy Program for Archaeological Publications.

Speeches and speech acts have been crucial in settling the question at the centre of every political debate: who gets what, when and where?

Social anxiety disorder is one of the most common disorders in children and young people. Social anxiety is characterized by excessive fear and avoidance of social situations. The primary fear in children with social anxiety is that they will be negatively judged by others. To date, the most frequently…

De VN-Mensenrechtenraad komt vanaf begin deze week gedurende vier weken in Genève bijeen. Volgens emeritus hoogleraar internationaal recht, Nico Schrijver, blijft het orgaan onmisbaar voor de wereldwijde bescherming van mensenrechten, ondanks financiële problemen bij de Verenigde Naties en toenemende…

PhD defence

PhD defence

A new study published in Nature provides the most detailed picture to date of Neandertal diversity in western Europe shortly before their extinction.

Lecture

Curious about what goes on at the Leiden Bio Science Park? During Dutch Bio Science Week (27 June - 5 July), organisations across the park will open their doors. For nine days, Leiden will be dedicated to life sciences and health, with activities for all.

The Leiden Inclusion Blog is a forum to share experiences and discuss current issues related to diversity and inclusion at Leiden University. Members of Leiden University are welcome to share news, activities, and stories with the wider University community. Everyone can to contribute a blog, or suggest…

Development of effective VR training for International Law of Armed Conflict (ILAC)

Amidst great interest from locals and visitors, Emperor Naruhito and King Willem-Alexander paid a visit to Leiden University on 18 June. In the Hortus botanicus they talked with students and researchers. ‘This visit emphasises our shared ambition.’

By documenting lexical and morpho-syntactic patterns among P’urhepecha speakers in Mexico and the US diaspora, this project will investigate the sources of language variation. The ensuing online dialect atlas will serve as an online resource for speakers, learners and researchers of the language.

In 2015 the division ‘Migration and Crime’ of the Dutch Society for Criminology has been established to bring together academic researchers that are active in this diverse field with each other and relevant persons and organisations. On March 10 it will organise its first seminar on labour exploitation,…

Assessing the feasibility and legitimacy of the current model of global tax governance and the role of the OECD and EU in international tax law-making.