On 13 June the first Leiden Disability Studies Lunch was organized upon the initiative of the ERC Rethinking Disability team, based in the Institute for History. Its aim was to allow students and staff members from across various institutes of the Faculty of Humanites and also from other faculties to…

Physicists from Leiden University wrote the script and ensured that every experiment in the performance was scientifically accurate. The kickoff of the major educational project of the Amsterdam Light Festival was a huge success — and there’s much more to come.

With the What's Next? series we hope to inspire current Media Technology MSc students, show the variety of paths taken after the studies, and bring together alumni. Editions of the series are generally organized around a particular theme by Media Technology MSc students themselves, and followed by social…

Dear friends of the institute,

Een 24-jarige man uit Leuven werd vorige week veroordeeld voor verkrachting, maar kreeg geen straf. Hoogleraar straf- en strafprocesrecht Jeroen ten Voorde gaf tegenover NOS een verklaring voor de onrust naar aanleiding van de uitspraak van de rechter.

Dr Tanja Masson-Zwaan, assistant professor at the International Institute of Air and Space Law, recently visited four universities and a research institute in China. During her visit to Wuhan University, Masson-Zwaan was appointed as an adjunct professor. She was handed a certificate by Professor Xiao…

‘Over leven in Aarlanderveen’ , the film that Master's student Marleen Oostenrijk made for her graduation project of Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology, will be screened 22-28 February at the local television station Studio Alphen. The film portrays the liveability of the village Aarlanderveen…

Are you interested in meeting Bede Sheppard, Human Rights Watch’s Deputy Director of the Children’s Rights Department? Bede will be at LUC on Thursday the 26th of May for the #WatchOurSchools event in the auditorium, and we are giving our students the chance to meet with him before. In order to win…

The first biennial symposium Environmental History in the Medieval and Early Modern Low Countries is scheduled for October 25 and 26, 2024. This event aims to facilitate the exchange of recent research, ongoing projects, and key discussions within the realm of environmental history among scholars from…

On 14 December 2022, students of the course Social and Ecological Activism in the Visual Arts (as part of the Creative Strategies for a Society in Change minor) presented and performed their final collective project at BAK, basis voor actuele kunst, Utrecht: the Water Cultures Institute group role-playing…

At the Institute’s Council meeting of last December the Institute’s biannual prize for teaching was awarded. The award is named after Carla Musterd, a former, highly valued, member of staff, who was famous for her unflinching dedication to teaching standards and excellence.

On 15 May 2024, master’s students and staff from the International Institute of Air and Space Law (IIASL) visited Amsterdam Airport Schiphol, the Netherlands' main international airport and the world’s third busiest airport for international passenger traffic.

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This summer seven students from the Faculty of Archaeology crossed the North Sea to assist in the British Museum excavations at East Farm, Barnham, Suffolk, UK – a Middle Pleistocene site. Together with five students from the UK they went through many stages of fieldwork, from scooping the English weather…

In SustainaBul, 16 higher education institutions are ranked on sustainability each year. Leiden University has managed to keep its fifth place. A good position, but with room for improvement.

Nico Verloop, Professor Emeritus of Educational Studies at Leiden University, passed away on 5 June 2025. Nico was the founder and first professor-director (from 1995-2010) of ICLON (Leiden University Graduate School of Teaching) at Leiden University.

Leiden University won three prizes at the International Criminal Court (ICC) Moot Court Competition – English edition. The final round was held on 27 June 2022 in Courtroom I of the ICC in The Hague (the Netherlands). Due to current COVID-19 related restrictions, it was a hybrid hearing with judges…

A mediation meeting was held today between the University Council and the Executive Board about the appointment procedure for the Vice-Rector of Organisational Development, Erwin Muller. We have managed to resolve the dispute.

The Institute for History is pleased to announce the launch of a new research program: Cosmopolis Advanced, an initiative of the Institute for History at Leiden University (LU) in partnership with Universitas Gadjah Mada (UGM) in Yogyakarta.

On the 6th of July, wood specialists, members of the canoe club Natsec, a professional boat builder, volunteers of the Vlaardingen Broekpolder and students and staff of the Faculty of Archaeology of the Leiden University gathered on the waterfront in Vlaardingen. Two reconstructions of prehistoric canoes…

On Tuesday 11 January 2022, the new year at the faculty was ushered in with an online event. Dean Joanne van der Leun toasted the new year and of course the annual Meijers prizes and thesis awarded were presented.

On Friday 8 November 2019, Ron Keller, former ambassador of the Netherlands to China, Turkey, Ukraine and Russia gave a guest lecture at the Institute of Security and Global Affairs.

Rector Carel Stolker officially presented the University's Programme for Cooperation with China to stakeholders from the Chinese Embassy, the Dutch government, the private sector, and societal organizations during a China dinner at Leiden University on 11 October.

The ECPR summer school on Interest Group Politics is celebrating its 10th anniversary. To celebrate this especial edition, this year’s summer school includes many renowned researchers and professors from around the world. In addition, as a part of the celebration, we are organizing an exceptional one-day…

After seven years, the Faculty of Science said goodbye to Geert de Snoo as dean During on 29 August. This happened with a pub quiz, a special edition of Our Talents & Discoveries and no less than two decorations. Take a look at the pictures for an impression!

The Executive Board of Leiden University has asked the University Council to advise on its proposed decision to reactivate the person counters/sensors in due course. The Council will now look at this carefully before the Board makes a final decision. The advice of the University’s participation body…

In the 2015 QS World University rankings the area of Politics and International Studies at Leiden University, which includes Public Administration, has climbed to the 23rd place worldwide. Politics and International Studies at Leiden University holds the first position in The Netherlands and a top 10…

Last Monday, the 5th of October, prof. Tony Bovaird (University of Birmingham)visited the Institute of Public Administration. As part of the course ‘Co-Production and Citizen Engagement’ (part of the Mastertrack ‘Public Management), a mini-conference was organized.

On Thursday 5 April, Leiden University had the honour to receive Professor Jurian Langer within the framework of the European Union Seminar Series, jointly organized by the master’s programme in International Relations, the Institute for History and the Europa Institute at the Leiden Law School.

In Green Bank, Virginia are some giant radio telescopes which astronomers use to study objects deep in space. Because these telescopes are built to capture very faint redio signals, the area around the observatory is officially a 'radio-quiet' zone, without WiFi, radio or Cell signal. Photographers…

The Grotius Centre for International Legal Studies is delighted to announce that Dr Farouk El-Hosseny will join the teaching staff as Visiting Assistant Professor of International Law.

Welcome to Leiden University! We are delighted that you are interested in taking your PhD at our University.

On 18 October 2017, Leiden Law School was honored to welcome a group of experts upon invitation of Prof. M.R. Bruning, professor of Child Law and head of the Child Law Department of Leiden University, to discuss current and future research projects in the field of international child abduction law and…

Modern optimization algorithms offer solutions for architectural decisions like spatial, structural and energy efficiency. A young computer scientist from Leiden University co-authored a paper that won the Best Paper Award at a leading conference in Krakow during the summer.

During the last couple of months, Leiden University has conducted many constructive discussions with the University Council and many other experts and groups from the academic community. Based on their input, the Executive board has decided to create a preliminary policy regarding our ties to Israeli…

Three students of Leiden University’s “MSc. ICT in Business” programme, Erwin Marges, Stefan Zhelyazkov and Georgios Valouras, have been awarded with the prize of Galileo Master of the South-Holland region, for their business plan idea “SnowMate Alpine Assistant”.

On 16 February, Leiden University participated in the Dutch National Rounds of the 2024 Philip C. Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition, the world's largest moot court competition featuring participants from approximately 700 law schools across the world.

As of July 1, Professor of Bio-organic Synthesis Hermen Overkleeft will be appointed as the Scientific Director of the Leiden Institute of Chemistry (LIC). He will succeed Jaap Brouwer, who has been managing the institute for the past twelve years. Overkleeft has been appointed for a period of four…

Global challenges require global governance answers. For that reason, between 5 and 7 June, the interdisciplinary research programme Global Transformations and Governance Challenges (GTGC) has selected 'Emerging trends in global governance' as the theme of its annual conference. Researchers, students…

The Perfect Spectator. The experience of the art work and reception aesthetics. By Janneke Wesseling

Self-directed learning is more suitable for intermediate and advanced language learners than for beginners.

Until September 2016, Hannah Plug was Research Assistant for the Consolidating Empire Research Project under the direction of Dr. Bleda Düring. Now, she has just begun her new appointment at Liverpool University, UK. Here she tells all about it.

It has become tradition: the opening of the faculty year in the Hortus Botanicus. This year, too, staff and students of the Faculty of Humanities gathered in the botanical garden on the first Wednesday of September to raise a glass to the new academic year.

A small group of Students for Palestine demonstrators occupied the Academy Building on Rapenburg in the afternoon of Wednesday 26 November. The Cleveringa Lecture by political scientist Hélène Landemore had to be moved to Leiden Law School’s Kamerlingh Onnes Building.

Want to sponsor scientific research by raising funds? You can now do just that via Leiden University's campaign platform acties.steunleiden.nl. A broad range of projects have already started, including for research on genetic diseases.

Lisanne Rens has been awarded the 2017 H. D. Landahl Mathematical Biophysics Award. Rens is a PhD student at the CWI (Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica) in Amsterdam and also affiliated with the Leiden University Mathematical Institute.

The Russian military assault on Ukraine has profoundly shocked knowledge institutions in the Netherlands, as represented by Universities of the Netherlands, the Netherlands Association of Universities of Applied Sciences, the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Dutch Research Council,…

Over the past year, the lectorate ‘Music, Education & Society’ has worked on a publication with contributions from students and staff from the KC called 'The promise of music'.

Leiden Law School has awarded two students from the Van Vollenhoven Institute’s Master in Law and Society prizes for best thesis.

The Faculty of Humanities is proud to launch its new D&I Calendar for the academic year 2025-2026. This calendar is an effort to build awareness and cultural understanding of important religious holidays and other special observances of the diverse groups within our academic community.