2024 was an eventful year for the Faculty of Humanities. Despite becoming the centre of political discussion and budget cuts as faculty ourselves, exceptional research projects were carried out and new initiatives were launched.

The pews of the Walloon Church were filled on Friday 23 May, as more than 120 former students of the French Language and Culture programme gathered to attend mini-lectures, a short theatre performance, and a discussion about the state of the discipline.

With great shock, we have learned of the sudden passing of Midas Berkenveld. Midas was a second-year Biology student; in 2022, he had already successfully completed his bachelor's degree in Linguistics.

Some thirty Leiden students balanced on SUP boards for the Supping for Sustainability Lustrum activity. Together with alumnus Merijn Tinga, better known as the Plastic Soup Surfer, they paddled their boards through the Leiden canals and waterways, fishing plastic waste out of the water.

At the end of May, the Leiden English Language and Culture Programme, formerly known as the Department of English Language and Literature, celebrated its 75th anniversary (starting from the appointment of the first professor of English Studies). Over 220 alumni, staff present and past, and students…

Leiden researchers Max van Duijn (Leiden Institute of Advanced Computer Science) and Vasilika Kosta (Leiden Law School, Europa Institute) will join The Young Academy (Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences) KNAW)).

An NWO Veni application by Linda Geven, Assistant Professor at the Institute of Criminal Law and Criminology, has been honoured. She will spend the next three years conducting research into false confessions in police interrogations.

Organisation

If you had something important to write down in ancient times, you would usually write in Greek in the eastern Mediterranean. University lecturer Joanne Stolk has been awarded an ERC grant to explore the kinds of spelling mistakes that were made in these scripts. And, more importantly, what improvements…

Dr. Salwa El-Awa delivers a talk on Wednesday, November 2nd, on "Ambiguity in the Qur'an".

Two Leiden University science communication projects have been awarded a WECOM grant through the Dutch Research Agenda (NWA). One project is a study of the history of the deaf community in the Netherlands and the other is of a condition that causes people to lose their way.

Claartje Levelt was appointed Scientific Director of LUCL on 1 September. We want to create new opportunities, especially now.’

Protests against textbooks on trans persons in America and against a reading hour by drag queens in Rotterdam: it has been raining protests recently against people with a gender expression that does not match their birth sex. Why does this evoke such resistance? We asked Professor by special appointment…

Data Science & AI student Nataliia Bagan combines a passion for mathematics, language, and artificial intelligence. Her exceptional bachelor’s thesis on improving reasoning in large language models earned her a nomination for the Leiden Science Young Talent Award 2025.

Student initiative COOP is committed to a respectful and safe academic environment. Here is a report of the activities over the past few months.

The underwater world around present-day Indonesia has changed greatly in recent centuries as a result of human activity. University lecturer Johannes Müller has been awarded an NWO XS grant to map the history of the Indonesian ecosystems.

Your student days are the best time of your life, full of parties and friendships for life. Right? Well, not always. Especially at the beginning of your studies, chances are you will feel alone from time to time, but even after that, it is normal to have to get used to this big change and feel lonely…

By looking at what is different, researchers often discover the special, the unusual. And that has already brought a wealth of highlights – also in Leiden.

Lecture, Sociolinguistics & Discourse Studies Series

2024 was a remarkable and eventful year for the Faculty of Governance and Global Affairs. In this year overview, we look back month by month at the key events and developments.

Lecture, Leiden University Nationalism Network

Arts and culture

Debate

Conference, BOCA Workshop

Today, 13 May 2024, Leiden University’s Executive Board is publishing the advice of the committee that investigated reports of unacceptable behaviour and breaches of academic integrity. These reports were about a professor from the university and their partner (a former member of the university staf…

Weekly Workshop

The digital age offers unprecedented opportunities: information is always accessible, systems are interconnected, and processes are automated. However, these developments also give rise to new threats. During the Night of Digital Security on 26 May at the Wijnhaven building, more than experts shared…

The theme of the opening of this year’s academic year was peace and justice. With the climate crisis and the war in Ukraine, these are turbulent times. During the ceremony those present reflected on what the academic community and universities can mean in times of crisis and conflict.

Now that war is once again raging in Europe, the question of when you need to stand up against injustice has become more relevant than ever. In his Cleveringa lecture on 24 November historian Gert Oostindie will discuss why colonial domination was not regarded as an issue in Leiden for a long time.

Four PhD candidates from Leiden University started the two-year Europaeum Scholars Programme this month. They have now completed the first week of the programme. How was it and what do they expect from this programme?

Intelligence and National Security is the new specialisation in MSc Crisis and Security Management (CSM). It will start next September 2021. Do you want to know more about this track?

Staff from Leiden University are starting the Dutch universities’ staggered strike against the government cuts on 10 March. Follow the strike in this liveblog.

Caribbean literature holds a unique position in the world. Literature produced in the Caribbean region is extremely diverse, not only because of the wide variety of languages spoken, but also due to distinct colonial legacies that exist in the archipelago. Despite cultural specificities, the region…

Lecture, Comparative Indo-European Linguistics (CIEL) Seminars

Lecture, Language and the Human Past

Most people talk about truck drivers rather than to them. That’s an error of judgement, says PhD candidate Anke van der Hoeven, who explains why we should be making their lives easier. ‘People just don’t realise it, but they’re an invisible group that keeps the European economy running.’

Debate

Lecture, Economic and Social History Brown Bag Seminar

Symposium

Leiden criminologists have co-developed an artificial intelligence technology that tracks firearms incidents by scanning over 350 news sources.

Arts and culture

High-quality education, research involving multiple faculties, collaboration between universities and central government funding to make all this possible: these were the topics covered in a working visit of the Standing Committee for Education, Culture and Science (OCW) to the Association of Universities…

Lecture, CHiLL series

Lecture, CHiLL series

Lecture, CHiLL series

Lecture, LIMS seminar

Conference