Thirty bright young schoolchildren from the Schilderswijk district of The Hague came to Leiden on Saturday. They attended a lecture by Judi Mesman, Professor of Diversity in Upbringing and Development. The aim: to boost their self-confidence.

Everyone agrees that university students need to learn academic skills. But what exactly are we talking about? The Leiden Teachers’ Academy organised a conference on 7 November on this topic.

Eighty years after 1945, Europe again faces war in its own region. How to turn this tide and have sustainable peace in Europe? To discuss this question, this dialogue looked at the experience of war in Ukraine; Russia's role in Europe; lessons of Europe’s history for future peace; the values underpinning…

Two statues of gorillas abducting women: they were what led PhD candidate Dick van Broekhuizen to write a new type of history of nineteenth-century sculpture. ‘If you view nineteenth-century art history from a less narrow perspective, the narrative changes completely.’ PhD ceremony on 21 June.

The 2023 Digital Humanities Pilot Project Symposium and Digital Winter School took place, 30 Jan – 2 Feb 2023.

The new Humanities Hub in the Huizinga Building was officially opened on Tuesday 3 December. In the different labs, researchers presented the options for using digital technologies in humanities research.

Is our universe built up out of warm or cold dark matter? The standard model assumes cold dark matter particles, but astronomer Sylvia Ploeckinger is now testing the possibility of a warm counterpart: sterile neutrino’s. For this project, she received an NWO Physics/F grant, a special grant for women…

Various Leiden researchers have been awarded a European grant to explore the commercial or societal potential of previous research.

How do surgeons avoid causing nerve damage or leaving cancerous cells behind? An interdisciplinary research group at the LUMC hopes to improve operations and make them less invasive with the aid imaging techniques. They are working with medical companies to make these techniques widely available.

Psychedelic drugs like magic mushrooms and LSD are embraced by some and seen as lethal by others. Cognitive psychologist Michiel van Elk delved into the world of psychedelic drugs and wrote a surprisingly sober book about them. ‘Without first-hand experience my story wouldn’t be complete.’

Speakers from all over the world offered their interesting views on the relationship between humans and animals during the LUCAS Graduate Conference, based around the central theme ‘Animals: Theory, Practice, and Representation’.

Electrical signals travel like a wave through our neural pathways. The mathematical models for these movements could not yet properly describe all the biological properties of the nerves. PhD student Willem Schouten-Straatman changed this by improving the existing models. ‘I hope that one day we will…

This afternoon workshop on 26 November (15.00-17.00) hosted by Radboud University aims to explore the role of charitable institutions in the social history of the late antique and early medieval Mediterranean. Programme: 15:00-15:30 Joost Snaterse (Radboud University) Welcome and introduction; 15:30-16:15…

On the 2nd of June 2021, students of the LL.M. European Law program and staff of the Europa Institute got together to ‘celebrate’ the end of teaching in the academic year 2020/2021.

We at LUGO have partnered up with HOP to bring some delicious vegan food through our cooking Livestream on Instagram on Wednesday, 25th August starting at 18:30.

On 7 April 2022, we hosted the webinar "City Diplomacy: Framework or Patchwork?" together with the Center for Public Diplomacy.

What does it mean to be a migrant in a big city? According to assistant professor Kamila Krakowska Rodrigues, artists have the answer to that question. In a new ERC-funded project, she will explore the representation of contemporary urban diversity in films, performance art, written literature and spoken…

Ecologist Pengxuan Xie investigated whether rooftop farming can contribute to food production in cities. This is important now traditional food supply chains are vulnerable to disruptions.

Researchers, policymakers and funders have to take more account of the effect of sex and gender in scientific research. This is the view presented in an advice paper published by LERU, the League of European Research Universities. The lead author is Vice-Rector Simone Buitendijk.

The environmental risks of new pesticides containing nanoparticles are inadequately researched, according to four Leiden scientists in the scientific journal Environmental Science & Technology. They call for an examination of the long-term and environmental effects of pesticides containing nanoparti…

Producing offspring of a crop without sowing and that is even bigger than the parent plant. According to Leiden researchers this can be achieved by overstimulating a single gene that rejuvenates cells, including bringing them back to the embryonic phase.

Junk news sites with unknown names such as Trendnieuws and Viraal Vandaag reach millions of Dutch people thanks to their Facebook pages. Messages from those pages are much more often shared and liked than messages from pages from well-known news media such as De Telegraaf, NOS and NU.nl. This is shown…

Green cities and a well-protected food system: Roy Remme and Oliver Taherzadeh study ways to achieve these. But how can their scientific findings lead to societal change? They share their experiences with science-policy initiatives.

The radio telescope LOFAR, with a major contribution from Leiden Observatory, has produced the most detailed radio map of the Universe ever made. Never before have so many cosmic radio sources been captured in a single survey: 13.7 million.

The environmental policy (Duurzaamheidsbeleidplan) of Leiden University insisted on starting a Green Office to expand and promote sustainability within Leiden University. This plan has now become reality as we have started with several activities and projects. To make people understand what a Green…

What does a 19th-century exhibition of traditional utensils from the province of Zeeland tell us about the current rise of populism? A lot, Ad Maas will say in his inaugural lecture.

The Gouy-Chapman theory describes what happens near an electrode when it is in contact with a salt solution, but this description does not match reality. Researcher Kasinath Ojha, assistant professor Katharina Doblhoff-Dier and professor Marc Koper present a new version. ‘The next generation of textbooks…

Koen Keijzer combined three mathematical models into one unified system capable of making meaningful predictions about how cells form blood vessels. This helps biologists studying the chaotic, leaky blood vessels found in and around tumours.

What was the function of the Dutch Protestant Church in Sri Lankan society? Why did people relate to the Church and how did conversion influence their life course?

As children learn, develop and acquire more skills, their legal position also changes. Professor of Children’s Rights Ton Liefaard works closely together with Leiden social sciences researchers to shed light on these growing capacities and their implications for our legal system. ‘Our ideas about children’s…

Research on this theme concerns the legitimacy and effectiveness of Europe’s institutional order in the face of public alienation and normative contestation.

Improving environmental risk assessment of pesticides in surface waters

Mensen worden steeds ouder. Soms in goede gezondheid, soms zijn er uitdagingen die de kop op steken. Met onderzoek, innovatief onderwijs en co-creatie met oudere mensen werken studenten van de master Health, Ageing and Society aan oplossingen voor deze uitdagingen.

This research hopes to contribute to social awareness of the consequences of colonialism for Indigenous Peoples, to the deconstruction of still existing colonial and discriminatory notions and to a better appreciation of Indigenous art and thought.

Time, Religion and Sacred Discourses of the Ayuuk People

Cities in Europe house an increasingly diverse population with roots in many different parts of the world. They have also seen the growth of anti-immigrant sentiments and new forms of nationalism. Who belongs to Europe and what such belonging entails is heavily debated. What comes out of this paradoxical…

This synthesis brings together strands developed in the four studies, sets out memories of the Revolt and presents the Low Countries as a case study.

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In the large gas clouds between the stars, chemical reactions take place under extreme conditions, giving rise to both small molecules, such as water and common salt, as well as large complex molecules that can serve as the building blocks of life. This is known as astrochemistry and it is something…

Crossing borders and connecting people in archaeological heritage management. Essays in honour of prof. Willem J.H. Willems

Whereas when we started the first Project the chief aim was pure research, to find out more about the past in a region, now we see that the countries of Europe are faced with the great problem that there are far too many archaeological sites for them to deal with by excavation, but yet some kind of…

Around the world, there is a growing movement to decolonise university curricula, with both students and educators seeking to disrupt existing epistemic hierarchies within higher education. This research project aims to unravel what decolonising means in general and what it means for the International…

The EG track is built on the foundation of MPA courses in which you gain understanding of the complexities of public institutions and acquire advanced academic skills. Specialisation courses focus on the welfare state, markets and competition, and political economy.

This project sets out to map, document and analyze instances of squatting in Leiden from 1970 to 1990, in order to set up an online Digital Archive of Squatting in Leiden. This archive will function as an online resource for academic research, as well as a starting point for public activities such as…

At the heart of this study is a thorough inquiry of categorisations of social identity used in the VOC’s record-keeping bureaucracy. How were service, occupational and caste groups classified and shaped by the VOC?