In a podcast of the Netherlands Internet Governance Forum (NL GF) and the Safer Internet Centre Nederland, Simone van der Hof, Professor of Law and Digital Technologies at Leiden University and Thijs Hannema, a lawyer at Kennedy van der Laan, discuss online privacy of children.

At a recent meeting, the leaders of the European Union formally approved Ukraine and Moldova’s candidate status to join the bloc. The message is: you are welcome to join our European family in due course.

How did people move and form communities when human societies first shifted from hunting and gathering to farming? A new study of the Neolithic period in southwest Asia, the birthplace of agriculture, offers fresh insights.

On March 11, a travelling photo exposition on the Mayan archaeological site El Mirador, in Guatemala, saw its festive opening at the Van Steenis building. For the occasion a special Faculty Lecture was organised, entitled 'Water Legacy: Mayan World Meets the Netherlands'. We were honored to receive…

Benjamín Maldonado, Orestes Kyrgiakis, Roos Capel and Iskra Cvitković are the new student members of the Programme Committee (OLC). The board advises the Executive Board and the Faculty Board about educational matters, such as the determination of the Course and Examination Regulations and the evaluation…

Toen in 2019 honderden afvalcontainers in de Waddenzee vielen, wilde de overheid geen informatie vrijgeven over wat er in de containers zat. Vijf jaar later weten we eindelijk meer, nadat hoogleraar Esther Kentin beroep deed op de Wet Open Overheid.

Organisation

Simone van der Hof joined the Supervisory Board of the Foundation for Mass Claims and Consumers in connection with the Foundation's claim against TikTok.

Can a robot rekindle the waning interest in Buddhism in Japan? University lecturer Peter van der Putten researches the philosophical and social questions related to artificial intelligence. He also investigates whether computers and robots can take over creativity, emotions and other human characteristics.…

Why do violent incidents occur in prisons? And how do staff respond? Assistant Professor Esther van Ginneken will use a grant from the NWO Vidi Talent Programme to conduct research into these and other questions. She intends to make use of virtual reality.

The Leiden Bio Science Park (LBSP) is eager for new talent. Therefore, as a member of the core group, Miranda van Eck is committed to improving cooperation between the faculty and the business community. How do we make sure we know how to find each other better? And how do we show our students what…

The Epic of Gilgamesh was a lifelong inspiration to artist Harry van Kruiningen. This tale from Mesopotamia about the adventures of Gilgamesh, the legendary king of Uruk, and his friend Enkidu is one of the oldest surviving epics in world literature. Despite its almost 4,000 year age, it still captures…

Sander van Kasteren only noticed some small, subtle changes since he was appointed professor on 1 May. Still, he has to get used to the idea, even though he had been working towards the professorship for a few years. ‘I don't quite see myself as a professor yet.'

Minuscule elementary particles from space colliding with Earth can give us an insight into the distant objects they come from. But first, you need to know how to catch them. With a Vidi grant from NWO, researcher Sjoert van Velzen will 'hunt' for neutrinos coming from exploding black holes.

After another turbulent academic year, Dean Joanne van der Leun has a message for the staff of Leiden Law School.

During her lecture, Professor Annelou van Gijn explored user-wear analysis and experimental archaeology, showing details about past human life.

University lecturer Andrew Gawthorpe of Leiden University reflects in Global News Canada on the global implications of Donald Trump's foreign policy.

Social

The dust clouds are slowly settling in Van Eyckhof/Van Wijkplaats (Cluster South). The demolition work and circular dismantling that started in autumn are almost completed. In the meantime, the invitation to tender for the renovation ois taking slightly longer than expected and, therefore, the start…

Maartje van der Woude, together with Dr Irene Vega, has won the 2024 Theoretical Criminology Best Article Prize for the article ‘Colourblindness across borders: The de-racialised logics of Dutch and American border agents’ in the journal Theoretical Criminology.

Luuk van Middelaar and Vestert Borger, both affiliated with the Europa Institute of Leiden University, have recently been awarded a research grant by the Statesman Thorbecke Fund Programme of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW). The aim of the fund is to promote knowledge about…

Acquiring external funding for research is becoming increasingly important. Proper support for applying for research grants is essential in this process. As of December, the team of the Meijers Research Institute, responsible for the organisation and quality assurance of research at our faculty, will…

Three researchers from Leiden University have been awarded a Starting Grant by the European Research Council. The subsidy will allow the researchers to set up their own projects and put together a research team.

Valedictory lecture

Inaugural lecture

Inaugural lecture

Now that it is becoming increasingly easy to digitise texts, it seems almost obvious to do that with everything that has ever been written. University lecturer Verena Meyer thinks that is too simplistic. ‘We need to look more closely at the political and cultural effects of digitisation.’

On 7 October 2021 Simone van der Hof participated in an online talk show as part of the Dutch Media Week. The theme was the research project she is working on with Tony van Rooij of the Trimbos Institute and Max Birk of TU Eindhoven: Behavioral Design in Video Games.

Police, administrators and other parties will from now on have access to the advice of the new Academic Advisory Board for the Police. Maartje van der Woude, professor of socio-legal studies, is one of the members of this council.

Simone van der Hof, Professor of Law and Digital Technologies at eLaw, and Mohammed Raiz Shaffique, Researcher and PhD candidate at eLaw, have published a report on age assurance for the European Commission.

Organisation

Professor Emeritus by special appointment Adriaan van der Weel has co-authored a manifesto on the importance of higher-reading.

Facility

Education, Organisation

On Friday 9 December, Renate van der Zee and professor Marieke Liem held a lecture on 'Visible and invisible violence against women' at the Campus The Hague.

Not passed your Dutch exam? Then there’s no HAVO (Higher General Secondary) or VWO (pre-university) diploma for you, says the Inspectorate of Education's Inspector General. This comment fuels a discussion on an exam that is already under fire. The final exam for Dutch is said to be uninspiring, too…

From 13 to 16 July, Leiden will host the EuroScience Open Forum (ESOF), the largest multidisciplinary scientific conference in Europe. Lars van Doorn from Leiden Law School will give a presentation.

Guus Heerma van Voss, professor emeritus of labour law, delivered his farewell lecture on 18 October and held a mirror up to his colleagues and himself. Had they done enough to ensure the welfare state keeps up with the times? ‘Did we just stand by and watch?’

In September, the Una Europa ELSEA project, Enhancing Scholarship in Eastern Africa, officially started. Now that the project has been running for a couple of months, it’s high time to check in and see how the project is going.

Technological developments never stop. Machines can already perform many tasks and in the future they will probably take over even more of the work we do. Which jobs could disappear and which will remain in the future? Olaf van Vliet, Professor of Economics at Leiden Law School, commented on these issues…

As of 1 September, Jeroen van Zon started as professor by special appointment in Quantitative Developmental Biology at the Institute of Biology Leiden (IBL). Van Zon is also group leader of Quantitative Developmental Biology at the physics research institute AMOLF. Three questions about his new role…

The Netherlands cannot stop European labour migrants coming here. Nor does The Hague have much influence on the influx of asylum seekers. But experts believe that we should be able to reduce the need for labour migrants by using intelligent economic policies.

Many of the language rules we use today were formulated in the 17th and 18th centuries. In a dual track at the universities of Leiden and Brussels, PhD candidate Eline Lismont investigated why some rules became successful while other rules were quickly forgotten.

The secular West is struggling with the rise of AI, but so too is Muslim Southeast Asia. What can we learn from each other?

People suffer from anxiety wait on average twelve years before seeking professional help. That’s a pity and it’s unnecessary, says development psychologist Leonie Vreeke. She is therefore developing prevention programmes where parents learn to react in a helpful way to anxious behaviour on the part…

The students from the Leiden University Green Office have big ambitions and have outlined their recommendations in a new Green Paper. Like being the most sustainable university in the world by 2030. Students Janey Franssen and Job Kemperman are two of the paper’s authors. How do they want to achieve…

How do politics and play relate to each other? Six Leiden academics hope to find an answer to that question over the coming years. They have received an NWO grant of 750,000 euros. Professor Sybille Lammes and University Lecturer Bram tell us how they plan to spend the money.

How do you make niche subjects interesting and accessible? Benjamin Suchard, historical linguist and researcher, seems to have created the perfect recipe, which consists of his various projects alongside his regular research, including a Twitter account and a major international film.

Jojanneke van der Toorn is kicking off the new Academia@WorkplacePride year with the LGBTIQ+ Workplace Inclusion Symposium. As a social psychologist, she wants to share knowledge and gather experiences relating to diversity and inclusion at work

What is the current state of democracy and how do we understand the effects of public support on democracy? The two-day symposium Support for Democracy: Measurement, Explanation, and Effect