PhD defence

Lecture, China Seminar

During the ‘Hour of Remembrance’ on 4 May, the University community remembers its students and staff who were killed in the Second World War. It also looks at freedom and oppression today. Three questions for Sara Polak, chair of the Hour of Remembrance committee.

Rietje Knaap’s (83) PhD was a real feat of endurance, but she persisted. ‘You’re married so you don’t need a pension, do you?’ What are the experiences of Knaap and women who followed in her footsteps? In the run-up to International Women’s Day on 8 March, three generations of female doctors look back…

The new privacy laws make it more difficult to combat human trafficking: under-age victims are often not registered. In her lecture, Cleveringa Professor Corinne Dettmeijer called on everyone to be on the alert. 'We don't want to live in a society where people are treated as throw-away objects.'

Sara Polak, PhD researcher and lecturer at LUCAS, has won a Fulbright scholarship to work on her research on Franklin D. Roosevelt at Yale University from September 2014 till February 2015.

Martijn Kitzen has been appointed professor by special appointment of Military Science at ISGA on behalf of the Royal Netherlands Society for War Studies (KVBK).

Lecture, LAC Asia Academy

Lecture, Leiden Yemeni Studies Lecture Series

Permission was recently given for all members of the examining committee and co-supervisors at PhD ceremonies to wear academic dress, even if they’re not full professors. How historic is this change?

Lecture, Com(parative) Syn(tax) Series

Lecture, LUCIS What's New?! Series

Lecture

Every year, an NWO PhD in the Humanities grant is awarded to a prospective PhD candidate at the Faculty of Archaeology. This year, the grant went to Maia Casna, enabling her to study respiratory disease in the past. ‘My hypothesis is that the rapid formation of cities in the medieval Netherlands, must…

‘Archeologists don’t dig up explanations, let alone certainties,’ says Joanita Vroom, Professor of Archaeology of Medieval and Early Modern Eurasia. ‘Their job is to bridge the gap between the sherds that they find and people’s everyday lives. What do ceramics from the past say about people’s eating…

Alumni event

Lecture

Why and how do people collect things? Why does a museum display one object and not another? These questions are at the heart of the interdisciplinary research programme Museums, Collections and Society. The programme is holding a conference for scholars and the general public on 5 and 6 July.

Governance of the internet is chaotic, says Professor Jan Aart Scholte. Can we learn from this relatively new form of governance?

Two courses on Central Asia will be offered within the Leiden Central Asia Initiative, funded by the research profile area Asian Modernities and Traditions. 'History of Central Asia & Afghanistan' will be open to BA students of Middle Eastern Studies and 'Material Culture, Memory and Commemoration along…

The Hortus Botanicus is celebrating its 425-year anniversary this year. It’s the oldest botanical garden in the Netherlands, but how did it come into existence and what kind of research takes place there?

During the guest lecture on 9 February, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, Rob de Wijk and Frans Osinga discussed the situation in Ukraine and Taiwan. The crises in eastern Ukraine and the increasing tensions around Taiwan highlight the challenges the West faces in deterring aggression in the new era of key dynamics…

From 16 to 20 June 2025, the Institute of Security and Global Affairs of Leiden University hosted the annual Summer School The European Union, the United Nations and Global Governance in The Hague. The programme brought together recent graduates, PhD students, and young professionals from a variety…

Since April 2017 the LUCDH team has received reinforcement in the shape of two brand-new Phd candidates. They will be working on existing projects set up by Victoria Nyst and Sjef Barbiers. I have the pleasure of introducing them here.

UNESCO has recognized a large collection of handwritten letters and the archive of Raden Ajeng Kartini (1879-1904) as documentary world heritage. Kartini opposed gender inequality in feudal Javanese society, including forced marriages, polygamy and lack of education for women.

For many Indonesian alumni, studying in Leiden or The Hague was a life-changing experience. This is what they told a delegation from Leiden during its recent visit to Indonesia. On their return to Indonesia, some of these alumni set up the Ikali alumni network. But why did they go to Leiden in the first…

The 22nd of march 2023, political scientist Lukas Spielberger will defend his dissertation ‘Lessons from Europe for the study of international bank cooperation’. He wrote his thesis about the cooperation of central banks during international financial crises: ‘central banks pay more attention to shared…

People can be easily mislead with graphs. But they don’t necessarily stay misled, the research shows.

Using biomethane to produce ammonia, a crucial chemical in agriculture, could drastically reduce the climate impact of the process. In a study published in One Earth, researcher Robert Istrate shows it’s even possible to make ammonia production net-zero or carbon negative.

October and November not only bring a number of proud Political Science graduates, it is also the season to determine who wrote the best bachelor’s thesis. For 2021-2022, fifteen theses were nominated. During the various graduation ceremonies the two final winners were announced: Essi Maria Teresia…

Alumnus Ben Smulders has worked for the European Commission for the past 33 years. ‘The discipline and depth that I experienced during my student days has helped me through various stages of my professional career.’

The Cyber Security Academy, therefore, proudly and enthusiastically announces that on 8 February the second cohort of Master of Science (MSc) graduates in Cyber Security in the Netherlands will graduate at the Campus of The Hague Security Delta (HSD), the national innovation centre in The Hague and…

When you think of political philosophy, you think of Immanuel Kant, Georg Hegel and Johann Fichte. Both philosophers are considered great representatives of German idealism. University lecturer in Continental Philosophy Marie Louise Krogh has received a Veni subsidy to delve deeper into the German idealists…

Researchers from the Institute of Public Administration and the Institute of Security and Global Affairs at FGGA are launching a new research programme: Governing Polarized Societies (GPS). The programme will focus on the way in which governments are dealing with the increasing polarisation in society.…

On 10 December, the Intelligence and Security Research Group of ISGA had the honour of hosting Vice Admiral Peter Reesink for the inaugural Arthur Docters van Leeuwen Lecture.

The European Union increasingly needs to respond to unforeseen events and developments. This is putting it to the test. What are the effects? Professor of Foundations and Practice of the European Union Luuk van Middelaar addressed this in his inaugural lecture on 23 September.

2020 is a year in which we need to reinvent ourselves, including within our faculty's marketing department. For years, colleagues have been organising introduction activities such as the Bachelor's Open Days, Master's Open Days and Online Experiences. From March onwards, everything had to change.

Today Mikhail Khordorkovsky visits the Leiden University Campus of The Hague to debate with students about the future of Russia. It is the first time this critic of Putin and former captain of industry visits the Netherlands. This event has been organised by the organisation Raam op Rusland and the…

Politicians throughout the whole of Europe need to be more honest with their voters and dare to take confrontational measures when necessary. This was the message given by Jeroen Dijsselbloem in the annual Europa lecture on 17 January in Leiden's Academy Building. As newly resigned President of the…

With the new Euclid satellite, scientists are going to map a large part of the sky. The satellite ofthe European Space Agency (ESA) will soon give them a better view of the galaxies and matter in the universe. Professor of Galactic Astronomy Koen Kuijken and a team of Dutch scientists are receiving…