Decision makers are faced with dilemmas as result of the corona crisis. Dr. Jeroen Wolbers, Assistant Professor Crisis Governance at the Crisis Research Center explains the existing dilemmas and what makes the corona crisis unique when compared to other crises.

The launch meeting of the Leiden Islam Academy on 7 December in the Academy Building drew just the right audience: a diverse group of people who were all in some way engaged with Islam. This was just what the directors of the Academy, Maurits Berger and Fatiha Azzarhouni, were hoping for.

In the documentary ‘Pretend Student’, former students talk about why they let everyone believe they were still studying. How can you make sure you don’t end up in such an impossible situation? Four questions for Leiden Student Dean, Romke Biagioni, who worked on the documentary.

Seven Leiden professors have been elected as members of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW). In total 23 new members will be inaugurated on Monday 13 September.

Over 200 staff from Leiden University discussed student well-being with one another and students at the Staff Symposium on Student Well-being. In various workshops and lectures, lecturers, student advisers, student counsellors and other staff members discussed how they could contribute to our students’…

A restless night aggravates symptoms in those experiencing suicidal thoughts, as psychologists Liia Kivelä and Niki Antypa have found in their study on the short-term risk factors of suicide. They argue that targeting sleep could thus be essential for suicide prevention.

Remote teaching: reality until at least the end of this academic year. The transition to remote teaching required a huge effort and adjustments from all staff. So what’s it like for Leiden Law School’s lecturing staff? Three colleagues tell us about their first weeks of experience with remote teachi…

Great things are expected of Young Academy Leiden. The first 13 members of this society for young researchers will provide the Executive Board with fresh ideas on teaching, research, policy and how to connect with society. The researchers themselves will benefit from the contact with their peers from…

Timo Kos has been Vice President of Leiden University’s Executive Board since 1 March. Who is he and how have his first weeks been? ‘Higher education is under threat; we’re under fire.’

The Catholics were by no means pitiable victims over the two centuries that they had to practise their religion underground, Caroline Lenarduzzi writes in her PhD dissertation. They managed to keep their faith alive from the mid-sixteenth to the mid-eighteenth century. PhD defence 25 October.

In the past half a century, China has transformed from an underdeveloped and inward-looking country to a major player in world politics. The country asserts itself more boldly on the world stage; not only in relation to nearby countries and places such as Taiwan, Japan, and other countries that share…

The Faculty of Archaeology, in the persons of Marlena Antczak and Lennart Kruijer, had three pictures included in the exhibition 'Heritage on the Move'. The whole collection of 18 pictures can be seen from 3 December 2018 until 7 January 2019 at the Oude UB Building, Rapenburg 70, Leiden.

Professor of Family Law, Lies Punselie, welcomes the new legislation on surrogacy. The law as it currently stands is ill equipped to deal with the issue, resulting in a legal path that is strewn with many obstacles. Her inaugural lecture took place on 17 January.

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?’

Alumnus Jelte Liemburg, aged 29, aims to visit every single one of the 500 museums in the Netherlands that take part in the national museum pass scheme.

The whole world is waiting anxiously for sufficient supplies of coronavirus vaccines. As Launch Navigator at Pfizer, alumnus Dennis de Mik must help ensure that the Netherlands receives 19.8 million doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine. How is he going about this and how has his Bio-Pharmaceutical Sciences…

2025 was a year to remember at our faculty. We celebrated our 450th anniversary, launched new degree programmes and welcomed many inspiring speakers, yet we also felt the weight of budget constraints. Our year in a nutshell:

The University Council meeting on 2 June was largely dominated by the demonstration, occupation and policing in The Hague last month.

A review of Elke Devroe's participation in the European Society of Criminology of 2016 : The first conference of the European Society of Criminology was held in 2000 in Lausanne. Now, 16 years later and lots of new ESC-members later, the 16th Annual conference of the European Society of Criminology…

Leiden University has a new network for female academics: Sophia. Sophia strives for equal opportunities and a better working environment for female academic staff.

We spoke with Mathilde Witkam about her research as a dual PhD candidate at the Dual PhD Centre. Her dissertation is about the effect of open government on public trust. Mathilde: ‘Trust in government ensures that people are more honest in their tax returns; less control saves time and money.’

Our annual "Science to Experience" exhibition of student works is hosted by the V2_ Lab for the Unstable Media. This year's theme is "LIVING".

Storm clouds are gathering for the European grants for ‘excellent’ research. Researchers therefore need to explain how important these grants are. This is what Jean-Pierre Bourguignon, President of the European Research Council (ERC), had to say during a visit to Leiden University on Thursday 24 Apr…

Last week on Monday evening, four international Leiden Law School alumni working in various sectors and areas of expertise came back to their alma mater to talk to current students. So who are these alumni?

Confetti cannons announced the opening of HUBspot, the new venue for innovation and entrepreneurship at the Langegracht in Leiden, on 31 October. But all attention was on the young student entrepreneurs who presented their businesses.

Sociologist Aya Ezawa is the new Diversity Officer at Leiden University. What is the University doing well and what could it do better? ‘It’s taken much more for granted that universities should be a reflection of society. But this is also an area where we can still make progress.’

On Thursday 22 January, the Honours College Law New Year's event addressed the urgent issue of femicide. Experience-based expert Anne-Marije van den Bersselaar and assistant professors Mojan Samadi and Ellen Gijselaar explored the topic from personal and legal perspectives.

Prisoners deserve better professional support when preparing to return to society. PhD candidate Amanda Pasma: ‘You can’t imprison everyone for life. Society will have to give prisoners a second chance.’

On Thursday 22 January, the Honours College Law New Year's event addressed the urgent issue of femicide. Experience-based expert Anne-Marije van den Bersselaar and assistant professors Mojan Samadi and Ellen Gijselaar explored the topic from personal and legal perspectives.

Big celebration upcoming weekend: MIRD's 20th anniversary is on the cards. Four alumni from different periods tell what this unique two-year master's in International Relations and Diplomacy has brought them.

Professor by special appointment Jojanneke van der Toorn organised a symposium in cooperation with Workplace Pride, hosted by the university in the academy building on 18 May. Jojanneke van der Toorn occupies the chair of LGBT workplace inclusion, a special appointment that Van der Toorn and Leiden…

To celebrate the fifth anniversary of the Hazelhoff Centre for Financial Law, the conference ‘Public and Private Regulation of Financial Markets’ was held on the 11th of May 2017 at law firm Stibbe in Amsterdam. The conference attracted an international audience originating from more than five different…

Students, staff and alumni of the Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences joint forces to interact, debate, pitch, and speed date together at the Connecting Social Sciences science festival on Friday 22 November, 2019. After the opening speeches and panel discussion on science and societal impact,…

The world is becoming increasingly digitised, and the information one has easy access to is often rather overwhelming. In particular, the accumulative nature of the archaeological practice has resulted in huge quantities of data being produced. But how to prevent these from becoming dust-collectors…

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?

Burnout is on the increase. It is caused by group pressure, being ‘on’ all the time and asking too much of ourselves. Clinical psychologist Bart Verkuil advises lowering our expectations.

Online competitions, online sports, dietary advice for staff and students and 'What do they eat for lunch?' The first 'volunteer' is Vice-Rector Hester Bijl. What does her lunch usually consist of? The University Sports Centre is celebrating its fifty-year anniversary with a whole - corona-proof - programme…

On May 28th, Leiden physicist Wim van Saarloos takes office as President of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW). He has been vice-president since 2016. ‘The base of our universities is eroding.’

What is the influence of non-hereditary factors on our health, such as lifestyle, diet and exposure to harmful substances? The Exposome-Scan project, led by Leiden professor Thomas Hankemeier, has been awarded 3.2 million euros from the NWO Investment Grant Large programme to answer this question. With…

How can we speed up the transition from large cities to a circular metropolis? This is the question that Leiden students and former students Elsemieke, Fabian and Eveline are getting their teeth into. They and seventeen other young academics are taking part in the National ThinkTank and they have four…

The Sustainable 100 is an initiative by Dutch newspaper Trouw, consisting of a list of the top 100 sustainable civil initiatives. In October of 2020, the Jonge Klimaatbeweging (Youth Climate Movement NL) became the first youth organization to win first prize. An interview with LUC Alumna and Board Member…

‘What if we switch off all the lights one evening? That idea crossed my mind from time to time. And when I mentioned it to a taxi driver one day, he said: “Oh, you mean: lights out, stars on!” That’s not completely true, of course, because the stars are always on, but his phrase summed up the idea n…

To read Chekhov in the ‘original’. That was what motivated Arie van der Ent to study Slavic languages and literature with Karel van het Reve at Leiden University. ‘My love for Chekhov hasn’t faded,’ says Van der Ent from his home 60 kilometres south of Kyiv. ‘But it has for the rest of Russia.’

Each year, the Netherlands Institute of Governance (NIG) invites PhD students from Public Administration departments at universities in the Netherlands and Flanders to nominate their supervisor(s) for the NIG Supervisor of the Year Award, to celebrate and recognize excellent PhD supervision. This year,…

The story of Tutankhamun, the Egyptian pharaoh, is world famous. But did you know that the Ancient Egyptians mummified not only people but animals too? The National Museum of Antiquities in Leiden recently put a bunch of animal mummies through a CT scanner. This was in collaboration with Canon Netherlands…

Commercial MRI systems cost millions of euros to purchase and require highly trained technicians to operate. Prof. Andrew Webb works on accessible MRI techniques that offer new opportunities in both developed and developing countries. Webb is a professor at the Radiology Department of the LUMC and,…

For more than 35 years they helped put American Studies on the map: Joke Kardux and Eduard van de Bilt. This spring, the couple retired. A farewell interview.

Kool made a conscious choice to work for a non profit organisation. Recently, inspired by the pandemic, she also made a career switch.

The Netherlands is known globally for being a champion of equality. But is it really? On 8 March, International Women's Day, three Leiden experts reflect on this year's national theme: #NietMijnRecht (#NotMyRight)

From experimental essays to comfort reads, and from manga to court literature in verse: Japanese literature has it all.