De Declaration of equity helpt studieverenigingen op het gebied van diversiteit en inclusie.

ICT

Prof. dr. Joanne van der Leun is tot september 2025 door het College van Bestuur van de Universiteit Leiden herbenoemd als decaan van de faculteit Rechtsgeleerdheid.

It was not light, but its absence that caught Stephanie Noach's attention a few years ago. With her research on darkness in art, she aims to show how darkness can question and sometimes even undermine colonial imagery.

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…

Professor Susanna Lindberg has been appointed Scientific Director of the Institute for Philosophy with effect from 1 February. In her new role, she aims to foster connections among people. ‘I want my colleagues to feel good.’

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…

LUC students and staff came together this past semester to transform a local urban garden into a hands-on space for learning, experimentation, and community building.

Zes onderzoekers zijn voor twee jaar aangesteld als themaleider voor de onderzoeksthema's van de faculteit Wiskunde en Natuurwetenschappen.

Education, Organisation

'The chance of a pandemic is small, but not zero,' according to Nikki Ikani, assistant professor of intelligence and security. She warns in various media outlets about the ignored signals and the facilitated mutations, calling it 'alarming that mammals can also contract it.'

When discussing enslavement, attention often focuses on Africans forcibly shipped to South America. Researcher Timo McGregor's new Veni research sheds light on a lesser-known method, whereby indigenous populations were enslaved through the households of colonisers.

A subject like history is all about the past. That often involves scrolling through old documents, but in the Research Master's in History, Professor Dario Fazzi takes a different approach. His students work with Virtual Reality.

Rüya Akdağ is part of a research team with the aim of further studying social anxiety. The Leiden psychologist receives the grant for her doctoral research on the role of emotions and cognition in the emergence and occurrence of social anxiety in adolescents.

Vanessa mak knaw

In early 2026, two new programme directors will begin their roles at FWN. Joost Broekens will take charge of the bachelor’s programme in Data Science and Artificial Intelligence (DSAI), while Sander van Kasteren will become programme director of the MSc in Life Science and Technology (LST).

What energises you, what are your talents, and how can you use all this in your future job? These are essential questions that will help you to identify your career options and design your future. The What’s Next? course offers the opportunity to find answers to them.

Good news for Linguistics alumna Anne-Mieke Thieme, who has won the thesis prize awarded by the European Federation of National Institutions for Language (EFNIL). ‘I emailed my thesis supervisor right away.’

Since September 2024, Berber Verhalle has been the new student assessor for W&N, succeeding Nalani Verwoord. Berber is a first-year Master’s student in Biology & Business and is now the representative of the students at our faculty.

Depression or ADHD? Neatly delineated diagnoses fail to do justice to the infinitely complex reality that they refer to, argues Eiko Fried in a new paper for JAMA Psychiatry. His proposal: to map the underlying mechanisms of mental health problems using a Mental Health Atlas.

The students and staff at the Faculty of Science celebrated Pi Day with… pie! More than twenty participants baked a pie for the first edition of the Leiden Science baking competition – people queued up to sample the creations.

Master's students Eden Dijkstra and Rosemary Snelth are the first winners of the H.S. Versnel Prize for best master's or research master's thesis in the field of ancient religion. According to the jury, their theses were so original, well-written and of such high quality that both deserved first pla…

ICT, Security

The Executive Board of Leiden University has appointed Dr Alicia Schrikker as Professor History of The Netherlands in the world, effective 1 January 2026. The chair is based at the Institute for History at the Faculty of Humanities.

As Professor of African Linguistics, Nancy Kula increases our knowledge of variation across languages. Her inaugural lecture is on Monday 23 March.

Facility

A chess tournament, picnic, movie night or language course: second-year Law students Amy de Haan and Binela Alispahic from the Student Well-being team are organising various activities aimed at connecting students. We spoke to them about their motivation, goals, and plans.

Hidde studies Public Administration and did an internship at the Kennemerland safety region. During his internship, he conducted research effective collaboration on the Environment and Planning Act at the safety region.

How do we account for historical power dynamics when writing new histories of slavery and emancipation? What critical methods can we employ when studying preserved archives and collections? A new book series aims to address these questions. The initiators Karwan Fatah-Black and Ilse Josepha Lazaroms…

In the early modern period, it was perfectly normal to find recipes, legal documents or medical writings in a book of poems. Holly Riach studied the underlying principles of these ‘miscellanies’ during her PhD.

Sport brings people together. This became clear on 9 April during the official opening of the new University Sports Centre. In a varied programme with live sports acts and even a basketball session with an Olympic champion, sport, history and human connection came together in a building designed for…

On 2 April, the final of the Legal Tech Challenge 2026 took place in the Academy Building of Leiden University. During the final, teams of students pitched their technological solutions to societal challenges.

Leiden University has six top bachelor’s programmes, according to Keuzegids universiteiten 2024 consumer guide to universities published on 30 November 2023. This once again puts the university in third place among broad universities ranked according to top programmes.

Work on the buildings for the Faculty of Humanities is continuing. Planning has begun for a modern, future-proof education building on the site of the current Reuvens building. The new education building is scheduled for completion in mid-2031.

Organisation

Matthew DiGiuseppe, Associate Professor at the Institute of Political Science at Leiden University, has been awarded an NWO XS grant for his project ‘Political Polarization and Public Support for AI Governance’. The project examines whether growing political polarisation affects citizens’ willingness…

This year’s We are Science Week was another great success! For the first time, the Campus Square was transformed into a true festival site. Take a look at the photos and join us in looking back on this enjoyable week!

A Leiden-based team of researchers has taken over the editorship of the journal Global Governance: A Review of Multilateralism and International Organizations. For the first time in its history, the journal is now based outside the United States. The new Editor-in-Chief, Associate Professor Alanna O’Malley…

Michiel Hogerheijde has been appointed Vice-Dean of the Faculty of Science as of 1 January 2027. He succeeds Bart de Smit, who has held the position since 2019. Hogerheijde is looking forward to working together with students and staff. ‘Good education is something you create together.’

For almost a millennium, it was rewritten time and again: the Old Javanese literary prose work Uttarakāṇḍa. The tradition soon split into two major branches: a Javanese and a Balinese one. However, until now, scholarly editions have focused solely on the Balinese version. Unjustly so, argues PhD candidate…

An international team of researchers, including emeritus professor Wil Roebroeks of Leiden University's Faculty of Archaeology, has uncovered evidence that modern fallow deer have lost much of the genetic diversity once present in their Ice Age ancestors. The findings have been published in iScience…

Julia Röhrig, a graduate from Universiteit Leiden’s Political Science master’s programme, has won the 2026 Daniel Heinsius Prize of the Flemish and Dutch Political Science associations. Her thesis about the impact of populism on state compliance with European Court of Human Rights rulings, according…

The Faculty of Archaeology is pleased to announce that alumni Dr Diederik J. H. Halbertsma (NINO, Leiden University) and Dr Michel de Vreeze (Durham University) have been awarded a grant from the Shelby White and Leon Levy Program for Archaeological Publications.

Anyone who follows the Faculty of Archaeology on social media must have noticed that something changed in September. Videos on research projects, interviews with staff and students, and embracing memes: the content has become more varied and engaging. We speak with students Grace Alonzo and Thomas Prins,…

In a time of growing polarisation and declining trust, the rule of law is under pressure. The system as we know it today only took shape 177 years ago, with the constitutional reform of 1848. Carla Hoetink emphasises: ‘The democratic rule of law was originally designed to prevent violence and revolu…

One day you feel inspired by a field trip, the next you are a speaker at TEDxLeidenUniversity. It happened to International Relations student Alexia. How did she end up on stage – and why did she want to? Alexia shares her story with us. ‘I was given hope, and I wanted to share it with others.’

The Clingendael Institute welcomes first-year MIRD students of the 2025-2027 cohort in an exclusive welcome event. Students explore internships, panel discussions, and electives on global politics, diplomacy, and climate advocacy, gaining both academic insights and practical experience.