Governance of Sustainability is a two-year programme, worth 120 European Credit Transfer System points (ECTS).

This one-year, English-taught Master's programme offers insights on general developments as well as the specific challenges in the field of the governance of crisis and security, with in-depth knowledge of sub-fields of crisis and security management.

Unravelling networks of human mobility and exchange of goods and ideas from a pre-colonial, pan-Caribbean perspective

The Arts, Media and Society specialisation will let you explore some of the most pressing issues in today’s society, as seen from the many perspectives offered by art, artists, and (digital) media.

The major aim of the Health and Medical Psychology specialisation is to provide you with the theoretical background and professional skills required for health and medical psychology research and interventions. Health and Medical Psychology looks at how health, illness, and recovery are affected…

The ARTIVES project studies imaginaries of diversity portrayed by artists in Lisbon and Rotterdam in their films, performances and (oral) literature with the aim to explore their transgressive potential of opening up possibilities of thinking differently about migration-related diversity. Their stories…

How do we address the society’s most pressing issues through governance? The Master of Public Administration gives you a unique research-led multi-level perspective on the practice of management, steering, and coordination of political, economic and societal actors, with three specialisations to suit…

In 2011 Leiden University came into possession of the skeletons from a graveyard in Middenbeemster. But what could be done with all these bones and skulls? Well, the answer is: more than you might think. Since the excavation, it has been raining interesting scientific discoveries at the Faculty of Archaeology.…

Josephus Justus Scaliger was one of the most famous scholars of his time and yet today his name is likely to be met with blank looks. His correspondence shows that this Leiden professor was also irritable to say the least. Kasper van Ommen will defend his PhD thesis on Scaliger’s legacy on 2 July. Find…

The Caribbean as we know it today is fundamentally a product of colonial activity and globalisation. Practically everyone that inhabits the Caribbean has ancestors from different continents due to colonial activity, which profoundly affects the area to this day. Caribbean writers, both in the Caribbean…

Linguist Ingrid Tieken-Boon van Ostade retired in July, but is pressing on regardless with her languages in The Hague project. An online tour of her Hague Proverbs launched recently and Tieken also has academic publications in the pipeline.

Dutch troops, judges and politicians collectively condoned and concealed the systematic use of extreme violence during the Indonesian War of Independence. Historians have now shown how this could happen. ‘It was scandal management rather than prevention,’ says Leiden historian and research leader Gert…

Atrocities have been the order of the day in Syria since war broke out in 2011, but the perpetrators are rarely tried. According to PhD candidate Elizabeth Van Schaack, the international community could bring justice in Syria, but only if there is political will. PhD defence on 29 April 2020.

The end of the year often means looking back with lists, overviews and stories. This combines nicely in a list of all the books published this year by various political scientists at Leiden University. Indeed, in terms of books, these scholars have certainly not been idle. A unique collection of stories,…

In a packed lecture hall at Wijnhaven, Nobel Prize winner Paul Krugman succinctly summed up the essence of his argument on Wednesday 17 September: ‘Running a good society is hard’. His lecture held up a mirror to economists and policymakers.

“Neighborhood solidarity cannot compensate the absence of the State: a response from the local administration is needed”

How do bacteria sense and adapt to their environment? Ariane Briegel, Professor of Ultrastructural Biology, is intrigued by this question. Using new techniques, she produces three-dimensional images of bacteria that provide us with new clues about their sensory system.

The COVID Radar app is citizen science at its best. More than 200,000 users in the Netherlands are answering questions about their health and behaviour to help predict the development of the pandemic. Niels Chavannes, Professor of General Practice at Leiden University Medical Center, explains how the…

How did the Arabs manage to maintain an empire based on Islamic principles for three hundred years? Arab expert Petra Sijpesteijn and her team will be examining this question over the coming five years, focusing on the correspondence of ordinary people. The research is being funded by an ERC Consolidator…

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) came into force in 2018. It was intended to protect the rights and freedoms of individual citizens from the risks of personal data processing. Meanwhile, the phenomenon known as big data has continued to advance at a fast pace. PhD defence on 12 Septembe…

A new collaborative monograph of democratic theory, The Sciences of the Democracies, was released by UCL Press on August 7. The book, in the style of a democratic manifesto, is written by a large number of co-authors in a bold attempt to expand and deepen how democracy is studied and understood. Among…

How does a Leiden alumnus end up working at the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art (The Met)? In the case of Daniëlle Kisluk-Grosheide, it was partly down to chance, luck, fate. But that was preceded by a unique degree in decorative arts in Leiden.

Leiden Asia Centre researcher Anoma van der Veere argues that the Japanese government has failed to respond properly to Covid-19. There were difficulties with implementing government measures aimed at limiting the spread of the virus – in some cases those measures were not even taken seriously. How…

Benjamin Scott, master student Air and Space law in Leiden, was given a unique chance by Professor Pablo Mendes De Leon. Benjamin was allowed to edited “The Law of Unmanned Aircraft Systems”. In close collaboration with the professor, staff of the International Institute for Air and Space Law at Leiden…

Maria Vasile's ethnographic fieldwork in Turin reveals that volunteering and citizen engagement may not empower residents or allow them to shape their cities. Her analysis of urban gardens, food markets, and food aid initiatives calls for a broader perspective on urban peripheral areas and a shift away…

From the energy transition in Namibia to sustainable jobs for young Nigerians, from African cookbooks to vodcasts on vintage Swahili booklets: during a recent visit by the Executive Board, staff from the African Studies Centre Leiden and the African Library presented their research, teaching and acquisition…

A safe haven for students, more bicultural staff and more powers for diversity officers. In a national expert meeting at Campus The Hague, administrators, diversity officers, students and staff discussed urgently needed measures.

Data science and statistics are closely linked, says Spinoza laureate and Stochastics professor Aad van der Vaart. We talk with him about the big data hype, genome research and collaboration with other disciplines. ‘Statistics helps wherever data is not perfect.’

The ‘Contagious!’ exhibition was set to open at Rijksmuseum Boerhaave in April but had to be postponed because of the corona crisis. The museum hasn’t been twiddling its thumbs in the meantime. The exhibition will now open on 16 July, and the corona crisis has a major role.

Conducting experiments next to the huge speakers of the Alpha Stage at Lowlands. This was reality for researchers Max van Duijn and Tessa Verhoef, and they were loving it. 'Yesterday evening we were completely covered in mud.'

Part One: Casting off, Amsterdam

Leiden University contributed to colonialism and slavery through its research and teaching. And governors and residents of Leiden had an active role in colonial networks. These are the findings of two explorative studies presented on 3 April.

Assistant Professor Space Law Tanja Masson-Zwaan appeared as a guest on the Radio Weetlust programme of local Leiden radio station Sleutelstad FM. She talked about, among other things, who does the moon actually belong to and why we all would like to go there so badly.

In Vietnam, foreign trade and culture are pervasive. Therefore, the need arises for students to learn more about cultural differences and intercultural communication. Tran Tran’s (PhD at ICLON) research focused on improving training in intercultural communication in Vietnamese higher education. Defence…

In 2019 UNICEF published the situation analysis of children and adolescents in the Caribbean Netherlands, commissioned by the Dutch Ministry of Interior and Kingdom Relations. It is a follow-up to the first round of situation analysis on children’s rights in the Caribbean Netherlands, which was completed…

The article “Anticipating an unwanted future: euthanasia and dementia in the Netherlands” by Natashe Lemos Dekker is the winner of the first Interdem Academy Publication Award. Lemos Dekker is a postdoctoral researcher in the ERC project ‘Globalizing Palliative Care’ at Leiden Leiden of Cultural Anthropology…

How do you set up successful interdisciplinary collaborations? That is the central question of a Leiden symposium. On 6 June, we look at cooperation and decompartmentalisation between public institutions. The language of the symposium will be Dutch.

The Jan Brouwer thesis award for social sciences 2015 was awarded last April 14th to Master graduate in Public Administration Raffael Hanschmann for his thesis “The impact of the economic crisis on EU environmental policy making. Insights from discourse network analysis”.

On October 20th, at 13:00-15:00 in Grotiuszaal (A051 KOG) the advanced International Children’s Rights program and the Leiden Institute of Immigration Law will co-organize a lecture by Ms. Margaret Tuite, the European Commission Coordinator for the Rights of the Child.

Simulation project EAGLE has won the 2022 Group Achievement Award of the Royal Astronomical Society. EAGLE is a large collection of simulations about the formation of galaxies. The largest simulation contains as many as 6.8 billion particles and took months to calculate on the world's fastest superc…

There was a lot of fuss last week about the ‘dragnet law’, in which intelligence services are now authorised to conduct large-scale tapping of cable communications. The public image here is that the privacy of innocent citizens will almost certainly be violated. Paul Abels, professor of governance of…

On 14 December 2022, students of the course Social and Ecological Activism in the Visual Arts (as part of the Creative Strategies for a Society in Change minor) presented and performed their final collective project at BAK, basis voor actuele kunst, Utrecht: the Water Cultures Institute group role-playing…

This Justice for Children Call to Action offers a new starting point to place children at the heart of an emerging global movement for justice. It strives to ensure that, in collective efforts to achieve the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, no child is left behind.

Research from Dutch news organisation NOS shows that gambling companies, including Holland Casino and the Dutch Lottery, have more influence on the creation of new rules on gambling adverts than addiction experts.

Ezequiel Gonzalez-Ocantos (Oxford University) and Juan Masullo Jimenez (Leiden University Institute of Political Science) are the new editors of Qualitative and Multi-Method Research (QMMR). QMMR is a biannual publication of the American Political Science Association (APSA) section for the study, development,…

Stijn Bussels and Bram van Oostveldt have both contributed with an article in the book of Caroline van Eck: Idols to Museum Pieces. The Nature of Sculpture, its Historiography and Exhibition History, 1640-1880.

Mass claims are increasingly common in the Netherlands. Branda Katan, Professor by special appointment in Corporate Law, spoke to news website NU.nl about the chances of their success: ‘A lot of time and money goes into these cases.’

In just over a decade, Uber has revolutionised how we move around our cities. The ride-hailing app was a game-changer: you just tapped your phone and a cab would find you. You even paid through the app. However, some of the Uber’s more controversial practices have triggered the interest of law enforcement,…