Technological developments are rapidly advancing. The Leiden Legal Technologies Program was on the agenda of the Advisory Committee at their second meeting held on 15 October. The decision to start the program in January 2021 was taken unanimously. It was the official moment to announce the completion…

On February 10 2025, the Leiden Jewish Studies Network convened a lively roundtable and catered reception at the Faculty Club to celebrate the launch of Dr. Kate Brackney’s new book, Surreal Geographies: A New History of Holocaust Consciousness (University of Wisconsin Press, 2024), winner of the George…

The popular French economist Gabriel Zucman visited the Netherlands last week, advocating an extra tax for billionaires. Egbert Jongen, Professor of Economics, spoke about the economist's proposals on NPO Radio 1's programme ‘De Rode Draad’.

In the ‘Imaginary’ exhibition, its curators show how society is made up of mathematics. From algorithms that save lives to ones that generate art. The exhibition is from 2 June to 25 July at Oude UB in Leiden.

On a stormy Tuesday evening in June an Alumni Seminar was held for alumni and students of the (International) Leiden Leadership Programme for which a special international guest had been invited: Dr. Anna Dolidze.

Pakistani archaeologist Abdul Ghani Khan (MPhil) and Dr Marike van Aerde (Leiden University) have been awarded the Prince Claus Heritage Emergency Grant for the rescue and preservation of ancient rock art in the Karakorum mountain range of the Pakistani Himalayas. The project will run for a year, from…

Nikki Ikani, Assistant Professor Intelligence and Security at the Institute of Security and Global Affairs (ISGA), has recently published her latest monograph 'Crisis and change in European Union foreign policy' with Manchester University Press.

Following a series of diplomatic catastrophes and human rights violations in the country, Nicaragua has left the Organization of American States (OAS) on 19 November 2023. Unlike Brexit, where the decision to leave the EU was based on the famous 2016 United Kingdom European Union membership referendum,…

The Centre for Science and Technology Studies (CWTS) and the Ethical Data Initiative (EDI) are pleased to announce the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) aimed at fostering a collaborative partnership to advance responsible data initiatives and enhance communication within the realms of…

Forget Python, Java and Scratch: there is now an accessible programming language for children. This is Hedy, invented by Dr. Felienne Hermans of LIACS. Thanks to a collaboration between Jetlearn, an online programming school based in Amsterdam, and Leiden University, Hedy now has translations in Hindi…

The Europa Institute is delighted to announce the appointment of Freya Baetens to the Chair in EU External Economic Law.

So called 'jihad municipalities' are being more closely monitored as a result of the arrests on 25 November 2019 of two terrorist suspects from Zoetermeer. Jelle van Buuren, Assistant Professor at the Institute of Security and Global Affairs, looks back at the latest developments over the last few y…

After the KHMW Brouwer Thesis Prize for History, Vicente Fischer de Miranda Rodrigues has also won the Cornelis Thiele Prize of the Dutch Society for Religious Studies.

At an international high-level conference, Valentina Carraro, Deputy Coordinator of the interdisciplinary programme Global Transformations and Governance Challenges (GTGC) presented her research on human rights in the UN Human Rights Council and Treaty body systems. One of the most practical recommendations…

The African, Caribbean, and Pacific Group of States (ACP) and the European Union have maintained a longstanding partnership known as the ACP-EU Partnership.

The Erasmus Training Centre in Jakarta supports the exchange of students and researchers between the Netherlands and Indonesia, with training courses and language lessons. The centre was opened officially on 13 February by Minister of Education Jet Bussemaker.

Philosophy alumna Naomi Rebekka Boekwijt returns to Leiden University on 20 June to present her latest novel Stemmen (Voices) in Plexus. ‘I wanted to show that things could be done differently in psychiatric care.’

The World Data Visualization Prize for 2019 was awarded to Dimiter Toshkov, Associate Professor at the Institute of Public Administration, for his work on the theme of small states and good governance. The prize is a good way to raise awareness about the value of good data visualization.

After seven months of hard work, the participants in the Research Traineeship Programme concluded their research on Friday 2 September with a pitch and a poster presentation.

On 19 October, around 10,000 prospective students will come to the Open Day to find out more about student life and the programmes in Leiden and The Hague. But what makes the Open Day so special? Five highlights that you definitely shouldn’t miss!

Universiteitsraad Universiteit Leiden

On Monday 10 February 2020, guest lecturer Prof. Dr. Cedric Ryngaert (Utrecht University) will deliver a lecture on ‘Jurisdiction and the Territorialisation of the Extraterritorial’. This event is hosted by the ‘Interaction between Legal Systems 2.0’ (ILS) projects ‘Policing the high seas’ and SOLID…

How can I teach children programming in a playful way? That's the question Felienne Hermans asked herself when she gave programming lessons to children on Saturdays. In March 2020 she launched the Hedy programming language, and with success: 100,000 programs have already been made with Hedy worldwid…

When designing public spaces, noise is often a neglected issue. Architects and urban planners know little about it; noise experts see it mainly as a problem that should be solved simply by reducing the volume. University lecturer Andrea Giolai (LIAS), researcher Kevin Toksöz Fairbairn (ACPA) and Professor…

On Wednesday 5 July 2017 the Child Law Department and the Grotius Centre for International Legal Studies of Leiden Law School hosted a festive drinks reception to celebrate 5 years of the Frontiers of Children's Rights Summer School, that has welcomed professionals, researchers and students from all…

As of 1 June 2018 Olaf van Vliet has been appointed as Professor of Comparative Welfare State Analysis at Leiden University. The Endowed Chair in Comparative Welfare State Analysis is supported by Instituut Gak. This chair is embedded in both the Department of Economics (Leiden Law School) and the Institute…

It is difficult to get access to North Korea. That makes scientific fieldwork very difficult. Korea expert Valérie Gelézeau shared her experiences during a lunch lecture at the International Institute for Asian Studies (IIAS) on 16 February.

The monthly ILS Lunch seminars bring together colleagues and students from Leiden Law School, providing an informal setting to hear what researchers from other research programs and institutes are working on. On Thursday 17 October 2019, a new edition of the ILS Lunch Seminars takes place. This month,…

The formal handing over of the keys for the first stage of the Science Campus will take place on 23 February.

Leiden researchers discovered that North Korean labourers are being forced to work on a large scale in Poland. Professor of Korea Studies Remco Breuker will present a report on the abuses in Poland at the ‘Slaves To The System’ conference on 6 July.

The NYU Abu Dhabi Humanities Research Fellowship for the Study of the Arab World (HRF) invites early-career scholars who wish to contribute to the vibrant research culture of NYUAD’s Saadiyat campus to apply for a residential postdoctoral fellowship, starting September 2026.

Charlotte Parree won the Jaap Doek Children's Rights Thesis Prize on Tuesday afternoon, 6 December, with her thesis entitled 'Suffering knows no age; active termination of life does.' The prize was awarded for the tenth time by em. prof. Jaap Doek.

Artist Daan Roosegaarde, together with UNESCO and Leiden University, wants to make the stars come out during Seeing Stars Leiden. The University will therefore switch off the lights in most of its buildings on Sunday 25 September from 22:00 to 23:30 and is asking the people of Leiden to follow suit.

The Netherlands celebrates Space Exploration Day on 12 April each year. Space exploration has brought us ground-breaking discoveries with applications on Earth as well as in space. Leiden University is at the forefront of space innovation. Below are some examples.

With the What's Next? series we hope to inspire current Creative Intelligence & Technology MSc students, show the variety of paths taken after the studies, and bring together alumni. Editions of the series are generally organized around a particular theme by Creative Intelligence & Technology MSc students…

To increase the visibility of the Leiden University’s offices abroad, the institute directors convened in Cairo, Egypt, early April 2026 at the Netherlands-Flemish Institute (NVIC).

On Architecture Day, residents of The Hague had the chance to take a look inside Spui Campus.

Public Administration has been around for 40 years, and that deserves to be celebrated. Before the festivities begin, four figures from the Institute of Public Administration reflect on the past years, with one even looking back over the last 25 years. Speaking are: Bernard Steunenberg, Caelesta Braun,…

In March 2020, the Netherlands-Flemish Institute in Cairo suddenly had to repatriate 57 students to the Netherlands and Flanders. Director and Arabic specialist Rudolf de Jong decided to stay in Egypt. ‘A lot of the work carries on.’

For seven years she worked at Noordeinde Palace, as the Private Secretary of Queen Máxima. Since the summer of 2021, Gabriella Sancisi (1973) has been the Dutch Ambassador in Slovakia, where the Embassy in Bratislava’s historic city centre is now her base.

For their research many neuropsychologists use the brain scanners at the LUMC. At the start of the pandemic, the rules for visiting the hospital became stricter and a large amount of psychology research looked as though it would fall through. Thanks to good protocols the researchers can now pick up…

Although there is considerable evidence that nature in the city is beneficial to both people and animals, we still do not have an overall picture of those benefits. To rectify that, a Leiden PhD candidate and a student – armed with a cargo bike – are using The Hague as a life-size laboratory.

By Pieter Jeroense

The Sustainability Research Cluster fosters dialogue and collaboration among anthropologists and sociologists researching aspects of socio-cultural, ecological, and economic sustainability in and affiliated with the Institute of Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology. It also seeks to stimulate…

For decades, academic publishing has followed a familiar script: Conduct research → write a paper → submit to a journal → (wait) → peer review → (revise) → maybe get accepted → finally, publish. Yet, this traditional model is increasingly under scrutiny, as several structural issues have become difficult…

At the Faculty of Archaeology, we investigate the development of human societies worldwide, from the earliest beginnings to modern times. We also study the heritage of mankind, which evokes this deep history, and which connects with, and informs, contemporary society.

If you follow the western media, you are likely to think of ‘Africa’ as the continent of origin of desperate migrants, a continent of hunger and disease and a breeding ground for international terrorism. But if you want to see the bigger picture, you should look no further than the African Studies scholars…

Discover the effects of clothing value and lifespan on buyer-user-producer relationships through collaborative research with Localising Global Garment Biographies.

An overview of our exhibition catalogues and research monographs on the Middle Eastern collections.