Three years after the very first cohort of the Leiden University Bachelor of International Studies graduated, approximately 40 alumni and staff got together for a day of recollecting pleasant memories and sharing new stories. The BAIS Alumni Board collected some ‘Lessons learned’ from their alumni.

Maarten Mous, Professor of African Linguistics at Leiden University, looks back on the 50th edition of the Colloquium of African Languages and Linguistics (CALL) and explains why this birthday was a celebration like no other.

On 10 May 1940, the Netherlands was taken completely by surprise by the attack of the German army. Wasn’t it? In his dissertation, Wouter Linmans debunks the idea that the Second World War took the Netherlands by surprise. ‘From 1935 onwards, all major political parties wanted to invest in the military.’…

During the ceremony of the Opening of the Academic Year, University Lecturer Arjan Louwen has won Leiden University's prestigious LUS Teaching Award. The prize, awarded annually by the Leiden University Student Platform (LUS), honours lecturers who excel in their teaching. For Louwen, the nomination…

There is more and more for students to do. Visit a film festival, follow a workshop or try a sport, for example. But how can you see at a glance what’s on and whether anyone wants to join you? Download the Uni-Life app and find out.

Associate Professor Paz González had two things she wanted to improve for students: collaboration and publication opportunities. Her solution? A scientific journal for and by students. She received a Senior Fellow Comenius grant to put the plan into action.

On Monday, Minister of Education, Culture and Science Robbert Dijkgraaf attended the start of Orientation Week Leiden (OWL), the introduction week for international students at Leiden University. He welcomed the students and spoke with them about their ambitions and the problems they face.

They have known each other since they were small but Rianne and Tom first fell in love when working together at the university. That love culminated in a fairytale wedding amid all the revelry last 3 October.

Saskia Goedhard was previously director of operations at the Hogeschool van Amsterdam and the UvA. Since April, she has brought her expertise to the Faculty of Humanities as director of business operations. 'Good business management is like water from a tap. You only notice it when it’s no longer th…

Former student of Leiden University professor Louis Andriessen at the Royal Conservatoire in The Hague, Cyprus-born ACPA researcher Yannis Kyriakides, currently developing his PhD dissertation under the supervision of Professor Frans de Ruiter and docARTES PhD supervisor/ORCiM research fellow Dr. Bob…

Though tuberculosis can be cured today, new resistant strains of the bacteria are becoming a growing problem in the medical world. Biologist Annemarie Meijer and her colleagues are studying resistance to this disease. Their research is already yielding several interesting clues that could help the development…

The monthly research lunches have become a regular point on the Law School’s agenda and are steadily developing into somewhat of a tradition. During this lunch seminar series, all researchers from Leiden Law School can present their research. The idea is to hear in a simple and nice way what researchers…

A Dutch-Italian-German team of astronomers has observed a huge glow of radio emission around a cluster of thousands of galaxies. They combined data from thousands of LOFAR antennas that were focused for 18 nights on an area the size of four full moons. This is the first time astronomers have been able…

PhD candidate Jiangnan Ding explores how you can design a thick slab of rubber in a way that it might act as a mechanical computer bit. This so-called mechanical metamaterial is pushed in a specific way to change its shape. ‘With a very simple material, we might be able to do simple calculations in…

On Thursday 7 May, Jolanda van der Vliet obtained her PhD based on her dissertation 'The International Protection of Environmental Refugees. A human rights-based, security and State responsibility approach.' The defence was held online. Jolanda worked on her dissertation under the supervision of the…

Last year, Dr. Henk van Steenbergen received a Grass Shoot grant to completely redevelop the research master's course 'Experimentation I: Programming Psychological Experiments'. The revised course was taught for first time last block and has just come to an end. Time for a brief recap.

Girls with autism have relatively good social skills, which means that their autism is often not recognised. Autism manifests itself in girls differently from in boys. Psychologist Carolien Rieffe and colleagues from the Autism Centre and INTER-PSY (Groningen) report their findings in the Dutch Scientific…

In her inaugural lecture on 11 September, Miranda van Eck, Professor of Cardiovascular and Metabolic Therapeutics, addressed her research related to developing medications to keep our blood vessels clean.

Master’s students in Industrial Ecology and Governance of Sustainability have helped answer organisations’ questions about sustainability

Leiden University's Academy Building (Rapenburg 73) will be less accessible for traffic and pedestrians on 28, 29 and 30 March because of filming by the BBC along the Rapenburg. Filming will only take place in public areas, not in the University buildings themselves. Some roads may be closed off to…

The winner of the Africa Thesis Award 2022 is Robert Okello for his thesis on rural women’s legal empowerment through digital technology in Northern Uganda. Robert did his Master in Development Studies at the International Institute of Social Studies, Erasmus University Rotterdam.

Our master’s alumna Marie Kolbenstetter was recently awarded a NWO subsidy for a PhD in the Humanities. With this funding she will be able to continue her master’s thesis research on the archaeology of Honduras at our Faculty. ‘I’m really happy to have my own project. This has been two years in the…

A delegation from the University of Edinburgh recently visited Leiden University to deepen their collaboration. What makes Edinburgh such an attractive partner?

The use of fire can tell us a lot about human evolution. Archaeologist Femke Reidsma has developed a more accurate technique to identify how our ancestors used fire. Existing archaeological studies will need to be revised. Reidsma’s study was published in Nature Scientific Reports on 2 November.

Professor of Brain, Safety and Resilience Anne-Laura van Harmelen has been nominated for the Huibregtsen Prize. The winner of the prize will be announced on the Evening of Science & Society (4 October).

Out of sight of national parliaments, the European Union takes decisions that have a far-reaching effect on the lives of citizens. Professor of International Governance Kutsal Yesilkagit calls for more thorough research on how cross-border forms of governance work and how politicians direct their civil…

Individual traders should be at the forefront of the study of early modern world trade rather than institutions such as states and companies, argues Professor of Global Economic Networks Cátia Antunes. Inaugural lecture on 9 June.

At Leiden University College, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer urged Europe to show unity and strength in a world defined by fear, power politics, and uncertainty.

Mechanical metamaterials have been found to display surprising features, on top of their unusual properties such as shape morphing and programmability. When the materials are a step in size larger, new rules seem to apply. This was discovered by researchers at AMOLF and the universities of Leiden and…

Children and adolescents really do use their ‘smart’ brain areas. This has been confirmed by an extensive and long-running study of the brain carried out by developmental psychologist Sabine Peters . Her findings can have important consequences for education. PhD defence 27 January.

Anne Krause and Niki Antypa received a facultairy 'Grassroots' subsidy of 1.000 euros for education innovation. They're going to implement live supervision of students during therapy/coaching sessions in the International Practice Internship.

November marks exactly 100 years since the discovery of Tutankhamun's tomb. To celebrate this special discovery, the Faculty of Humanities, together with various parties, is organising the 'Month of Tutankhamun': a month full of activities around Egypt's most legendary pharaoh.

Wopke Hoekstra, outgoing Minister of Foreign Affairs visited Campus The Hague on 6 July to talk to students about the upcoming NATO summit in Vilnius.

The state should prepare 'lifers' better for returning to society, for example by giving them some control over their own lives. This is the finding of Marieke Liem in her book 'After Life Imprisonment', published on 19 August.

An international team of researchers led by Leiden University (the Netherlands) has mapped nine gigantic collisions of galaxy clusters. The collisions took place seven billion years ago and could be observed because they accelerate particles to high speeds. It is the first time that collisions of such…

The Netherlands holds the presidency of the European Union for the coming six months. There are too many urgent issues for the country to spend time on Dutch political hobby horses, says Stefaan Van den Bogaert, Director of the Europa Institute.

Italian historiographers in the 16th and 17th centuries wrote remarkably often about the Dutch Revolt, better known as the Eighty Years' War (1568-1648). Their works influenced public opinion both in Italy and in the Netherlands. This is the conclusion reached by historian Cees Reijner in his dissertation.…

Are you a motivated student wanting to grow outside of your own bachelor’s programme? Then, look no further than the Humanities Lab honours programme: a challenging opportunity to broaden your horizon and grow.

Ioana Moraru is in charge of organising the International Criminal Court Moot Court Competition in The Hague, one of the largest competitions in International Criminal Law worldwide. Registration for the upcoming edition just opened. A good time to ask her a few questions.

The Choose a Language Day was created to make high school students enthusiastic about choosing a linguistic profile and further education. Third-years were able to learn about different language studies at the Faculty of Humanities.

The sixth specialisation of the Master Crisis and Security Management (CSM) will start in September 2023: Governance of Violence. Coordinator of this track is Professor Marieke Liem. She talks about the how and why of this new track and the importance of research in and knowledge of the nature and scope…

Kidney failure is a serious issue because kidneys cannot regenerate themselves after injury. A possible solution consists of artificially growing healthy kidney tissue. To achieve that, scientists first need to understand kidney development during the earliest stages, in the fetus. Leiden researchers…

The new programme Synoptic Optics, funded by the NWO Domain Applied and Engineering Sciences, will develop new optical techniques. Researcher Frans Snik and Professor of Experimental Astrophysics Christoph Keller from Leiden Observatory will test novel approaches to monitor air pollution and discover…

The brains of adolescents react more responsively to receiving rewards. This can lead to risky behaviour, but, according to Leiden University research, it also has a positive function: it makes learning easier. Publication in Nature Communications.

Within a month, the Wake Up to Corona crowdfunding campaign had already raised 600,000 euros for corona research in Leiden. The goal is to raise enough money for the LUMC to set up a second laboratory that is safe enough for research into the new virus. The initiative has not escaped the attention of…

Professor Renata Kallosh (Stanford University), one of the world’s leading theoretical physicists, will be this summer’s Lorentz Professor at the Leiden institute for theoretical physics. Her main areas of interest are cosmology and string theory. She studied physics in Moscow, where she also obtained…

On 11 November, neuropsychologist Liza Cornet competed in the semi-final of the FameLab international science communication competition. Her adventure ended there but she’s still ‘delighted’ to have taken part. What did she learn? ‘FameLab forced me to explain my research in everyday language.’

The Faculty of Humanities’ On-Campus Master’s Experience Day was a pleasantly busy event. The information sessions and corresponding information market went down well with interested undergraduates.

The Second World War is a never ending experience for those who lived it. This is what Cleveringa professor Carol Gluck and her students concluded following a critical reading of ‘De Aanslag’ by Harry Mulisch. Mulisch’s novel took centre stage in Gluck’s Honours seminar.

On Wednesday 27 March, 17.00 - 18.30, Andrew Pettegree and Arthur der Weduwen will present their book: 'The Bookshop of the World. Searching for markets in the Dutch Golden Age’ at the Lipsius-Building (Cleveringaplaats 1, room 11). Anton van der Lem, curator at the Leiden University Library will introduce…