The Graduate School of the Faculty of Humanities conducted a survey of its PhD candidates and their supervisors in spring 2023. What is going well? And what could be improved? The results are now known.

Philosophy lecturer Victor Gijsbers has been awarded the 2017 Faculty Education Award. The Faculty Education Award is given each year to the Faculty’s most inspiring lecturer. After attending one of Gijsbers’s lectures, the jury said it was impressed by his energy and dry humour.

How do you tell your professional story? This formed the basis of the Personal Branding workshop for young alumni at PLNT, the Leiden Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship on 22 July. Forty-five alumni came along.

The Foundation for Austrian Studies and the Institute for History are very glad to announce that Monika Baár has been appointed as the holder of the Special Chair for Central European Studies.

Sarah Michiel is the Institute Manager of NIMAR and has been living in Morocco since 2012. Due to the coronavirus, she has been working in Belgium since 20 March, where she grew up. The NIMAR office in Rabat is currently empty and all visits and conferences have been cancelled. Sarah is trying to run…

By 2050, 70 per cent of the world's population will live in cities. This has major consequences for the lives of city-dwellers and for the environment. Uncontrolled urbanisation calls for an interdisciplinary approach. On 4 September, the first group of students started the new English-language Bachelor's…

The Lorentz Center is a melting pot that is visited by researchers from around the world. ‘Miracles happen’ during the five-day interactive workshops at the Center. And there is an extra reason to celebrate the center’s 25th anniversary. On 28 April, the Dutch Research Council (NWO) and Leiden University…

How does music affect a test subject’s brain? That was just one of the questions on the minds of the people who came to the LIBC public day to hear Rebecca Schaefer’s talk, as well as to hear from other top researchers about their investigations into music. The five woodwind players in the Calefax reed…

Bob de Brabandere discovered his deep passion for cinema through a minor in Film and Theatre Studies. He currently serves as Assistant Manager at Bioscopen Leiden and as a programmer for the Leiden International Film Festival, which commences on 9 October.

Technology holds so much promise – from self-driving cars to enhanced physical performance from smart implants under the skin. But we should not let ourselves be caught off guard. That is the message of Bart Custers, Professor of Law and Data Science in his inaugural lecture on 21 May. ‘We don’t talk…

The Academic Language Centre (ATC) is one of the cornerstones of Leiden University. Director Gea Hakker explains how this organisation is providing quality (online) language courses and meeting new demands.

Each year, Latin American diplomats meet the researchers and students from Leiden University who specialise in their region. This year, they visited the Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences. ‘The social and behavioural sciences have improved our understanding of social unrest.’

Gerard Soeteman (1936) created a furore as a screenwriter of films that became classics (Dutch films: Turks Fruit, Soldaat van Oranje, de Aanslag), but personally he is much more attached to his critical documentaries for television. He studied Dutch in Leiden. How did that help him?

How should we address our colonial heritage? And how digital and accessible are our collections? Outgoing State Secretary Fleur Gräper spoke with researchers and heritage specialists about this on 25 January.

Lecture, CHiLL series

Study information

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.’

On 15 May 2025, a roundtable '80 Years of Peace in Europe?' was convened with students and staff at Leiden University to reflect on the anniversary of the end of World War II.

Disinformation has become a popular subject of study and debate. A plethora of publications and policies have emerged, aiming to analyse and curb the negative consequences of unwanted communication.

After her law degree, Irina Ghazarian (28) started working at Zurich Insurance PLC, an international insurance company. ‘Why do we outsource cases that are going to court?’ she asked. She is now the first attorney to work there.

In 2025, students, lecturers, researchers and alumni of the Faculty of Humanities were once again at the heart of society. They demonstrated the importance of the humanities through their groundbreaking research, meaningful education and strong collaborations.

PhD defence

PhD defence

PhD defence

PhD defence

Debate, LUCL Fireside Chat

PhD defence

PhD defence

PhD defence

Lecture, Astronomy on Tap

Eighteen researchers from Leiden University have been awarded a Veni grant by the Dutch Research Council (NWO). This grant gives promising young researchers the opportunity to develop their ideas for a period of three years.

Lecture, CHiLL series

Alumni event, Lustrum

Lecture, Descriptive Linguistics Seminars

Screening documentary

Lecture

Lecture, LUCL Colloquium - Series '24/'25

Middle East Studies Lecture

Lecture

Conference, Symposium

Lecture, Sociolinguistics & Discourse Studies Series

Lecture, Leiden Translation Talks

Lecture, CMGI Brown Bag Seminar

What you see is what you get, is how people who know him describe Mark Rutgers who became Dean of our Faculty on 1 March. For some of us he is a familiar face, and for those who don’t yet know him, he hopes to get to meet them soon. His first three months will be taken up with a lot of reading and even…

The outbreak of coronavirus has radically changed our life and work. We have had to work, teach and conduct research from home. How has coronavirus changed your work? What do you miss most? And what is keeping you going? We asked a few colleagues.