Ever heard of conversational artificial intelligence (AI)? Anyone who has ever interacted with Siri or Alexa is familiar with this technology. We use conversational AI every day these days and it is becoming increasingly important in service and sales. A consortium of Dutch scientists and companies…

What is the difference between a minister saying that something is possible or that it is not impossible ?

Starting from September, the four Dutch mathematics clusters DIAMANT, NDNS, GQT and STAR will each be given 1 ME from NWO Exact Sciences, to be spent within a period of two years.

Debates on political legitimacy in Dutch parliament in the 1880s, 1930s, and 1960s

‘De aanpak van microplastics zit vol haken en ogen’

With the introduction of the House of Cyber the Dutch government seeks to address a long standing concern among politicians, policymakers, and cybersecurity experts: the fragmentation of the Dutch cybersecurity governance landscape. A proposed solution is not only timely, but very understandable.

When we think of the history of Dutch slavery, the areas that spring to mind are primarily the Antilles and Suriname. However, until the end of the eighteenth century there were also Dutch plantation colonies in neighbouring Guyana. Bram Hoonhout’s book ‘Borderless Empire’ describes this forgotten h…

A week before Christmas, the Deltaplan for Dutch Mathematics was presented to Hans de Groene (director NWO) and Sjoerd Verduyn Lunel (chairman Platform Wiskunde Nederland). Prof. dr. Frank den Hollander was one of the leading researchers in mathematics taking part in the Commission Deltaplan Mathema…

Painstaking research in Dutch and Portuguese archive materials, so far poorly assessed on the topic of social relations, reveals intense and intricate associations between different European individuals both in terms of ethnicity and social strata.

To what extent did the Netherlands grow rich from the Transatlantic slave trade? In his dissertation 'Walcherse Ketens', Gerhard de Kok looks at Vlissingen and Middelburg, the most important slave trade cities in the Netherlands during the second half of the 18th century. It turns out that, although…

Religion, Class, and the Postwar Development of the Dutch Welfare State. Dennie Oude Nijhuis.

This book examines the history of The Netherlands in a way that connects global processes to local developments.

ASLU 27 Sjoerd van der Linde (2012)

This week 'Dutch Post-war Fiction Film through a Lens of Psychoanalysis' by Peter Verstraten was published by Amsterdam University Press, the sequel to Humor and Irony in Dutch Post-war Fiction Film from 2016. Each chapter in his 482-page new study begins with a title of Fons Rademakers who made films…

The archaeology domain produces large amounts of texts, too much to effectively read or manually search through for research. To alleviate this problem, we created a search system (called AGNES), which combines full text search with entity and geographical search.

How can we understand the encounter between communities active in sustainability initiatives and governmental agents at the multiple institutional layers in the Netherlands?

What does the daily life of those who travelled to Syria to join jihadist groups look like? Destination Syria, a new ISGA report, provides answers to this question

Political scientists Joop van Holsteyn and Tom Louwerse (Leiden University) find that the Dutch government is having a hard time coping with referendum outcomes in general, and ‘anti-European’ sentiments among voters in particular.

This article describes that although the use of the concept of energy justice is new, normative interpretations have long been part of energy policy.

Researchers from Leiden University and Solid Sustainability Research have published a new study in PLOS Climate on the links between Dutch universities and the tobacco industry. Through this work, they aim to contribute to ongoing discussions about ties to the fossil fuel sector.

The Dutch prefix ge- in historical perspective gives first of all a general account of the development of the word formation processes involving ge- in which special attention is paid to the participial ge-.

Mining the unusually rich diaries, memoirs, and poems written by Netherlandish Catholics, Judith Pollmann explores how Catholic believers experienced religious and political turmoil in the generations between Erasmus and Rubens.

Gijsbert Rutten has been appointed professor of Dutch Linguistics with effect from 1 July. In this position, he will focus on language change and language variation, with a particular emphasis on historical sociolinguistics.

How were war heroes and war criminals created, and how do these images relate to the historical context?

Asking the way to the beach in Scheveningen or buying cheese on the market in Leiden. With the new online Dutch & More language course, prospective international students can get to know Dutch in a Leiden setting. The online course is available for international students at Leiden University and starts…

Leiden patriot Pieter Vreede fought for greater popular influence. Historian Dirk Alkemade reveals how this pioneer used radical means to shape Dutch democracy.

New: Een Podcast over Natuurkunde, a podcast about Leiden physics. In the first episode, Dirk van Delft tells about the Hendrik Antoon Lorentz biography that he wrote with Frits Berends.

On 7 October the beginners course Dutch has successfully started with a pizza kick-off.

The European Union has claimed, following its own investigation, that the Dutch government is falling short in how it deals with Dutch nationals convicted abroad, but who want to serve their sentences in the Netherlands. Jannemieke Ouwerkerk, Professor of European Criminal Law, has responded in Dutch…

The Yearbook for Dutch Book History publishes Dutch and English-language articles on the book history of the Low Countries in all time periods. For the 31st edition of the Yearbook, to be published in 2024, we welcome in particular contributions concerning the theme ‘Controversy’. Deadline: 1 March…

The promise made in the run-up to the last Dutch elections that the ‘next cabinet formation process will be quicker and more transparent’ has already proven unrealistic. To what extent does a minority Dutch government stand a chance in the Netherlands’ fragmented political landscape? Corné Smit, external…

Leiden historian Herman Obdeijn has created an exhibition for NIMAR about the centuries-old bond between the two countries. The exhibition opens on 1 March at the Université Mohammed V in Rabat. ‘The Moroccans changed from distant allies to close neighbours.’

Information obtained from Czech intelligence authorities has shown that politicians from several European countries, including the Netherlands, are involved in a Russian bribery scandal. Wim Voermans, Professor of Constitutional Law, comments on this in Dutch newspaper ‘NRC’.

The Dutch universities will give Open Access an extra boost from 2019 by starting a pilot titled ‘You share, we take care’ to make publications available after six months in collaboration with researchers.

On 11 November 2016, The Hague Law Labs and the department of Constitutional and Administrative Law, in collaboration with the Italian Association for European and Comparative Law, will organise ‘The Dutch Constitution Beyond 200: tradition and innovation in a multilevel legal order'.

Leiden has the most highly regarded China Studies programme in Europe. But how did this knowledge find its way specifically to Leiden? For his PhD research Koos Kuiper delved into the unique history of the start of this unique programme.

Eighteen of the 150 newly elected Dutch MPs studied at Leiden University or did their PhD research there. Who are they and what did they study?

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.…

Dutch Parliament members are reluctant to discuss their urgent need for more support staff. They are afraid to be labelled as “greedy” or profiteers if they were to put in a request for more assistance. But times seem to be changing.

Free online AI tools can generate fake images, including nude images of people. In an op-ed in 'Trouw' newspaper, Bart Custers, Professor of Law & Data Science, says the Dutch government should act ahead of the EU's intended ban on this practice.