This study offers a new view on public services in the early modern Low Countries and answers the following questions: who provided public facilities in urban communities and in which ways did public amenities change in the period between 1500 and 1800?

The project explores the impact of the clash between defenders of a rules-based order and international law on global governance and the future of legal systems.

In this article, Maria-Elena Kisyova, Yannick Veilleux-Lepage and Vanessa Newby shed some light on how a small but highly visible group of influencers are actively working to promote a dangerous far-right ideology.

Politics and Aesthetics is one of the six research themes of the LUCAS Modern and Contemporary cluster.

Amy Strecker assesses the institutional framework for landscape protection, analyses the interplay between landscape and human rights, and links the etymology and theory of landscape with its articulation in law.

The Next444 project focuses on the future of interdisciplinary research at Leiden University.

On the 20th of June, Camil Staps successfully defended a doctoral thesis. Leiden University Centre for Linguistics congratulates Camil on this achievement!

Fieldwork is a crucial part of the learning process for students in the Faculty of Archaeology. This includes both fieldwork aimed at collecting archaeological data and materials as well as fieldwork for heritage studies. The Faculty has established a specific centre of expertise to further shape these…

Book project on how European policy is made and implemented, with a focus on how that process can be understood and lead to policy change.

This research delves into the unique cultural approach of the Tenggerese people, an Indigenous community in East Java, Indonesia, regarding elderly care. It focuses on their traditional practices of bakti (‘filial piety’) and sayan (‘mutual aid’), deeply ingrained in the community's lifestyle and va…

On 7 November 2018, Catherine Harwood defended her thesis 'Navigating Between Principle and Pragmatism: The Roles and Functions of Atrocity-Related United Nations Commissions of Inquiry in the International Legal Order'. The doctoral research was supervised by Prof. dr. L.J. Van den Herik and Prof.…

Although nanoparticles are extensively used in various applications like consumer products and have most probably entered the environment, little is known about the effects of these particles on living organisms.

Enzymes are innately sensitive to changes in the amino acid sequence, which largely constrains their evolutionary potential, i.e., evolvability. This evolutionary burden can be alleviated in the presence of stabilizing mutations, which increase the buffering capacity of enzymes to tolerate mutations…

A key step in the synthesis of oligosaccharides and glycoconjugates is the formation of the glycosidic bond.

This thesis investigates opinion dynamics on random graphs through the lens of the voter model, a classical interacting particle system used to describe how consensus emerges in networks.

European Politics and Society offers a fresh approach to understanding how European politics, history, culture, economy, and international relations are connected. You’ll explore how these fields shape policy-making and Europe’s role in the world.

On 12 March, Frederik Heitmüller defended the thesis 'Combatting tax avoidance, the OECD way? The impact of the BEPS Project on developing and emerging countries’ approach to international tax avoidance'. The doctoral research was supervised by Madeleine Hosli and Irma Mosquera Valderrama.

This study aims to examine how South Korea (hereafter, Korea) and Japan, two neighboring countries in Northeast Asia, have been responding to and mitigating the spread of COVID-19.

In this article, the authors analyse two major factors that deepen informality, namely multipolar geopolitics and the rise of non-state actors.

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

This book offers a historical and historiographical analysis of the Spanish asiento de negros, a contract between the Spanish Monarchy and private parties to introduce specific number of enslaved Africans to Spanish America.

This article explores how the meaning of the rule of law has evolved over the past century in UK and US parliamentary speeches, focusing on procedural (thin) and substantive (thick) conceptualisations.

This research cluster is a part of the Institute of Political Science’s research programme ‘Institutions, Decisions and Collective Behaviour’. Its members examine the sources, design, effects and contestation of norms, rules, institutionalised practices and formal organisations that operate across national…

This book reveals how one publishing firm's editorial strategy helped to legitimate European colonialism in the early modern era.

Read here what we find important in our education.

The 2006 United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities differs markedly from other forms of international human rights law: it not only protects the rights of individuals but also addresses interpersonal relations and social structures. How did the convention attain this broad…

Museums are powerful and influential institutions in their ability to shape knowledge and contribute to our identity. What we preserve and how we present our collections and heritage is closely connected to our identity and culture. In the multidisciplinary Museums, Heritage and Collections, you'll…

This research examines cultural pathways as a tool, methodology and framework for advancing climate action in the Anglophone Caribbean through the integration of archaeological, ethnographic, and community-based knowledge.

This thesis investigates catalytic reactions at the atomic scale using scanning tunneling microscopy (STM), with a focus on Fischer–Tropsch synthesis, a key industrial process that converts hydrogen and carbon monoxide into liquid fuels.

The AI Collaboration Centre aims to forged alliances with the (local) government, companies and other educational institutes.

Are you curious about why people are the way they are – and how they change? At Leiden University, you’ll explore social behaviour, ideas and cultures, from the past to the present and from local to global. From major cities to world religions, from philosophical questions to education and upbringing…

Are you curious about why people are the way they are – and how they change? At Leiden University, you’ll explore social behaviour, ideas and cultures, from the past to the present and from local to global. From major cities to world religions, from philosophical questions to education and upbringing…

Are you curious about how economics, law and governance shape our society? At Leiden University, you’ll explore financial systems, public administration, international relations and legal frameworks. From international law to public policy, from global diplomacy to financial regulation: you’ll learn…

Are you curious about how economics, law and governance shape our society? At Leiden University, you’ll explore financial systems, public administration, international relations and legal frameworks. From international law to public policy, from global diplomacy to financial regulation: you’ll learn…

This PhD project investigates how Russian state-aligned media frame the war in Ukraine for international audiences and how these frames travel across borders, being adopted, adapted, or challenged by foreign media and political actors.

We know that armed conflict breeds conflict. We also know the political, economic and demographic factors that inform this repetition of conflict. But we do not understand why accumulated conflict risk factors sometimes do and other times do not pay out in more violence. What if we go beyond macro structural…

On the 19th of February, Mariana Martins successfully defended a doctoral thesis. Leiden University Centre for Linguistics congratulates Mariana on this achievement!

n this PhD thesis, the recombination of different atomic lattices in stacked 2D materials such as twisted bilayer graphene is studied. Using the different possibilities of Low-Energy Electron Microscopy (LEEM), the domain forming between the two atomic layers with small differences is studied.

In this book, Jan Melissen and other authors explore how governments engage domestic citizens in global affairs through the emerging practice of 'home engagement' in diplomacy, highlighting its growing importance in an interconnected and politically turbulent world.

This research comprises various sub-projects.

This project investigates how people choose linguistic forms like questions or statements in everyday speech.

In September 2025, Leiden University submitted its self-evaluation for the mid-term review of the Social and Behavioural Sciences Sector Plan. This self-evaluation provides an overview of the progress made within Leiden since the start of the SSH Sector Plans and reflects on how FSW and FGGA contribute…

Arts and leisure, Arts and leisure

Our university is part of Una Europa: an alliance of 11 leading European research universities.

Since the Second World War, intelligence and security services have played an important role in policy and decision making, particularly with regards to a state’s national security. In this minor programme you study both the organisations, their working methods, their analysis techniques, as well as…

The Violence and Violence Prevention research group investigates the complexity of contemporary violence, its various manifestations, and strategies for prevention.

The main aim of this project is to reveal and unravel the invisible histories of the UN, transcending the dominant Western perspective to recover the historical agency of Global South actors. The research will investigate how the UN has both facilitated and limited their role in shaping global order…