How do balanced lethal systems originate and persist in nature?

We strive for FGGA staff to feel sufficiently challenged and recognized with an assigned workload that is realistic within their working hours. Besides that, staff should be transparently and correctly informed about their personal career perspectives and growth opportunities within the faculty / un…

Here you will find the answers to some of the frequently asked questions about the Internationalisation in Balance Act and the effects on the International Bachelor in Psychology.

All crested and marbled newts (the genus Triturus) suffer from an unusual genetic abnormality, called a balanced lethal system, that kills exactly half of their offspring. How can a trait so disadvantageous have survived millions of years of natural selection?

This dissertation is part of a broader research project that revolves around unraveling the evolution of balanced lethal systems.

Kim Stroet is examining how the interaction between teachers and pupils influences pupils’ motivation. ‘Children need to have the feeling that they are in control of their own learning process.’

The world around us is changing. What does that mean for the future of Europe, on this turbulent world stage? And what does it mean for our teaching, and for the expectations that Leiden University has of its students? These were the key questions during the opening of the 2018-2019 academic year on…

Microglia support the central and peripheral nervous system by forming the first line of defense against hazardous events. Microglia are increasingly acknowledged as critical players in neurodegenerative diseases, highlighting them as potential therapeutic targets.

Have you ever stood in front of an abstract artwork and thought: “a monkey could have done that!”. As it turns out, you are wrong.

In pursuit of solutions to China’s inter-regional cross-border insolvency cooperation, my doctoral dissertation provides 10 original recommendations accompanied with comments, which are entitled “China’s Inter-regional Cross-border Insolvency Arrangement” (CICIA).

The current resurgence of whooping cough is alarming, and improved pertussis vaccines are thought to offer a solution. Outer membrane vesicle vaccines (omvPV) are potential vaccine candidates, but omvPV-induced humoral responses have not yet been characterized in detail.

Researchers have the whole world as their work area. Dutch researchers collaborate with Chinese, Australians give lectures in Lithuania, Koreans move to America and back. Who can contribute to academic knowledge, who benefits from it and who pays for it? A fair and effective system for this has not…

This article presents two related arguments. First, the limits of doctrinal analysis cut deeper than many EU lawyers realise. Most would probably accept that legal doctrine does not determine every legal dispute, but lawyers studying EU institutional balance often still assume that it can be deduced…

On 2 May, Sophie Starrenburg defended the thesis 'Striking a balance between local and global interests: communities and cultural heritage protection in public international law'. The doctoral research was supervised by Nico Schrijver and Yvonne Donders.

The world we live in is changing in many aspects at an ever-increasing speed. And it will continue to do so. How do we anticipate these changes, such as the increase in atmospheric CO2, the extinction of species and industrialisation?

A portrait of the complex historical process of over 500 years of European colonialism in the New World.

The ERC project ‘Healthscaping Urban Europe’ will hold a concluding plenary event on 30 September, where three experts will explore the history of premodern public health and especially reflect on possible future directions within this research field. All are welcome to join in person in the Doelenzaal.…

The World Politics Major at Leiden University College The Hague examines the big ideas and the powerful forces – political, military, economic, social and cultural – that shape the world at every level, from the global to the local and everything in between. Political conflict is a key driver of many…

Public leadership received increasing attention, but we still do not understand how the context of public leaders affects leadership. This research project delves into public leaders’ perceptions of the leadership situations they find themselves in, which are characterised by multiplicity – one could…

Promotor: C.A.J. Knibbe, Co-promotor: J.J. Boelens, R.G.M. Bredius

When it comes to languages and cultures, Leiden University is the university. The global expertise present places our university at the top. In Leiden and The Hague, we study languages and cultures from all regions of the world and from prehistory to the present day. In this way we create a broad view…

The researchers in the World Archaeology department of the Faculty of Archaeology concentrate on a range of different periods and regions: from humanity’s origins to the Middle Ages and the modern age, and from Asia to South America.

The department of World Archaeology combines research and education about regions all over the world, from Human Origins to the Middle Ages, and from Europe, to Asia, Africa and the America’s. That broad range in time and space makes the department a dynamic pluriform community with many different approaches,…

AI has huge societal and economic potential and is widely used. But it also brings challenges: how do we combine human values with AI, how do we make AI more transparent and understandable, and what can AI and human cognition learn from each other, for example about language learning?

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

World History — a Genealogy charts the history of the discipline through twenty-five in-depth conversations with historians whose work has shaped the field of world history in fundamental ways.

The EU and the World is a Jean Monnet Chair, awarded to Karolina Pomorska (Institute of Political Science, Leiden University). Its aim is to promote and strengthen teaching and research in European Studies in Leiden and in The Hague.

What are the immediate and lasting effects of the colonial encounters on indigenous Caribbean cultures and societies and what were the intercultural dynamics that took place during the colonisation processes? How can the study of indigenous Caribbean histories contribute to a more sophisticated awareness…

The Ancient Worlds Network brings together staff and graduate students in LIAS working on the ancient Mediterranean and Near Eastern world.

Promotor: I. A. G. Snellen, Co-promotor: M. A. Kenworthy

The 2015 and 2018 Personnel monitors show that maintaining a good work balance remains difficult for staff at the Faculty of Humanities. Lecturer and researcher Judith Naeff and holder of the operational management portfolio Suzy Sirks have joined the Work Balance Steering Committee to examine the…

The World Teachers Programme (WTP) is a bilingual profile of the Initial Teacher Education programme geared towards bilingual and international education.

Ben Wielstra studies balanced lethal systems, in which half of the offspring die before birth. In the journal Current Biology, he explains in an accessible way how such a disadvantage can originate in nature.

Both play and politics have the potential to create worlds in which new rules apply, meanings are created, and possibilities emerge for collaboration, strategy and creative solutions. In this sense, play and politics have always been very much alike. But what happens to this kinship in a post-digital…

On 5 June, Maarten Aalbers defended the thesis 'The balancing of general interests in EU State Aid Law: blurred lines between the prohibition and the compatibility of aid'. The doctoral research was supervised by Pieter van Cleynenbreugel and Stefaan van den Bogaert.

PhD defence

A global perspective on the nature and evolution of nationalism, from the early modern era to the present.

The emergence of new players on the world market such as India, Brazil, China, Turkey and the Gulf States gives Africans more choice in who they work with and under which terms. At the same time, African multinationals are choosing to work with regional partners and are thus furnishing old political…

What does it mean to eat healthily and responsibly? This question is gaining a new urgency now that in many countries undernourishment is being overtaken by diseases of affluence, such as obesity, and we are also becoming more aware of the environmental impact of our eating habits. It’s time to take…

World history, connectivity and material culture, edited by Martin Pitts and Miguel John Versluys. From Cambridge University Press.

In 1940 the Germany occupiers ordered the dismissal of all Jewish staff of the university. This resulted in protest speeches by fellow academics.

The place of European states and institutions in world politics is the core focus of this pillar. Research on this theme concerns European actors’ ability to promote peace, security and justice in their neighbourhood and to shape the future of global governance by translating its economic size into…

The World Cultural Council (WCC) and Leiden University are pleased to announce that the 34th Award Ceremony will take place on Wednesday 8 November 2017 in Leiden. This year Professor Omar M. Yaghi, the James and Neeltje Tretter Chair Professor of Chemistry, University of California-Berkeley, USA,…

Opportunities, challenges, and future perspectives of people-centered approaches in dynamic historic urban landscapes