An international committee has assessed computer science research at all Dutch universities in the period 2009-2014. For its computer science research, Leiden was awarded the ‘highest’ mark (1) for relevance to society.

A group of 12 LUC students went to the Eifel mountains for the annual field trip within the course 'Soils, Sediment, and Society' of Dr. Peter Houben. Dr. Peter Houben is Assistant Professor of Environmental Earth Sciences and Sustainability at Leiden University College The Hague.

In 2016, Marcel Cobussen successfully applied for two trainee positions at ACPA, funded by the Humanities Research Traineeship Programme at Leiden University. One of the results, a multi-media essay 'In Search of the Public. Exploring Contemporary Performance Practices of Classical Music in The Netherlands'…

Dr Alex Geurds was elected as a Fellow for the Society of Antiquaries, a prestigious and old educational charity based in London. Established in 1707, the society aims at the encouragement and advancement of the study and knowledge of the antiquities.

The Netherlands in September 2021 could be characterised as a low-trust society. Trust in the government has declined significantly in the past one-and-a-half years: from almost 70 percent in April 2020 to less than 30 percent in September 2021. There has also been a slight decrease in trust between…

The development of smart cars, video games that adapt to your gaming behaviour, law enforcement assigning your neighbourhood a risk score, insurance rates determined by your behaviour, finding your perfect match via an app: Artificial Intelligence (AI) is rapidly and radically transforming our interactions…

How can social scientists contribute to a healthier society? That question was central to the Healthy Society Event on 9 June 2022, which successfully marked the start of a more conscious and intensive collaboration between the five Institutes of the Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences on education…

The new minor ‘The (un)just society’ will start in September 2024. We asked Judi Mesman some questions about this new minor.

Maartje van der Woude, Professor of Law and Society at the Van Vollenhoven Institute for Law, Governance and Society, has been elected, after a vote among the members of the Law and Society Association (LSA), as one of the eight ‘elected trustees’ to join the ‘Board of Trustees’ of the LSA.

Friday 4 November marked the 65th anniversary of the founding of Leiden’s P.C. Hooft Historical Debating Society. Although new members have not been accepted for several decades, the society is still alive and kicking. A retrospective with former presidents Jos Hooghuis and Saskia Leupen.

In the National Think Tank, 20 young academics spend four months mulling over a solution to a societal problem. Two Leiden alumni tell us more.

Recognition for an unprecedented career of more than forty years: Professor of Applied Statistics Jacqueline Meulman of the Mathematical Institute receives the Career Award of the Psychometric Society. ‘A fantastic surprise.’

It is difficult to imagine a society other than a hierarchical nation-state. This is in part because we neglect alternative forms from the past, argues archaeologist Lewis Borck in the Journal of Contemporary Archaeology.

‘Quantum technology is going to change the world, but most people don’t feel connected to it. I want to change that,’ says Julia Cramer, assistant professor at Leiden University. Known for her passion for science communication, Cramer actively seeks opportunities to share the wonders of quantum technology…

Professor emeritus of Animal Behaviour Carel ten Cate is awarded honorary membership by the Dutch Society for Behavioural Biology (NVG). He received the honour for his activities for the Society and the discipline of behavioural biology.

On 10 December Sarah-Devorah Poot won the Jaap Doek Children’s Rights Thesis Award 2019 for her thesis on child-friendly judgments.

Nine staff members of the Van Vollenhoven Institute for Law, Governance, and Society participated in the Law and Society Association’s (LSA) annual conference from 27-30 May. VVI staff presented ten conference papers, organised multiple sessions, as well as served as chairs and discussants for numerous…

Below are some of the scholarly works published within the context of the Institutions for Conflict Resolution programme.

The Upper and Lower Houses of the Dutch Parliament are struggling with how tolerance should best be interpreted. As a result, the freedom in the Netherlands for people who hold alternative views is diminishing. This is Floris Mansvelt Beck’s conclusion on the basis of his PhD research. Defence on 2…

What is the history of plastic packaging in human society?

Connecting space to society and gaining problem-solving experience: that’s the goal of LDE Space & Society, a new honours programme for bachelor’s students in Leiden, Delft and Rotterdam. What does the programme look like? And what do students hope to learn? We visited a kick-off session full of exc…

Max Bader has been awarded a € 300,000 grant by the WOTRO Science for Global Development of NWO for a project about the role of civil society in fighting corruption in Ukraine. The project will be implemented jointly with the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy in Kyiv.

Eduard Fosch Villaronga, Assistant Professor at eLaw, co-organised together with Aurelia Tamò-Larrieux, Christoph Lutz, Anton Fedesov, and Anto Čartolovni the GoodBrother International Conference on Privacy-friendly and Trustworthy Technology for Society on 28 June 2022 in Zagreb, Croatia.

On June 26-28, 2024, the Annual Conference of the International Society for the Study of Medieval Theology will take place. The theme this year is "The End: Finiteness, Death and Completion in Medieval Theology". Deadline for paper proposals: 20 December 2023.

Expert in Classics Renske Janssen has been awarded a Rubicon grant. She will use the grant to conduct research at the University of Edinburgh into how Roman law was perceived by society at the time.

Technology, medical knowledge, social measures and the design of the living environment: all these needed to achieve a healthier society. In a series of interviews, 14 researchers from Zuid-Holland, including from Leiden University, argue for an integrated care approach.

Last week an audit committee from the Accreditation Organisation of the Netherlands and Flanders (NVAO) visited the Wijnhaven building at Campus The Hague to review the proposed new English-taught master’s degree programme ‘Law & Society: Governance and Global Development’.

In this article, Lianne Visser contributed to the understanding of why collaborative governance is a challenging response to wicked problems.

How and when do interest groups organise themselves as transmission belts and what are the implications for their political relevance among public officials involved decision-making processes?

This study examines recovery planning committees across Japan's Tohoku region.

Why are health problems such as loneliness and obesity so persistent? What causes them to occur more frequently in some neighborhoods than others? And how can we solve them? You will learn about these topics in the new minor 'Co-creating a Healthy Society'.

World history is often framed in terms of flows of people and migration: humans coming ‘out of Africa’, the spread of farmers in the Holocene, Phoenician and Greek diasporas over the ancient Mediterranean, the colonization of the world by Europeans from the 16th century onwards. Together with his Exeter…

The speed at which science is changing our lives gives rise to tensions and concerns. In his talk at Leiden University, Minister Robbert Dijkgraaf (Education, Culture and Science) said we should talk more about science’s relationship with society and political decision-making.

An in-depth history of Large Language Models—and what their ubiquity, disruption, and creativity mean from a wider sociopolitical perspective.

How are law and governance in China responding to rapidly changing circumstances, and what does that mean for the relationship between the state and its citizens?

Nine Honours Class students pitched their plans on 3 March to make the city of Leiden safer, more transparent and more democratic. In this version of 'Dragons Den' headed by Professor Job Cohen the students were tested on their plans and their mettle.

The University of Oslo and Leiden University have joined forces to organise a Tutorial on Robots and Society: Ethical, Legal, and Technical Perspectives on Integrating Robots in the Home and Healthcare Systems and Services at the IEEE International Conference on Robot and Human Interactive Communica…

Who doesn't love to turn on a horror film on a rainy evening? Fortunately, it is only fiction - or is it? According to university lecturer Evert Jan van Leeuwen, modern horror says more about our society than we think. He has been nominated for the Klokhuis Science Prize for his research into addiction…

The film Blade Runner as part of the law curriculum? It’s not that weird to Maartje van der Woude, Professor of Law and Society, and Frans-Willem Korsten, Professor of Literature, Culture and Law. ‘The film raises a fundamental question: what’s a human and what’s not?’ From the next academic year onwards,…

The Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) collaboration receives the 2021 Royal Astronomical Society Group Achievement Award. In April 2019, the EHT team presented the first-ever photograph of the shadow of a black hole. Leiden professor Huib-Jan van de Langevelde has been director of EHT since last year. Three…

Other COI publications can be found on Leiden Law Blog, the Leiden Law Methods Portal, and in the drop-down tabs below.

Colonialism Inside Out: Everyday Experience and Plural Practice in Dutch Institutions in Sri Lanka (c. 1700-1800)

Tarlach McGonagle has been appointed as Professor of Media Law in the Information Society as of 1 May 2019. The Chair is established by the Leiden University Fund (LUF) and is situated within the Department of Constitutional and Administrative Law.

The Royal Holland Society of Sciences and Humanities (KHMW) has appointed Jos Raaijmakers, professor of Microbial Interactions and diversity, as a new scientific member.