Lecture, European Union Seminar

Lecture

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.

For every period, it is a challenge to unearth the details of political trafficking; yet the effort needs to include all relevant persons, groups, and institutions – not only those wielding formal responsibilities. We hope to reinvigorate this effort by inviting specialists to present their research…

PhD ceremonies in the Academy Building will be much easier for family, friends and other non-specialist audience members to follow after the summer. The Doctorate Board is pleased to have decided that as of 1 September, all Leiden PhD candidates will begin their PhD defence with a lay talk. ‘It can…

Is there a place for machine translation engines like Google Translate within the Faculty of Humanities? Associate professor Lettie Dorst’s new educational website aims to help students and teachers find an answer to this question. ‘The use of AI tools, such as Bing and ChatGPT, shouldn’t be seen as…

In a supplementary decision on 17 May 2022, the Executive Board of Leiden University has concluded that it will publish the titles of seven articles in which there is evidence of malpractice. This concerns a former staff member of the Institute of Psychology. The Executive Board considers it to be in…

The Aernout van Lynden Global Citizenship Award award is a recognition given by the LUC community. Each year a student who has demonstrated the qualities of active engagement, responsive and responsible participation in civic and/or community building, within and/or beyond LUC is presented with the…

On 2 November, nine professors were simultaneously inaugurated as ‘Medical Delta Professor’ at Leiden University, LUMC, Delft University of Technology, Erasmus University and Erasmus MC. With an appointment at a minimum of two of these five academic institutions, they combine technology and healthcare…

Protostars, data science, and the James Webb Space Telescope—Adriaan Janssen’s curiosity knows no bounds. As a double bachelor’s student in Physics and Astronomy, he has truly found his calling, underscored by his nomination for the title of Leiden Science Young Talent 2024.

For the third consecutive year, LACDR organized the international symposium on topology, Circuit Topology III, on November 29, 2023. The event aimed to bring together experts from diverse fields, including mathematics, computer science, physics, chemistry, and biomedical sciences, to discuss cutting-edge…

Organisation

Conference, Book launch

On 20 April 2023, during the first lustrum congress of the Conference on European Restructuring and Insolvency Law (CERIL), professor emeritus Bob Wessels was appointed as Officer in the Order of Orange-Nassau. Mayor Kolff of Dordrecht presented the decorations to Wessels for his longstanding contribution…

Dr. Elif Naz Kayran received the Best Dissertation Award from the Migration & Citizenship Section of the American Political Science Association (APSA) for her dissertation 'Political Responses and Electoral Behaviour at Times of Socioeconomic Risk Inequalities and Immigration'

Leiden Law School is organising a summer conference on Law and Artificial Intelligence as part of the interfaculty and interdisciplinary research programme on Artificial Intelligence (SAILS) at Leiden University.

Matthew Broad recently joined the Institute for History as a lecturer in International Relations. He introduces himself.

Professor Nira Wickramasinghe will research forgotten lineages with an NWO Open Competition grant, in particular the afterlife of Dutch slavery in the Indian Ocean World.

Adina Akbik has been appointed as a new member of the Young Academy Leiden (YAL) as of 1 September 2024. Akbik is Senior Assistant Professor of European Politics at Leiden University. YAL serves as a platform for early career academics, and Akbik is keen to promote the needs and interests of young researchers…

More autocracies, less gender equality and growing anti-liberal sentiment. These are just some of the developments Professor Sarah Wolff will highlight in her inaugural lecture on the future of Europe. ‘The liberal world order as we know it in the West is at stake.’

De Starting Grant wordt jaarlijks door de European Research Council (ERC) toegekend. Dit jaar zijn er in Nederland 51 onderzoekers die een Starting Grant ontvangen, waaronder 4 onderzoekers van FSW.

An online ceremony, no party and then no signature in the Sweat Room: during the pandemic, many graduation traditions could not take place. Now anyone who graduated in corona time may still come and sign their name.

Between the 16 and 18 October, 85 Advanced MSc International Relationsand Diplomacy first-year students accompanied by team members embarked on an academic excursion to Brussels and various of its prominent EU institutions.

In a world increasingly shaped by conflict, it becomes ever more important to create space for empathy, understanding, and informed public discourse. That is the intention the Shelter documentary and immersive installation aims to achieve as it arrives at Leiden University.

At Leiden Law School’s first Faculty Research Day, scholars were invited to consider the ongoing war in Ukraine from their own perspectives and expertise. Various aspects surrounding this topic were addressed during lectures, discussions, and workshops.

On 3 September 2025, more than 30 archaeological objects were returned to Peru, Panama and Costa Rica. The objects come from a private collection belonging to the descendants of physician and amateur archaeologist Dr Hans Feriz. In her will, his daughter stipulated that the objects collected by her…

The numbers of asylum seekers and the direct family members hoping to join them were not the problem, says Mark Klaassen. The stumbling block was the housing market. He says the asylum crisis is being used for electoral gain.

Sarah Wolff has been professor of International Studies and Global Politics since 8 January. Time for a brief introduction about her field and academic interests.

On Thursday, May 16, Leiden University Libraries is organizing a workshop on early photography of the Middle East. In the workshop, curator Maartje van den Heuvel shows photos of three adventurous Dutch nineteenth-century travel and photography pioneers. They created beautiful photos and photo albums…

September 26 is the European Day of Languages. There are 24 official languages in Europe but some 200 languages in total are spoken on our continent. What good are all these different languages? And should we all learn Azerbaijani or Swedish? We asked Lisa Cheng, Professor of General Linguistics.

Almost 4400 anatomical drawings from the collections of Leiden University Libraries (UBL) are now available through Europeana. The collection shows medical art on paper from the early eighteenth century to the present day. Most of the drawings were created in or around the Leiden University Medical…

A team of European astronomers has found a silicate-based weather system on a cloudy gas planet around the star WASP-107. It is the first time astronomers have found silicate clouds and rain. They also conclude that temperatures deeper in the atmosphere are rising rapidly. 'The presence of clouds has…

People in the Early Bonze Age used bronze artefacts as a means of payment. This is the conclusion reached by archaeologists Maikel Kuijpers and Catalin Popa in a PLOS ONE article published on 20 January.

Kamila Smagulova recently joined the Institute for History as a PhD candidate, as part of Carolien Stolte's ERC project 'Reconciling Peace: International Coalitions for Peace in the Era of Decolonization, 1918-1970'. The project runs alongside Carolien Stolte's VIDI project 'Peace Palms. International…

Goldband, Skrillex, Róisín Murphy and... quantum: the latter may not be a band but is part of the Lowlands line-up nonetheless. Scientists from Leiden University are using the festival for research on the very smallest particles.

With a single sample of water or soil, researches can analyse the DNA of everything that is living in that environment. During her research, PhD candidate Beilun Zhao discovered a way to analyse not only the kind of species, but also the age of the species in a water sample. The method showed its first…

She walked into the Sylvius building as a wide-eyed twenty-something in 1984, and next year, she’ll be leaving us as a soon-to-be retiree in her sixties. Ine Tijdens (66) reflects on more than four decades at LACDR. ‘One year, I got a little whip for Sinterklaas. That says something about my persona…

A new face is strengthening FGGA's Faculty Board as vice-dean in the coming months. Maarja Beerkens comes from the Institute of Public Administration, where she has been teaching since 2010 and has also been Associate Professor and Educational Director for many years. The enthusiastic The Hague resident…

Jasper Knoester is the dean of the Faculty of Science. How is he doing, what exactly does he do and what does his day look like? In each newsletter, Jasper gives an insight into his life.

Roderick Bouman is collection manager of the Leiden Hortus botanicus. He keeps track of which plants there are in the garden, where they come from and makes sure visitors can find the right information about them. ‘We are like a regular museum,’ says Bouman. ‘Except that our objects are alive. That…

Leiden University wants to increase the security of its systems. That is why since 1 May the ‘sneakers team’ has been making many miles through our buildings. This team with various specialists will map all measuring and research systems. Today Roland van Dam introduces himself, he is the project manager…

Professor of Psychiatry Anne Speckens studied medicine in Leiden and did her psychiatry training there too. She opened the Radboudumc Center for Mindfulness in Nijmegen. What does she do there and how does she look back on her time as a student?

An impressive 60 alumni recently came to the Dutch Embassy residence in Japan to meet, network, see friends and practise their languages.

As a student, Ratna Lachmansingh wrote her thesis on horror films. Now she is the director of Leiden International Film Festival.

Over the past two years, the institute has undergone important developments under the leadership of Scientific Director, Professor Hanneke Hulst. She also steered the Institute with passion and determination through this tumultuous period. She leaves behind a strong, resilient and forward-looking organisation.…

A flu virus could cause a pandemic. And then we would be poorly armed because flu viruses are starting to become resistant to flu medications like Tamiflu. Chemist Merijn Vriends successfully worked on an improved version of such medications. He will be awarded his doctorate on September 12th.

Diversity and inclusion within the police creates opportunities but also meets resistance. Professor by special appointment and former police officer, Saniye Çelik, emphasises how ambivalent feelings about D&I are essential to the learning process and can lead to informed decisions and real change.

For over a year now, ombuds officer Marjan van Dasselaar has been devoting her efforts to a safer work environment at the university. What are her first impressions of this period? ‘People should feel free to call me sooner and more often, also for seemingly trivial situations.’

Jasper Knoester is the dean of the Faculty of Science. How is he doing? What kinds of things is he doing and what does his day look like? In each newsletter Jasper gives a peek into his life as dean.

The balance is positive: the faculty is growing faster than expected, reserves have been built up, and new programmes are attracting many students. At the same time, rapid growth requires realistic budgets, targeted staff expansion and agility in changing circumstances.