We are pleased to provide an update on progress and recent developments related to the Kernvisie. Several milestones have been reached and major steps have been taken. Now, we can look ahead to the important Kernvisie implementation year 2024-2025. Some milestones:

Ward Hoskens started ten years ago as an intern at one of Leiden's most iconic buildings: the Pieterskerk. Now he is doing his PhD on the question of how the function of this 'church that is no longer a church' changed over recent centuries.

In the eighteenth century, the Dutch East India Company (VOC) housed its enslaved people on ‘Slave Island’ in Colombo, the capital of Sri Lanka. Today ‘Slave Island’ is under serious threat from property developers. Senior lecturer Alicia Schrikker, together with her Sri Lankan colleagues Iromi Perera…

We are pleased to invite paper proposals for the 1.5-day interdisciplinary workshop: “Who rules over migrants? Autocratic elements in migration policies”, that will take place at the University of Leiden on 14 and 15 November 2024.

Thirteen teams of inventive staff rose to the challenge of creating brand-new AI applications to lighten their workload during the AI Cocreation Lab. At the closing ceremony in the Academy Building, participants showed their pitch films, and an expert jury announced the winning prototypes.

Do you have an innovative idea on how to improve education, but don't know what steps to take next? The Comenius programme offers a range of grants for educational innovation. A lecturer and policy adviser explain which doors the grant can open.

Julie Külsen is the student member on the Faculty Board, called the assessor, this academic year at Leiden Law School. Who is Julie and what does the assessor actually do? How can she help students? Let’s meet our new assessor!

Studying as an asylum seeker without a residence permit. Every year, student initiative IncLUsion enables dozens of asylum seekers to take several courses at Leiden University. ‘Education has given me a lot of support.’

Karwan Fatah-Black and Lauren Lauret are co-authors of Geketend voor Hollands Glorie (The Chains of Holland’s Glory) that studies the political and economic connections between South Holland and slavery. The findings of this research will be presented with Dr. Joris van den Tol (Radboud University)…

Aya Ezawa bade farewell as Diversity Officer of Leiden University at a celebration in the Academy Building on 11 June. Since her appointment in 2019, she has been a tireless advocate for culture change and a champion for diversity, inclusion and equal opportunities for all.

Anthropologist Marit Brun captured Leiden’s student life during her studies, which won her the ‘Best Leiden photo’ competition. She now wants to continue with photography and making travel guides with a nod to anthropology.

Amidst the lathes and welding machines of the Fine Mechanics Department, Emiel Wiegers is working concentratedly on a metal cylinder. He and his colleagues design and construct components for researchers' set-ups. ‘We are a bunch of inventors who enjoy helping the researchers in our Faculty.’

The Pre-PhD Programme offers master’s students the chance to gain research experience. ‘The programme helps you discover if doing research is something for you’, says Bastiaan Ganzen, the programme’s Academic Coordinator.

The student navigator ‘Find your way’ helps students find their way around the university. The ombuds officer for students, Eugène van der Heijden, can also be found on this roadmap. Eugène talks about his work as ombuds officer and what he does for students.

As a twelve-year-old girl, Nicky van de Beek became intrigued by the tomb chapels in Saqqara, Egypt. Now she is doing her PhD on them, just like another Leiden Egyptologist decades earlier. Herta Mohr persevered with her research during World War II. Now she is the namesake of the first Leiden building…

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.

A new academic year means new courses. And that inevitably requires all sorts of new skills: academic writing, searching for sources, setting up a research project... The Science Skills Platform is packed with useful information. This way, you can easily help your students on their way.

In this Educatips collumns, Child and Education Studies lecturers share their key insights about teaching. This month: Rachel Plak and Karlijn Pieterse wanted to better prepare students in the course Autism and Diagnostics for clinical practice. That's why they introduced a new type of assignment.

After a successful career as a singer, Esmee Schoones started studying French a few years ago. It resulted in a national award for her thesis on musical arrangements of Verlaine's poems and a job teaching French.

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.

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.

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

Dubai is teeming with world leaders these days at the United Nations' annual climate conference. What can we expect? We look ahead with university lecturer and environmental politics specialist Shiming Yang. 'The funding always comes slowly.'

Would you like to share your expertise with a wide audience, and in a very convenient way? The Vraag het Leiden (Ask Leiden) video platform is looking for academics who can answer questions sent in by the general public, both young and old, by recording short videos.

Another successful edition (the fourth!) of the Leiden Alumni in Brussels event took place on 23 February. With a fully booked registration list, it already promised to be a great success in advance. The event took place at the Baker McKenzie location right in the centre of Brussels. As the area was…

A pill can make you better, but how exactly does it work? Primary school children from The Hague found out during a visit to the Centre for Human Drug Research (CHDR) as part of a new teaching module ‘The journey of a pill’.

During pre-Columbian times, the Central American isthmus was marked by dynamic exchange and human mobility. Despite this, indigenous communities were archaeologically stable between AD 300 and the 16th-century Spanish colonisation, contrasting with the cycles of florescence and decline of neighbouring…

Laura Kamsma, Head of the International Office of our Faculty kept a travel log during her visit to the EAIE conference. You can read her report here.

Hiring academics is more than just tallying up publications, says academic director and history professor Jeroen Duindam. He and his colleagues have come up with tips and guidelines for interview committees that align with the new system of recognition and rewards.

Academic freedom is something to be cherished. The freedom to conduct research, design courses and publish research findings as we see fit is crucial to our work.

‘I’m setting Academia in Motion by promoting and developing Open Educational Resources (OERs) to enable affordable learning for anyone, and to keep learning and education in the hands of universities and schools,’ says physician, anatomy teacher and e-learning developer Paul Gobée.

In the upcoming months, PhD candidates Neske Baerwaldt (FdR / VVI) and Wiebe Ruijtenberg (FSW / CAOS) will produce the ethnographic podcast series ‘Grensverhalen’. The series will be published online in September, and will be used as teaching material in various courses.

Wilke Geurds graduated from the Visual Ethnography master's programme last year with her intimate and vulnerable documentary 'F*ck Endo. More than just menstrual pain.'.

Assistant Professor Lucie Zicha at Leiden University College (LUC) in The Hague is on a mission to bring statistical literacy to all undergraduate students.

Samen met een groep enthousiaste wetenschappers bezocht ik deze maand verschillende universiteiten en andere kennisinstellingen tijdens een kennismissie in Indonesië.

Laura Boncz was a member of the faculty board last year as an assessor of the Faculty of Social Sciences. Robin Buijs will take over from September. In this article Laura looks back and you can meet Robin.

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.

He studied Dutch Studies, did Dutch literature research for his internship, and worked at HEMA: Hungarian Márton Biró (26) came to the Netherlands on exchange and decided to stay.

In this 'Educatip's column, psychology teachers share their key insights about work. This time: course coordinator Evelien Broekhof received support from teaching assistant Vincent during the last term. ‘I have more room in my schedule now that I don't have to do everything alone anymore.’

September 2022 marks the tenth anniversary of International Studies bachelor's programme. Some (former) staff members tell us what they think makes the Faculty of Humanities' largest programme so special.

The bachelor's programme in International Studies is celebrating its tenth anniversary. Ko Voskuilen was among the very first batch of students to follow the study, and Sophia Healy graduated this summer. How do they look back on their time at the university?

The new student members of the Programme Committee (OLC) are Pablo Pandocchi, Benjamin Maldonado, Emily Berube-Palsboll and Nico Lesenfants Ramos.

Political games have existed throughout history, but what is the role of 'play' in the way the American political world has developed? University lecturer Sara Polak has received an ERC Starting Grant to investigate this.

An X-ray scanner, some small metal balls, and a newly developed algorithm. That is all you need to make a 3D model that enables you to look inside art objects without dismantling them. Thanks to the research of Francien Bossema (Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica and Leiden Institute of Advanced Computer…

PhD candidate Jianhong Zhou aimed to better understand whether and how plant species adapt to environmental changes. She developed two databases that she used to analyze how easily or difficultly plants adapt to changing conditions. Zhou defended her PhD thesis on 4 September.

Would you like to share your academic research with a diverse international audience? On the not-for-profit news platform The Conversation, academics and journalists team up to write research-based articles. Leiden University recently partnered with this platform, and two of our colleagues share their…

University is often a period of sexual exploration and experimentation, generally to the satisfaction of all involved. But sometimes you want it and the other doesn’t. Or vice versa. Or you can’t really tell. This is what the Safe Space play at Theater Ins Blau was about on 11 October. And: can your…

Assistant Professor Anna Dlabacova has been awarded a Starting Grant by the European Research Council. She will use this grant of around 1.5 million euros to conduct research on the Dutch vernacular ‘book of hours’.

Looking to share your academic results or insights with a global audience? Leiden University is a ‘contributing member’ of the international journalism platform The Conversation. In 2024, this resulted in 51 articles, which together were read by more than 667,000 people.

What are the origins of the Islamic Empire? And what was daily life like there? Two new Ted Ed animations answer these questions in simple language. Arabists Petra Sijpesteijn and Birte Kristiansen explain what the process of developing the videos was like.