Increased public trust in law, government and democracy.

Polarisation is pervasive: in the workplace, within teams, and even at the top of organisations. Discussions become entrenched, emotions rise, and collaboration falters. Connections are lost through ‘us versus them’ thinking. The question is how leaders can maintain space for dialogue when tensions…

What are the main issues leading to polarisation and division? What is the role of social exclusion in these processes? How can we inform and design better policies to safeguard young people from falling prey to intolerance and polarisation? The DRIVE project, led by Leiden University in The Hague,…

Lecture

A new way to decipher the light from distant worlds could give us unmistakable evidence of extraterrestrial photosynthesis, and maybe alien plants, finds astronomy author Colin Stuart in the New Scientist. In his article, he describes the work of the group led by Leiden astronomer Rob van Holstein.…

An international team led by Leiden astronomers has, after years of searching and defying the boundaries of a telescope, for the first time directly captured polarised light from an exoplanet. From this light they can deduct that a disk of dust and gas orbits the exoplanet. In this disk moons are possibly…

The Hazelhoff Centre for Financial Law team regularly publishes in both Dutch and international academic journals and book series.

Increasingly, citizens are going to court to challenge decisions by the Public Prosecution Service not to prosecute in certain, sometimes socially sensitive, cases. Yet, these citizens are not always taken seriously as democratically engaged persons. A mistake, says Sophie Koning.

For decades, unmarried girls and women in the Netherlands were forced to give up their newborn children. The impact was profound and persists to this day for the mothers, fathers, relinquished children, and the adoptive families in which they were raised.

Leiden University is an international, broad-based university. We distinguish five core domains for our research and teaching activities.

When Dutch citizens request information under the Open Government Act (Woo), third parties can ask the public authority to withhold certain information. Leiden research reveals that the position of these third parties is unclear and accessing information is a difficult process.

Groupcard provided prepaid cards to Dutch municipalities for welfare recipients, informal carers and volunteers. Now it is bankrupt, the cards are worthless and consumers and municipalities have lost money. Associate Professor Jessie Pool is investigating whether vulnerable people need better protection…

If a young person from a migrant background climbs the social ladder despite internship discrimination, the exclusion often gets worse. It is only when we acknowledge these problems that we can resolve them, say Nadia Bouras and Tikho Ong, who are both experiential and academic experts. ‘Racism and…

Confronting your own biases, students of the course ‘Adults and Children in a Polarising World’ are not afraid to do exactly that. ‘The fact that my expectations of the interview were not in line with the outcome, was very informative.’

One of the key limitations of the direct imaging of exoplanets at small angular separations are quasi-static speckles that originate from evolving non-common path aberrations (NCPA) to which the primary adaptive optics system is inherently blind. The main focus of this thesis is the development and…

The Israel-Palestine conflict regularly sparked intense debates in university lecturer Noa Schonmann's classes. She decided to start a podcast with journalist Rajaa Natour to teach her students to have deep and difficult conversations in a nuanced way.

Water is all around us and is vital for all aspects of life. Studying the various compounds and life forms that inhabit natural waters lets us better understand the world around us.

Political scientist Simon Chauchard (Leiden University) has been awarded a Consolidator Grant by the European Research Council (ERC). This brings him recognition as ‘researcher with a promising track record’ and enables him to set up a research group in the coming five years. Chauchard et al. will analyse…

We are pleased to invite abstracts for a conference on ‘Advancing Social, Economic, and Cultural Rights in a Polarised, Digitalised, and Unequal World’ to be held at Leiden University on 4 and 5 September 2025, in collaboration with Netherlands Network for Human Rights Researh (NNHRR).

It appears to be a paradox: ultra-thin material that absorbs all the incident light. Nonetheless, it does exist. Two Leiden researchers report on their research in ‘Applied Physics Letters’. The article is among the Top 20 of the most downloaded articles of this reputable journal in May.

In a time of growing polarisation and declining trust, the rule of law is under pressure. The system as we know it today only took shape 177 years ago, with the constitutional reform of 1848. Carla Hoetink emphasises: ‘The democratic rule of law was originally designed to prevent violence and revolu…

Half april verschijnt bij uitgeverij Walburg Pers: Jacob van Maerlant, Der Naturen Bloeme. Uit het Middelnederlands vertaald door Ingrid Biesheuvel.

Social assistance and minimum income benefits are important instruments as a safeguard against low income and poverty. There have been major developments in minimum income benefits both in developed and developing countries over the last decades. Our study collects several empirical studies regarding…

Susanna Lindberg(ed.), Artemy Magun (ed.), Marita Tatari (ed.) With this book, we would like to resume the passionate conversation that Jean-Luc Nancy was engaged in throughout his life, with philosophers and artists from all over the world. Now that he has passed away, it is not enough for us to…

Tahir Abbas, Associate Professor in Terrorism and Political Violence at ISGA, explained how polarisation and social exclusion were at the root of radicalisation around the world. Papers ‘The News’ and ‘Dawn’ wrote articles about it.

Researchers from the Institute of Public Administration and the Institute of Security and Global Affairs at FGGA are launching a new research programme: Governing Polarized Societies (GPS). The programme will focus on the way in which governments are dealing with the increasing polarisation in society.…

Indigenous Pasts and the Roman Present

The Politics and Governance department of the Institute of Public Administration focuses on the complex interaction between politics and governance. Our research explores contemporary issues such as the impact of global crises, populism, and polarisation at various levels of government.

The rise of extremism in Europe has increased polarisation. The EU-funded DRIVE project, led by Tahir Abbas, Professor of Radicalisation Studies from Leiden University’s Institute of Security and Global Affairs, explores how social, structural, and individual factors contribute to radicalisation, offering…

Social media gives people a voice but also fuels online hate, especially against marginalised groups. PhD candidate Eva Nave: ‘While end-to-end encryption protects activists, it also enables criminal activity, creating a more accessible version of the Darkweb.’

Na gedwongen uithuisplaatsing gaan vier op de tien kinderen terug naar huis. Van deze kinderen wordt een op de vier opnieuw uit huis geplaatst. Bovendien komt de uithuisplaatsing vaak onverwachts. Dit blijkt uit Leids onderzoek in opdracht van het WODC.

When we think of politics, we tend to think of adversary, antagonism, polarisation, a struggle for power. But politics should serve positive purposes, as well. Political psychologist and meditation teacher Femke Bakker (Leiden University) thinks that positive politics is first and foremost about tolerance.…

Below you will find a collection of books, other than those in the BLRN book series, to which members of BLRN have contributed.

Political scientist Wouter Veenendaal (Leiden University) provides an in-depth case study of clientelism in Malta, the smallest member state of the European Union. He reveals that not only that patron–client linkages are a ubiquitous feature of political life in Malta, but also that the smallness of…

No evidence found that increasing migration leads to an increase in politically and ideologically motivated criminality. Migration flows have, however resulted in increased polarisation in the Netherlands.

The new programme Synoptic Optics, funded by the NWO Domain Applied and Engineering Sciences, will develop new optical techniques. Researcher Frans Snik and Professor of Experimental Astrophysics Christoph Keller from Leiden Observatory will test novel approaches to monitor air pollution and discover…

When literature, cultural aspects, and data-driven language learning meet in a classroom.

In Democratie en totalitarisme zijn de invloedrijkste opstellen van de Franse denker Claude Lefort samengebracht. Lefort laat overtuigend zien dat de kwetsbaarheid van de democratie juist ook haar kracht is. Voor democratie is essentieel dat de macht als ‘lege plaats’ verschijnt. Zij mag slechts tijdelijk…

Do objectively correct solutions to ethical dilemmas exist? Or is ethics always a matter of your opinion against my opinion? How do you know what to do? What kind of thing is ethics anyway? Can you be an expert in ethics?

Is there extra-terrestrial life out there? It now looks as though we can sketch out an answer to this enduring question. Leiden Observatory is helping to build new instruments to find the most promising exoplanets.

Can behaviour in an online economic game be understood as a representation of radicalisation propensity?

This article presents the findings of an explanatory study into the perceptions of Dutch Muslims in The Hague concerning pre-emptive counter-extremism and de-radicalisation policies.

Terrorist attacks are not an end in themselves, but a means of creating unrest and fear. Terrorism policies and research should focus more on managing fear and social unrest.

The Diversity and Inclusion domain consists of a three-day masterclass on Inclusive Leadership for Depolarisation (English). There are also Dutch courses on Diversity & Inclusion at the Centre for Professional Learning, Leiden University.

As a university we stand with both feet firmly in the world. Internationalisation is in Leiden’s DNA: from the very foundation of our university, the ideal of the free academy has always attracted researchers and students from across the whole world.

This article reflects on the lessons of COVID-19 five years on. The crisis exposed deep vulnerabilities in health systems, governance, and social cohesion.

In the Master's programme Crisis and Security Management, specialisation Terrorism and Political Violence, we focus on the academic body of knowledge on different form of protests, contention, resistance and violence. We explore and explain the emergence of radical and extremist movement.