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.

An archaeologist as a modern-day shaman. An unexpected comparison Professor by Special Appointment of Public Archaeology Luc Amkreutz will make in his inaugural lecture.

Juan Masullo (Leiden University Institute of Political Science) receives a grant from the Elise Mathilde Fund/Leiden University Fund to conduct his research project ‘Forging an Anti-Mafia Culture: Observational and Experimental Evidence from Italy’. Masullo aims to find out what ordinary Italians think…

Prof. Andrea Evers is a health psychologist who studies the role of behavioural factors in health and disease. As a Medical Delta Professor, she is now affiliated with Leiden University, TU Delft and Erasmus University. In that position, she conducts research at the intersection of various disciplines.…

A smart city is of no use if its residents don’t trust it. Tanaquil Arduin, Chief Data Officer at the Municipality of The Hague, and Bram Klievink, Professor of Digitalisation and Public Policy at Leiden University, explain how this can be avoided – to some extent. ‘Make sure civil servants and residents…

Professor of Modern China Florian Schneider researches what people do with technology and what technology does with people. Social media, for example. And then mainly in China.

In zoos, at festivals and in a mobile lab at the market: everywhere, Mariska Kret tries to understand human and animal emotions with her distinctive behavioural research. Now she has received the Mercator Sapiens Stimulus of €1 million for her efforts.

Particularly during this time of social distancing and remote learning, it is important to carry on meeting new people – even if you don’t always feel like it after another day staring at your screen, says Wessel van Dam. In his role as assessor at the Honours Academy, Wessel represents the interests…

"Climate citizenship” explores how adapting environments to climate change can change the way people interact with each other and with government. It focuses on nature-based or 'green' climate infrastructure projects that make use of natural entities or dynamics. With an ERC grant, anthropologist Andrew…

Leiden University Libraries holds an internationally unique collection of unofficial poetry from China. Produced outside the System over the last fifty years or so, this poetry is hugely influential yet hard to find beyond the informal networks through which it travels. To address this paradox, the…

What if seriously ill patients do not want to hear their diagnosis? Does a clinician always need to provide a patient with all available information? Communication researcher Liesbeth van Vliet, medical anthropologist Annemarie Samuels and research intern Fiona Brosig will put these questions on open…

Toelating en selectie

How do we prepare our students for a future labour market in which flexibility, resilience and adaptability are essential?

How do we tackle financial stress among students? Policymakers and students came up with a plan. The outcome has been a report that the university can use to help answer the question. Vera Hilgevoord organised the brainstorm session with students and has compiled their ideas.

Bodies come in all different shapes and sizes. For his PhD, Andries Hiskes researched the disabled body and the reactions it can bring.

From malaria parasites as a vaccine to how top-level bureaucrats reach their decisions: seven researchers from Leiden University have received a Vidi grant from the Dutch Research Council (NWO). This 800,000-euro grant will enable them to develop their own innovative line of research over the next five…

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.

On 1 September, Ad Maas, curator of Rijksmuseum Boerhaave, was appointed professor by special appointment. In this role, he will primarily focus on the representation of natural sciences in museums.

Nederlanders met lage inkomens lopen tot 1,5 keer meer risico op het krijgen van een hartaanval of beroerte dan rijkere landgenoten. Bij Surinaamse Hindoestanen is dit risico 1,9 keer hoger. Dat blijkt uit onderzoek van het LUMC en het HagaZiekenhuis. Nederlandse artsen kijken tot nu toe niet naar deze…

Specially for an experiment conducted by Leiden University, public administration experts and water authority officials came together in a laboratory.

From researching plastic pollution to caring for injured wildlife, volunteers play a crucial role in conservation. But much of the valuable knowledge they gather remains unused.

Simay Çetin won the FSW Master’s Thesis Prize 2021 with her thesis “Interpreting Culture through Embodied Practice: An anthropological study of sexuality among Dutch Women with Turkish Migrant backgrounds”. She was supervised by Prof. dr. Peter Pels. According to the jury is Simay’s thesis not only…

In a lecture for the University of the Netherlands, Reijer Passchier, assistant professor in constitutional and administrative law, speaks about the state of our democracy. ‘Is it not time to upgrade our democracy?’

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.

Luis is a third-year bachelor’s student Security Studies. During his elective space, he did an internship at the German Ministery of Labour and Social Affairs.

The Pieter de la Court Medal is awarded annually by the Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences for an initiative by a student or group of students that, over the last academic year, has made a particular contribution to at least one of the Pieter de la Court themes. This year, this medal has been…

Taking part in TikTok challenges, online gambling, and forwarding nudes. ‘Why do adolescents take online risks?’, psychologist Neeltje Blankenstein wonders. Her research on online risk taking has been awarded a Veni grant by the Netherlands Research Council (NWO). Read her answers to five questions.

Nu de NAVO inzet op 5% defensiebudget, zoekt Nederland naar financiering. Politicoloog Van der Zwan ziet kansen bij pensioenfondsen—mits defensie duurzaam heet.

A new challenge for Felix Ameka. The senior lecturer at the Centre for Linguistics has been appointed professor by special appointment of Ethnolinguistic Vitality and Diversity in the World. ‘I am looking forward to promoting ethnolinguistic diversity and vitality.’

Tech giants such as Google, Apple, and Microsoft are increasingly shaping the digital world we live in. Reijer Passchier cautions: 'Urgent measures are needed to curb this influence.'

A bloody civil war has raged for years in the Central African Republic. PhD candidate Crépin Mouguia points out a tragic pattern: young people have been recruited as fighters or soldiers for generations and thus fuel the conflicts.

A rapid increase in the demand for construction sand is driving shortages and inequality around the world. Researchers from the Institute of Environmental Sciences at Leiden University have mapped the growing need for sand, as well as the bottlenecks and possible solutions. They have published their…

Climate interventions do not lead to more climate action among Dutch, but they do raise awareness about climate change.

An NWO Veni application by Linda Geven, Assistant Professor at the Institute of Criminal Law and Criminology, has been honoured. She will spend the next three years conducting research into false confessions in police interrogations.

First inaugurated in 2018, the CADS PhD Conference aims to provide young anthropologists in Leiden University and beyond an opportunity to meet each other, present their work, and engage in meaningful discussion. This year, the CADS PhD Conference will be a platform for sharing ideas and insights about…

A major new study of ancient DNA has traced the movement of people into southern Britain during the Bronze Age. In the largest such analysis published to date, scientists examined the DNA of nearly 800 ancient individuals. Publication in Nature on December 22, 2021.

The city of Leiden has a unique combination of knowledge institutions. To ensure this knowledge flourishes and the city gains the maximum benefit from it, the Leiden City of Knowledge partnership was launched five years ago. A new partnership agreement will be signed on 11 November.

Leiden Mayor Peter Heijkoop visited the Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences and the Faculty of Science on Monday,

Watching and analysing hundreds of TEDx talks, that too can be research. That becomes clear from the work of PhD student Aletta Meinsma, who is studying potential problems in popular communication about quantum technologies. She explains how she approaches this and why it is so important.

What defence strategy should the Dutch government adopt for the next four years? Our experts advise investing in social resilience, strengthening ‘soft power’ and integrating defence awareness into education.

Dr Nathalie Brusgaard both studied and finished her PhD at the Faculty of Archaeology in Leiden. After a few years spreading her wings, she is now back. As the new Assistant Professor in the World Archaeology department, she will continue her research on the relationship between prehistoric humans and…

How do you go about the sustainable restoration of a nineteenth-century ship without affecting its historical worth? Leiden University students from the master’s programme in Industrial Ecology spent six months working on this question. We spoke to Hidde Boom (25) and Tycho Jongenelen (25), two of the…

Yann Ryan recently joined the Institute for History as a postdoctoral researcher within the starting grant project 'Quiet Rebels? A Social History of Political Rhetoric’ under the supervision of Anne Heyer. Below, he introduces himself.

In early modern England, courts of law were working overtime. University lecturer Lotte Fikkers delved into the records of centuries-old court cases involving women. In Early Modern Women's Life-Writing and English Law, she reconstructs how the story they told in court differs from the one they wrote…

Pandemics, terrorist attacks, environmental disasters... These are real threats, which we cannot ignore. In fact: we need to prepare better for the large-scale crises of the future. Preferably in a way that suits our lifestyle and respects our social values. Over the next ten years, an interdisciplinary…

In a recent publication in Nature Sustainability, an international team led by Josephine Chambers from Wageningen University, and including Marja Spierenburg from the Institute of Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology at Leiden University, have developed a practical tool for researchers and…

Individuals with a mild intellectual disability often experience loneliness more frequently than others. In a new NWA project, social history lecturer Paul van Trigt is collaborating with and for them to find a suitable approach.