On the 15th of July Sawako Takemura successfully defended a doctoral thesis and graduated.

Beauty is a central concept in the Italian cultural imagination throughout its history and in virtually all its manifestations. It particularly permeates the domains that have governed the construction of Italian identity: literature and language.

This year's London Hellenic Prize is awarded to Caroline Vout for her excellent study of representations of the human body in sculpture, Exposed: The Greek and Roman Body.

PhD defence

On 30 January 2024 Jurre van der Meer successfully defended a doctoral thesis and graduated.

The renovated National Museum of Antiquities will re-open for the public on 15 December. Conservator Ruurd Halbertsma, Leiden Professor of Archaeology, explains why the renovation was needed: 'More visible cohesion between cultures, more context and more artistic lighting.'

For a few years now, Leiden’s Hortus botanicus has been mounting a campaign to cherish wild plants in the city – for the biodiversity and beauty of this spontaneous vegetation. Botanical artists reveal this beauty in an exhibition at Oude UB in Leiden.

Beautiful microscopic specimens play the leading role in the course 'Biodiversity Plant' for first-year Biology students. Normally these are put back in storage right after the course. But not this year!

Leiden Physics Poster

Knowledge and culture subproject 3:

In the ‘Imaginary’ exhibition, its curators show how society is made up of mathematics. From algorithms that save lives to ones that generate art. The exhibition is from 2 June to 25 July at Oude UB in Leiden.

On 22 June, Anneke Koning defended the thesis 'Return to sender: a multi-method study of guardianship against transnational sexual exploitation of children'. The doctoral research was supervised by Joanne van der Leun, Masja van Meeteren and Johan van Wilsem.

Programming courses are often only available in English. All the more reason for the Programming Education Research Lab (PERL) of the Leiden Institute of Advanced Computer Science (LIACS), Eindhoven University of Technology and University of Twente to translate the 'Beauty and Joy of Computing' programming…

Harm Derks started as Head of the Institute Office on 21 May. After a lengthy test drive in the world of classic cars, he is once again in his element back in the academic world. ‘I really want to get to know people, and also for colleagues to get to know me.’

From 27 to 29 September 2018 the Symposium 'Correct, but not beautiful performance: Deciphering the hidden messages in 19th-century notation' will take place at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. Dr. Anna Scott will be one of the keynote speakers.

In this first ever podcast from LUCIS, hosts Yasmin Ismail & Sara Bolghiran explore what it means to imagine Muslim futures. Over 6 episodes we explore questions around what it means to imagine, the politics of imagination and what it would mean to engage with Muslims from the perspective of futures…

Lecture

Interview with Pieter Slaman who received the LUS Education Prize. What makes the award so special to him and does he already know how he will use his prize money?

In the article 'Dankzij Instagram hebben jonge vrouwen over de hele wereld hetzelfde gezicht' in the Dutch newspaper NRC of 4 November 2021, Cultural Anthropologist Jasmijn Rana (Assistant Professor at CADS) talks about what she considers problematic about the Instagram face. The article discusses the…

Salt crystals, a nano-sized golf stick and molten glass. The LION Image Award competition of 2023 yielded a lot of beautiful images once again. But in the end, only one can be the winner.

Exhibition

More than 20.000 students walk, bike and live in the narrow streets of Leiden every day, making the city come to life. Humanities’ enthusiastic Student Video Team created a breathtaking time lapse and stop motion video of our beloved city, entitled The Leiden Experience: Student City.

The aim of this project is to study the influence of Longinus’s treatise ‘On the sublime’ on practice and theory of architecture and theatre in seventeenth-century Paris and Amsterdam.

ISBA 2025 is organised in Hotel Zuiderduin. One of the largest conference locations in the Netherlands!

Phd defence

Arts and leisure, Arts and leisure

Hundreds of beautiful and timeless photos by Emmy Andriesse, one of the most important Dutch photographers of the twentieth century, are now freely accessible for everyone and can be used for research, education or other purposes. Large parts of Andriesse's oeuvre are already available online via Digital…

Listening to birds and helping science, it is possible. Institute of Biology Leiden (IBL) researchers Karan Odom and Katharina Riebel launched a citizen science project to improve the worldwide documentation of female birdsong.

What the Sex Lives of Bugs, Birds, and Beasts Tell Us About Evolution, Biodiversity, and Ourselves, Menno Schilthuizen reports from the front lines of evolutionary biology, on a quest to make sense of the origins, workings and evolution of our and other species’ reproductive selves.

Leiden has the oldest botanical garden in the Netherlands, founded in 1590.

Dorothea Schulz & Martin Hense

Evert Jan van Leeuwen’s entry in Auteur Press’s Devil's Advocate series provides a complete study of the aesthetic appeal of Roger Corman's influential first Poe picture House of Usher.

If you can't make it to Leiden University to visit us, don't worry. Our virtual tours take you around the cities of Leiden and The Hague, show you around on campus and into our classrooms.

Bacteria are highly complex and diverse organisms that have adapted to survive in ecological niches ranging from the most extreme to the most heterogeneous environments.

Xiamen is a a city in the Chinese province Fujian. It currently has about 4.3 million citizens in the city. It is therefore the largest city of the province.

Troughout the ages, art has always had a large impact, from the first cave drawings until modern art forms. In the Bachelor's programme Art History at Leiden University you will not just get to know art from the Netherlands and Europe, but also from North-America, Asia and Africa. Study art from the…

If you can't make it to Leiden University to visit us, don't worry. Our virtual tours take you around the cities of Leiden and The Hague, show you around on campus and into our classrooms.

Lecture, Histories Connected: Work-in-Progress

Leiden is the ideal city for students. There is a wide variety of activities you can do next to your studies, to make the most out of your student life.

Leiden University provides ambitious students with the most recent and innovative areas of knowledge, and offers them the freedom to develop their own area of expertise.

The Hague is alive with nature – you just have to look

Leiden University provides ambitious students with the most recent and innovative areas of knowledge, and offers them the freedom to develop their own area of expertise.