S.J. (Sil) Douma MA LLM (2001) studied Classics and Law at Leiden University (both cum laude). Since September 2024, Sil has worked at the department of Legal History ad a PhD student and researches the reception of Augustine in the oath theory of medieval canon law.

Marinus van Hekken is a PhD candidate at the Institute for History.

Rutger Hoekstra is an associate professor at CML who is an expert on environmental input-output modelling and beyond-growth debates. He leads the WISE Horizons project which works on metrics and models for sustainable and inclusive wellbeing (brede welvaart in Dutch). In 2019, he published his latest…

This month the University and several partners signed the rental contract for the brand-new Spui building. What will this location mean for the future of Campus The Hague, Leiden University and the population of The Hague? Martijn Ridderbos explains in his column.

Many Leiden University staff members have already benefited from Una Europa, the alliance of eleven leading European universities: they have received funding to bring an idea to life or participated in an exchange with European colleagues. On 22 October there will be a meet-up for everyone at Leiden…

Katarzyna J. Cwiertka is professor of Modern Japan Studies at Leiden University.

Alisa van de Haar is Assistant Professor in historical French Literature. Her research focuses on historical multilingualism, the history of the language sector, and the intersection between language and migration. From 2022 to 2026, she conducted a Dutch Research Council Veni project titled ‘Languages…

In a speech on Keti Koti the Dutch king, Willem-Alexander, apologised on behalf of the royal family for the Netherlands’ historical role in slavery. What is the significance of this?

A growing number of AI tools are being developed for the legal sector, to help professionals search lengthy texts or check court rulings. Leiden SAILS researcher Masha Medvedeva, an expert on the technical development of these systems, warns: ‘Users should know what’s under the hood.’

Gert Oostindie, Professor of Colonial and Postcolonial History, has been made an Officer in the Order of Orange-Nassau. He was awarded the royal honour by Leiden mayor Henri Lenferink after giving his valedictory lecture, ‘The future of the colonial past’, in the Academy Building of Leiden University…

Céline Zaepffel is a Lecturer in French literature and culture. Her research focuses on the transmission of ideologies through modern children's literature and culture, based on an intermedial and sociological analysis of children's media and the historical and cultural context of their publication.…

Judith Naeff is Assistant Professor Cultures of the Middle East at Leiden University with a main interest in contemporary Arabic visual culture and literature. She has worked mainly on cities & urban imaginaries and memory & temporality.

I am the Special Chair for Central European Studies, Assistant Professor of Judaism & Diaspora Studies and Director of the Austria Centre Leiden. From 2025-2030, I am the Principal Investigator of “A Century of Care: Invisible Work and Early Childcare in central and eastern Europe, 1905-2004” or CARECENTURY,…

Sinéad Mulcahy recently started the Europaeum Scholars Programme, a two-year policy and leadership course for a group of thirty talented and committed PhD candidates from universities across Europe. She is already enthusiastic – both about the programme and her fellow scholars. ‘I would like to bring…

The new Ehrenfest multi-storey car park at the heart of the Leiden Bio Science Park was opened today by the Vice-Chairman of the Executive Board of Leiden University, Martijn Ridderbos. The car park, an initiative of the University, should improve accessibility and quality of life on the campus.

The French political theorist Hélène Landemore has been appointed as the new Cleveringa Professor. She will deliver her inaugural lecture on 26 November.

‘We’re going to see each other again on campus. We’re so pleased, but we do have to say safe.’ Rector Magnificus Hester Bijl is looking ahead to the new academic year, which begins on 6 September. No more 1.5m distancing, but we do have to take responsibility for other people’s safety.

Using enslaved people as servants, becoming an administrator in the Dutch West India Company or making uniforms for the colonial army. Many people from Leiden played a role in colonialism and slavery. Historians are conducting preliminary research and finding striking examples.

Edmund Amann is Professor of Brazilian Studies at Leiden University and Visiting Professor at SAIS, Johns Hopkins University. Previously he was Reader in Development Economics at the University of Manchester and a Research Fellow at the University of Oxford.

Vera Scepanovic is a Lecturer in International Relations and European Studies at Leiden University. She was previously a post-doctoral Max Weber Fellow at European University Institute in Florence and a visiting lecturer at the Central European University in Budapest.

Jiaxuan Huang is a PhD candidate at the Institute for History.

Koen van der Lijn is an intern an education and research staff member at the Institute for Area Studies.

Yusra Abdullahi is a PhD Candidate researching the roles Ghanaian, Zimbabwean, and Rwenzururian activists played at the United Nations.