Personal development

Festival

450 years

Lunchbyte

Arts and culture

Lecture

Workshop & exhibition

Communication, Personal development

Lecture, LUCL Colloquium | Comparative Indo-European Linguistics (CIEL) Seminars

Speaking with your manager more often, focusing explicitly on well-being and giving more recognition and rewards for teamwork and team performance: the annual Performance & Development (P&D) interview will have a new format and also a new name. With the acronym GROW (Gesprekken over Resultaat, Ontwikkeling…

Theo van den Doel received his PhD in January for his research on veteran support. This showed that for long the government learned little from past missions. He has since presented his dissertation to the Lower House of Representatives, and the Minister for Defence, Kajsa Ollongren, has responded to…

From time to time, manuscripts that have remained hidden for centuries turn up in library collections and archives. In the archives of the 17th-century Bibliotheca Thysiana at the Rapenburg in Leiden, kept in the Leiden University Library, Rotterdam researcher Erik-Jan Bos discovered a hitherto unknown…

The university bid farewell to its Rector Magnificus, Hester Bijl, on 13 January during the ‘Hester’s Highlights’ symposium.

Leiden University contributed to colonialism and slavery through its research and teaching. And governors and residents of Leiden had an active role in colonial networks. These are the findings of two explorative studies presented on 3 April.

Manon Post and Efstathia Dionysopoulou recently joined the Institute for History as a PhD candidate and postdoc in the framework of the 'Anchoring Innovation' program. Below, they introduce themselves!

Under extreme pressure and in agreement with the Faculty Board, the programme chairs, represented by a core group, have worked over recent weeks on additional recommendations based on the Perspective 2028 plan. On 1 December they presented their Alternative Perspective 2028 to the Faculty Board. The…

On International Women's Day (8 March) we take time to consider female emancipation and participation. What does this day mean for Leiden University, and how does it tie in with our aim of becoming more diverse and inclusive? We talked about these issues with Annetje Ottow, who recently became the…

Pre-University College The Hague is celebrating its fifth anniversary in 2024-2025. Three alumni look back on their experience. PRE broadened their academic horizons and taught them a lot about themselves. ‘PRE made me feel more comfortable at university'.

To read Chekhov in the ‘original’. That was what motivated Arie van der Ent to study Slavic languages and literature with Karel van het Reve at Leiden University. ‘My love for Chekhov hasn’t faded,’ says Van der Ent from his home 60 kilometres south of Kyiv. ‘But it has for the rest of Russia.’

The theme of the opening of this year’s academic year was peace and justice. With the climate crisis and the war in Ukraine, these are turbulent times. During the ceremony those present reflected on what the academic community and universities can mean in times of crisis and conflict.

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.

A delegation from Leiden University visited various universities in Japan at the end of March. The strong ties between the Netherlands and Japan are still based on a long tradition of knowledge exchange.

Dutch greenhouse horticulture is a world leader when it comes to innovative capacity and sustainability, but ‘the challenges are great in terms of energy, water, environment and biodiversity,’ says Peter van Bodegom, coordinator of AgriFood at the Centre for Sustainability of the Leiden, Delft, Erasmus…

How can we continue to work on an open university culture where everyone’s contribution is recognised and rewarded? Over 120 university staff spoke about breaking academic barriers at the first Academia in Motion Festival in PLNT.

Tuesday 7 June saw the finalisation of the new Faculty Strategic Plan 2022 – 2027 by the Faculty Board. A PDF of the Faculty Strategic Plan (FSP) will be available in Dutch and English for the faculty community in July. A number of members of the FSP Steering Committee look back on a far-reaching and…

More focus on diversity in Antiquity, workshops for students with disabilities, and a card game to share stories about diversity: these and other projects will receive funding from the JEDI Fund in 2023.

This is a difficult time. Above all, for all those directly involved in this horrible case – unacceptable behaviour by a professor and his removal from the University – the case we went public about on 18 October and that has been reported in the media. This is painful and tough for the complainants…

AI is already widely being used in HR processes, but it’s unclear whether these applications contribute to fair and inclusive decision making. Leiden researcher Carlotta Rigotti is involved in BIAS, a big consortium research project that aims to provide answers and develop a new, trustworthy AI app…

‘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.

LUNHA strives to redefine global health by prioritizing justice, fairness, and inclusion in Africa. Through collaboration with diverse stakeholders, LUNHA aims to reshape global health research and foster a broader engagement with social sciences and humanities.

How to innovate education? In this series, the Honours Academy highlights examples from their educational testing ground that aim to inspire. Today: pioneering with podcasts. What are the do's and don'ts? Two teachers and a student share their thoughts.

Alicia Schrikker doesn't usually get involved in urban history. As a senior lecturer, her research field is generally the colonial history of Asia and partly South Africa. So, the fact that she is going to carry out an urban history research project together with colleagues, is something that even she…

So many interesting programmes, but which one suits me best? It was the Bachelor’s Open Day in Leiden and The Hague on Saturday 12 October. Among the many things to do in The Hague, prospective students could find out more about three new bachelor’s programmes: Science for Sustainable Societies, Cybersecurity…

Do you want to provide advice on issues of your own choosing, and help decide on important subjects within the university? If you do, then it’s time for you to stand as a candidate for a faculty or employee council. ‘Standing for election is a good way for you to join in the dialogue. We don’t just…

How do you co-create with researchers in other parts of the world? LDE wants to gather and share knowledge on the grand challenges and to do so across national borders. A delegation of 27 researchers will therefore travel to Indonesia at the end of October to take part in the LDE-BRIN Academy.

The Dutch universities as a whole are lobbying for a 'normal' academic year from the end of August, where on-campus teaching will be possible. It's a view that Leiden University shares. Rector Hester Bijl talks about what teaching will be like then. She also looks back on a year of lockdown.

Several of the most important manuscript collections in the Leiden University Libraries (UBL) Special Collections, comprising 443 extremely rare and often unique volumes, have been made available in Open Access via Digital Collections. The available manuscript collections include the private collections…

Access to education for people from the lower socio-economic class has improved immensely in Europe from the 1950s onwards. Yet the Roma and Sinti were unable to reap benefits from this. PhD candidate Anita van der Hulst researched why so few Roma and Sinti went on to higher education. PhD defence on…

Education, ICT

Dutch people are far more law-abiding than they might like to think. And they are very different from the Belgians in that regard. The different approaches of the two governments towards the coronavirus crisis, for example, can be explained from the history of both countries since the Middle Ages. Historians…

Judith Pollmann, Professor of Early Modern Dutch History, has been awarded the Spinoza Prize. ‘An unbelievable honour.’

Buurtlab 070 is a new Leiden University project in which residents, researchers and students from The Hague work together on climate, sustainability and biodiversity solutions. What do they expect of the lab?

The Greek diasporic queer poet Constantine P. Cavafy (1863-1933) has been recognized as a central figure in world literature and literary modernism. On December 9th, a symposium around his work will take place at Leiden University Libraries. This will be combined with the launch of Maria Boletsi's book…

NATO not only safeguards our security and stability, but also defends Enlightenment principles, promoting prosperity, health and freedom. This is what eminent psychologist and thinker Steven Pinker argued to a packed Great Auditorium.

Carmen Gonsalves has been the Dutch ambassador to Chile since this autumn. She studied history in Leiden. How useful has her degree been and what’s it like to be an ambassador? ‘Diplomacy is fascinating.’ We spoke to her just before the presidential elections.

The LUCAS Impact Committee, consisting of Jan van Dijkhuizen, Rick Honings, Casper de Jonge, Angus Mol, Thijs Porck and Aafje de Roest, has offered this year’s LUCAS Public Engagement Award to Dorine Schellens and Peter Verstraten.

Young Academy Leiden (YAL) will change its board this month and welcome six new members. Outgoing chair Rachel Plak and incoming chair Ahmed Mahfouz talk about what the platform has achieved for young academics over the past year and what the plans are for the future.

Space for open dialogue on historical slavery was created at the Keti Koti Table at Museum De Lakenhal, organised by Leiden University and the Municipality of Leiden. There, just metres away from 17th-century paintings, Leideners shared a ritual meal and spoke about the effects of slavery and our colonial…

From the workload to sustainability: the University Council helps decide on important topics. In the University elections – from 9 to 13 May – you can vote for who will represent you on the Council. Three questions to the three lead candidates of the staff parties: PhDoc, Universitair Belang and Leidse…