Ratna Saptari is since 2007 Assistant Professor at the Institute of Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology. She has always been involved with issues of human rights and Indonesian workers' rights. This August she retired. But she won't sit still. She continues her voluntary work and wants to…

In June 2024 the Faculty of Archaeology welcomed a new Assistant Professor. Dr Jennifer Swerida, originally from the United States, will strengthen the Faculty’s expertise on the archaeology of West Asia. ‘I explore human-environment relationships inside an ancient oasis and the surrounding land. Previous…

Annetje Ottow is stepping down as President of Leiden University’s Executive Board on 1 September 2025 after almost five years in the role. She looks back at the highs and lows – and ahead to what’s next.

On a sunny Lammermarkt, thousands of new students gathered to kick off their student life in Leiden at the 56th edition of EL CID.

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.’

Matthew Canfield (LAW/VVI), Wiebe Ruijtenberg (Law/VVI), Nadia Sonneveld (Law/VVI), Benjamin Fogarty-Valenzuela (CADS) and Elisa Da Vià (HUM) have received a KIEM grant of € 10.000 for their project 'Imagining Scholasticide'. The grant will be utilised to create a multimodal exhibition of the scholasticide…

Social

Education

With his photo of a fish trapped in a rubber glove, external PhD candidate Auke-Florian Hiemstra has made it to the shortlist for the People’s Choice Award in the prestigious Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition. The photo shows the impact of Covid litter on wildlife.

25 years ago the Faculty of Archaeology at Leiden University was founded. In the academic year of 2022-2023 several lustrum activities will be organised to celebrate this happy occasion. The year was kicked off with a vibrant party on September 8, inviting staff, students, and alumni.

Maartje van der Woude, (Professor of Law & Society, Van Vollenhoven Institute, Leiden University) has received an NWO research grant. This year, 60 of these grants in the Domain of Social Sciences and Humanities were awarded by research funder NWO. It is a prestigious grant for research on a topic…

Dr. Lukas Verburgt, guest researcher at the Institute of Philosophy, has received an Early Career Award from the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW). He received this award for his innovative research into changes in the way scientists and philosophers define the nature and boundaries…

We want FGGA to become a place where everyone feels welcome, at ease, and included. The outcomes of last year's personnel monitor and D&I survey show that we are not quite there yet.

Do people actually understand the constitution? This is what Jelle But, PhD candidate at Constitutional and administrative law, wondered. To find out, he conducted a survey among 1333 respondents. His research shows that lawyers and other legal professionals actually do not have a better understanding…

Leiden University's Centre for Professional Learning (CPL) and the Montesquieu Institute are jointly launching the ‘Academie voor de Rechtsstaat’ (Academy for the Rule of Law). With this initiative, they intend to offer a course providing in-depth knowledge and insight into the basic principles of the…

After the episode of TV programme 'Collegetour' featuring Dutch Minister of Finance Sigrid Kaag, more attention is (rightly) being paid to threats made to politicians. Jeroen ten Voorde, Professor of Criminal Law and Criminology, answered pressing questions about this topic on Dutch news programme '…

The importance of digitalization has become even more evident during the Corona crisis. Society and the Dutch economy are therefore rapidly digitizing. This calls for a good balance between seizing opportunities and reducing risks.

After the new government announced its plans to cut expenditure on academic education, the Faculty of Humanities launched the flash campaign ‘Stop the Catastrophic Cuts to Universities!’. Now academics across the university have been explaining why their discipline is needed.

Are you working with film, photo, sounds, creative coding, drawings or other unconventional method in the social sciences and humanities? ReCNTR has a new 2-year multimodal seminar. Check it out and apply by November 15th!

In July 2021 the Leiden Empowerment Fonds (LEF) awarded a research grant of €13,500 for research into the history of maritime law in early modern times.

On Wednesday 31 August 2022, the graduation ceremony of the BSc Security Studies took place. The ceremony was opened by programme director Daan Weggemans.

The IFLA-Section Rare Books and Special Collections committee and the Indigenous Matters Section, in collaboration with Leiden University Libraries (UBL) organize a satellite conference in Leiden – Friday August 18th and Saturday August 19th – prior to the IFLA World Library and Information Congress…

The Dutch Senate recently voted on a ban on imposing community service after physical violence towards public service providers. Courts are no longer allowed to issue these sentences in case of extreme violence and vice crimes. The punishment for these crimes will be an enforced prison sentence. But…

Facility

Mirjam Sombroek, Aart Hendriks and Martine de Vries (LUMC) will work on mapping the ethical and legal aspects of gene therapy. The aim is to establish a best practice of how society can best deal with these therapies. For example with guidelines on how to regulate, reimburse and make these therapies…

Mozambican politician and child rights activist Graça Machel speaks October 27 at Leiden University about her work.

The issue of how to deal with a development such as digitalisation in the public domain raises difficult questions for the municipality: who is responsible and when do you intervene?

Postdoctoral researcher Joost de Moor, who joined the interdisciplinary Global Transformations and Governance Challenges (GTGC) initiative at Leiden University since April 2021, will spend 50% of his time doing research for the project "The necessary and the possible: How social movements articulate,…

On Friday 21 May, the Europa Institute held an online roundtable on the European Union’s coronavirus relief fund NextGenerationEU. The roundtable was organised in the context of the Leiden Law Exchanges (LLX). Their aim is to facilitate an exchange of ideas on current legal issues between academics,…

As of 1 September, Marco van Eijk has been appointed Director of Education of the bachelor's programme Life Science & Technology. He succeeds Marcellus Ubbink, who moved to the position of Scientific Director of the Leiden Institute for Chemical Research (LIC). Van Eijk has been appointed for a period…

As of 1 April 2025, Lodewijk Govaerts will be standing down from the Board of Governors due to other commitments that will demand a significant part of his time and attention within the foreseeable future. Govaerts does not want this to affect his ability to fulfil his role on the Board of Governors…

With the holiday season approaching, the perfect moment for a short reflection and a lot of appreciation has come. Let me first start by trying to answer a crucial question for our faculty: what role do the social sciences play in our current time?

Matthew Canfield (LAW/VVI), Nadia Sonneveld (Law/VVI), Benjamin Fogarty-Valenzuela (CADS) and Elisa Da Vià (HUM) have received a KIEM grant of € 10.000 for their project 'Picturing Scholasticide'. The grant will be utilised to create a multimodal exhibition of the scholasticide in Gaza. Through photography,…

Leiden University Libraries has been elected to the Executive Committee of the IIIF Consortium. The term of office is two years starting from January 2022.

The EU Product Safety Award encourages and honors innovative business initiatives and research that make a difference for consumers. This year, the Gold Medal was awarded to Eduard and Hadassah for their innovative research on diversity in robot design, testbed, and safety standardization

In a world beset with war, climate problems and skyrocketing energy prices, it is good to have some 'slack time' now and then. That was Dean Mark Rutgers' message at the Faculty of Humanities' New Year reception.

Leiden University wants to strengthen the security of its systems. That is why as of 1 May a team of various specialists is set up to survey all measurement and research systems. Because FWN is the faculty with the largest number of measurement and research setups, the security experts will start at…

Rawi Ramautar will be the new Programme Director of the bachelor of Bio-Pharmaceutical Sciences starting September 1. The appointment is for four years. Ramautar succeeds Erik Danen, who has held the position since 2019.

On Monday we welcomed our students to the faculty with hearts, chocolate, and asking them to take the National Student Survey (NSE). A combination of Valentine’s Day and the start of the NSE campaign week – encouraging students to take the online survey.

Peter Pels, affiliated with the Institute of Cultural Anthropology of Leiden University, is one of the researchers. Together with Birgit Meyer (UU), he will lead the work package 'Heritage and the Question of Conversion'.

ICT

Research

Organisation

Facility

Organisation

When you think of humanities, you may not immediately think of a new super server. Yet one has just been commissioned. University lecturer Jelena Prokic from Leiden University Centre for Digital Humanities explains more about this development.

Identifying pathogens with a mobile testing kit, even in remote areas. Rapidemic, a student team of Leiden, are trying to make it possible. Now, they moved on to the finals of the Most innovative student of the Netherlands.

By the time you read this message, it will already be February. But since this is our first newsletter of the year, I still feel compelled to wish all of you a very happy New Year!