Visual art played an important role in the development of cooperative human behaviour. This is the finding of Larissa Mendoza Straffon, a PhD candidate in archaeology, whose dissertation explores the biological and psychological foundations of visual art.

The aim of this thesis was to study the link between hearing loss, language skills, and social functioning in deaf and hard of hearing (DHH) children. Sufficient language skills are an essential prerequisite to develop appropriate communication skills, in order to join in conversations with others.…

It is often claimed that social media can contribute to democratic decision-making by bringing politicians and citizens into dialogue with one another. But is this potential always realised, and how? Most researchers look at politicians and their online communication strategies. In this New Media &…

At the Hague University of Applied Sciences, a stakeholder meeting took place on 4 April in the context of peace and justice in a digital world. The meeting was an initiative of Leiden University (LCDS, eLaw) and the Hague University of Applied Sciences, to explore joint curriculum development in the…

Published by Brill Nijhoff and written by leading experts including national judges, academics and practitioners East African Community Law is the first comparative as well as open access textbook on EAC law. The book provides a key resource for the research, teaching, and practice of EAC law. It also…

The Klokhuis dedicates a special episode to Leiden alumnus and famous scientist Christiaan Huygens. Part of the episode was recorded at the Leiden Observatory. Leiden researchers also helped shape the episode, which debuts on Tuesday 2 November.

The Centre for Digital Humanities is pleased to announce that we are searching for two PhD Candidates who will carry out research within the Centre for Digital Humanities and the Leiden Centre of Data Science.

More papers, more grants, more students: constant growth is still the gold standard at universities. Neuroscientists Anne Urai and Claire Kelly argue that this mentality obstructs us in resolving such complex societal problems as the climate crisis. Their alternative? The university as a doughnut.

The Leiden Bio Science Park is nominated for Best Business Park in the Netherlands. The competition is set up by 'Bedrijventerrein Magazine'.

Stress, burnout, depression – these conditions pervade all levels of our society. Children and students suffer from constant pressure to achieve; at the international level, tensions lead to short-sighted actions; and, at the personal level, stress affects our health and social environment. How do our…

As part of the LIAISON Research Project, Eduard Fosch-Villaronga and Hadassah Drukarch organised a workshop at the European Robotics Forum (ERF 2021) to engage the broader community in the projects’ goal of liaising robot development and policymaking.

The project ‘Between the Holy Land and the World’ proposes a connected history of the Christian communities in the Near East (1900-1948) by means of a study of unpublished Franciscan and Dominican photographic collections.

Lecture, Sociolinguistics & Discourse Studies Series

The Europaeum academic community was awarded the Scaliger medal on 23 September in recognition of its promotion of academic values. Andrew Graham, trustee to the Europaeum and founder and honorary advisor to the Scholars Programme, was presented with the medal by President of the Executive Board Annetje…

CitiObs will consolidate and apply tools and practice-based knowledge for co-creating data, knowledge and local action regarding the environmental impacts of climate change and human activity in the urban context via Citizen Observatories.

Brain scans, heart attacks and credit scores: many science applications revolve around data. But how do you mine applicable insights from a mountain of data? In a Bachelor Honours Class, students discover how data science can contribute to their discipline.

Lecture

American pharmaceutical company Bristol Myers Squibb will be building a new (CAR-T) cell therapy facility in the Oegstgeest part of the Leiden Bio Science Park. The company will manufacture and develop CAR T-cell therapy for patients with blood cancer (leukaemia), for example.

Hari Nugroho explores the role of local dynamics in shaping Indonesian labour movements. By focusing on the micro-level, this research reveals how labour organisation strategies are influenced by individual actors' personal histories, their interactions, and the way in which they respond the local economic…

Working on superconductivity, finding an exoplanet or learning how to program with Python. More than one hundred girls visited Leiden University on Thursday 13 February during the Girls in Science Day.

The new open access book The Science of Citizen Science bundles insights into science that is conducted together with citizens, to promote this growing form of science.

Online presentation

In this thesis I examine how soil biotic and abiotic characteristics change and interact throughout the course of afforestation and how they subsequently impact tree performance.

The aim of this project is to foster a historiography that does justice both to the realization that scientific knowledge is constructed by local, contingent, and contextual processes, and the claims of science to objective validity.

The thesis is a major milestone for master students graduating in Political Science. It demonstrates their ability to conduct research independently and to provide a thorough, objective and sound analysis. That requires instruction, discussion, thinking and hard work. Lots of it. In some cases this…

Sacrificing yourself for the greater good: in China, martyrdom and hero worship have been strongly encouraged by the Communist Party for the past decade or so. University lecturer Vincent Chang tells us more about this far-reaching development.

What can we learn from Cleveringa’s courageous protest speech? ‘Without imagination and a strong community, people do not stand up for one another,' says Cleveringa Professor Michael Ignatieff in his lecture on 26 November.

He was a popular face in the Leiden student world and even developed his own merchandise, but all good things come to an end. After seven years, community support officer Dennis Perdok (49) is leaving this role. Last week he bid farewell to the police and to his job in Leiden’s city centre.

A new bill is currently under debate in the Netherlands, advocating raising the prison sentence for manslaughter from 15 to 25 years. ‘This very serious crime (...) evokes feelings of disgust and insecurity in society’, Dutch Minister for Justice and Security Grapperhaus comments on the sentence that…

Tradition has it that at the end of each academic year, the best master’s thesis in Political Science is awarded a prize. For 2021-2022, the jury is considering six nominations. All of great quality, but on different topics. These range from political party bans to questions regarding commitment within…

Towards the graduation ceremonies, you sense an increasing nervousness. Not only because all the tradition and glamour surrounding the event, also because that will be the day that the winner of the Political Science master’s thesis award will be announced. For 2022-2023, the jury is considering seven…

The League of European Research Universities (LERU) makes recommendations for the future of the Social Sciences and Humanities research in Europe. Social Sciences and Humanities (SSH) research is vital to build an innovative and resilient Europe.

How do people vote? How rational are voting choices? How much do external factor weigh in? In this article social scientis provide some background.

In multi/many-core System-on-Chips (SoCs), the performance is almost linearly scaling with the number of processing elements.

Stochastic resetting is simple enough to be approached analytically, yet modifies stochastic processes in a non-trivial way.

Lecture

How can we view societal challenges from a different perspective? At the EuroScience Open Forum (ESOF), Robert Zwijnenberg, Emeritus Professor of Art and Science Interactions, will call for more collaboration between artists and scientists.

Data science is of vital importance in preventing future outbreaks of viruses, Professor of Data Science Aske Plaat argues. Inaugural lecture entitled ‘Data Science and Ebola’ on 13 April.

As a Leiden University’s master’s student in Political Science you conduct independent research and report your findings to fellow academics and, who knows, to a larger audience. Your thesis is a showcase of your academic skills and personal interest, and perhaps even passion. Easier said than done,…

Every Political Science master’s student at Leiden University completes their degree with thesis. The thesis provides students with the opportunity to pursue a topic of their choosing in depth and conduct independent research. It is a demanding task that requires dedication, attention to detail, and…

Open Science is changing how people work together and share research. Anna van ’t Veer won the Leo Waiijers Open Science Award for a career full of Open Science activities. A sign of appreciation for aspects of Open Science that might not be immediately obvious.