How do digital technologies affect adolescent mental health and resilience? How do we foster a secure online environment? How should we deal with increasing rates of online crimes among adolescents? During the mini-symposium ‘The effect of the online world on adolescents’, presented by the interdisciplinary…

Knowledge of mental distress and resilience factors over the time span from before to after a stressor is important to be able to leverage the most promising resilience factors and promote mental health at the right time. To shed light on this topic, we designed the RESIST Study, in which we assessed…

Vast, often populated, areas in dryland ecosystems face the dangers of desertification.

This paper examines the need and possibility for developing online resilience-based approaches in response to COVID-19 vaccine conspiracies, often linked to the far right.

BrainTrain: an initiative from Leiden University in which a team of students visit high schools to make adolescents more resilient against disinformation on the news and on their socials. In an interactive two-hour guest lesson, high school pupils discover how easily their brains can be tricked into…

Lex Bohlmeijer, creator of the Good Conversations podcast at De Correspondent, is recording a podcast in Theater aan het Spui in The Hague. In his Good Coversations podcast, Lex talks politics, arts, journalism and science, with a wide range of guests who have an exceptional and often unknown story.…

How can we ensure a more resilient and sustainable supply of Rare Earths in the EU in the future?

In the academic year 2023-2024 the SRS interdisciplinary programme will offer four courses for interested students who are entering the third year of their Bachelor's degree. You can sign up for these courses in your elective (minor) space. You can follow the courses individually as an elective, or…

Leiden University contributes to the Social Sciences Sector Plan through designated faculty representatives. These individuals act as contact points for specific Sector Plan themes and support coordination within and across faculties.

How do young adults find their way in an increasingly complex society? In Leiden, as part of the GUTS project, we study how brain development and self-regulation play a role in this process.

Liwen Meng has been granted a CSC fellowship to initiate her PhD project, which will delve into the role of nature in buffering stress response. Her research will be carried out under the supervision of Dr. Henk van Steenbergen.

How did Angkor interact with regional urban centers? How did the settlement system impact the society's agricultural system and regional resilience?

Leiden University’s contribution to the Social Sciences Sector Plan is organized across several interconnected levels. The national Sector Plan themes define shared priorities across Dutch universities, while Leiden’s research themes and faculty focus areas provide direction and focus within the uni…

Would you like to go to work feeling healthy and energetic, and end your working day with a positive feeling, but things don’t always work out that way? Healthy University Leiden works with you to create a healthy and pleasant working environment in which you can realise your full potential.

Urban riots, violent responses by police, drug-related assassinations, child abuse, bar fights: Violence is a core theme in today’s modern society.

Through our research, we aim to enhance both scholarly understanding and practical knowledge in sustainability governance, while making meaningful contributions to the public debates on these critical issues. To achieve this goal, we embrace diversity in our research topics, methodological approaches,…

In 2025, GTGC co-organised with the City of The Hague and the Hague Humanity Hub a Just Peace Festival, a vibrant platform on the pressing global challenges of peace with justice. The festival involved a wide range of different activities, including dialogues, exhibitions, performances, film evenings,…

The Rise and Decline of an Iberian Bourgeoisie is one of the first long-term studies in English of an Iberian town during the late medieval crisis. Focusing on the Catalonian city of Manresa, Jeff Fynn-Paul expertly integrates Iberian historiography with European narratives to place the city's social,…

Mission: The Environmental Biology department aims to increase the scientific understanding of how current and emerging anthropogenic threats affect biodiversity and ecosystem services. Through this understanding they facilitate strategic management of natural resources by addressing urgent challenges…

The Global Transformations and Governance Challenges Programme hosts a range of international academic gatherings, including the GTGC Conference, the GIG-ARTS Conference in 2024, and the first edition of the Just Peace Festival in 2025.

And its application in deciphering hominin diets in palaeolithic eurasia

Towards Health and Resilience in Volatile Environments - People differ in how they are impacted by and respond to stressful experiences. Why is that?

Helping people, groups and policymakers navigate the social transitions of our time.

How can legal education in Indonesia become more relevant for supporting the rule of law and providing legal services that common citizens need?

How can public organisations create societal added value? This theme was in the spotlight at the second Leiden Leadership Lunch, which was held on Friday 28 September. Students, academics and government professionals joined in the discussion.

The Resilience Center is located in the Faculty of Social Sciences of Leiden University, just behind the central station. The center is part of the Institute of Education and Child Studies.

Nature's role in buffering stress response

Friday afternoon, 1 October. Location: one of the most vibration-free places in the world. In this setting, Leiden top scientists launched Quantum Leiden. For decades, researchers at the Faculty of Science have been investigating quantum technology at the highest level and also have been brainstorming…

ESA’s Gaia mission has produced the richest star catalogue to date, including high-precision measurements of nearly 1.7 billion stars and revealing previously unseen details of our home Galaxy.

Although plant domestication has significantly altered crop genetics and phenotypes, its effects on the taxonomic and functional diversity of plant-associated microbiomes are not well understood.

EcoConnect aims to support non-STEM educators in integrating climate change education (CCE) into their curricula. The project focuses on enhancing students' knowledge, skills, and (emotional) resilience by providing faculty with tools and methods to address climate change topics effectively.​

Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology

Projects in the department of Industrial Ecology

How can we promote more durable solutions to protracted refugee situations and which roles can connectivity and mobility of displaced people play to improve protection and resilience?

Ruling Overseas: Connected Practices of Governance of Law

The overall aim of the project is to investigate effective ways to strengthen vocational identity of at-risk adolescents in order to contribute to a successful transition from late secondary to post secondary lower vocational education or to work.

In this journal article, Dr. Joris Larik and Dr. Richard Ponzio put forward a broad-based pandemic recovery agenda that goes hand in hand with institutional reforms at the global level.

The new Neurodiversity Platform supports staff who need better working conditions because they have ADHD or autism, for instance. Stefan de Jong, who is organising the Platform’s first online meeting on 15 November, tells us about the initiative. Register now if you’re interested.

The League of European Research Universities (LERU) calls for greater appreciation of fundamental research that does not have an immediate application. A working group headed by Geert de Snoo, dean of the Leiden Faculty of Science, issued a memorandum on the subject on 29 August.

The interdisciplinary, English-taught minor ‘Violence Studies’ looks at violence from very diverse scientific perspectives. What are the benefits from this approach? Students and lecturers evaluate: ‘This minor’s a goldmine’.

What are the main issues leading to polarisation and division? What is the role of social exclusion in these processes? How can we inform and design better policies to safeguard young people from falling prey to intolerance and polarisation? The DRIVE project, led by Leiden University in The Hague,…