Playing a game, picking a cutting for your room or just having a cup of coffee: it is all possible in the new Humanities Living Room in the Matthias de Vrieshof. From Wednesday 17 May, staff and students will be able to meet informally and socialise here.

Lecture, Studium Generale

‘Working in Leiden is a dream come true.’ Ákos Kovács studied in his birth country Hungary and worked in Germany, Denmark and Groningen. As professor of Microbiome Ecology at IBL, he immediately started working together with his new colleagues to make discoveries about the versatile bacterial species…

On Friday 23 June, the Austrian Studies Fund was established with a festive gathering in the Faculty Club. This fund is the successor of the Austrian Studies Foundation and will continue and expand the program of activities of the Central European Studies chair at Leiden University, which was established…

Overnight, working from home became the ‘new normal’ for most Leiden University’s employees. And now, just as abruptly, we are heading back to the office. ‘But it will be different than before, we expect that most of the employees will continue to work from home for one or more days a week.’ Niels Laurens,…

Rainbow flags, funky sounds and drag queen Petty Libel: the very first Canal Pride Leiden has become reality. Leiden University joined the parade with a packed and buzzing boat. ‘The Leideners were really supportive and gave us a great response.’

Piercing through the skull with an ice pick, administering electric shocks without an anaesthetic, or applying leeches to the uterus: these may seem like medieval methods of torture, but they are in fact therapies used in medicine. Willem van der Does writes about all of them in his new book. ‘Physicians…

Social

Arts and culture

Festival

They hurtle along at over a thousand kilometres per second: the fastest stars in the Milky Way. PhD candidate Fraser Evans conducted research into these elusive hypervelocity stars and discovered that they have a lot to teach us, about black holes and supernovae, for example.

Social

Arts and leisure, Arts and leisure

PhD defence

Today, anyone wanting a new look for their living room watches a home decorating programme or buys an interior design magazine. In the eighteenth century, people went to an upholstry specialist, who would provide you with new wall coverings, curtains and much-needed accessories. PhD candidate Aagje…

Party

Course

Lecture, Oort lecture

Ab de Jong, professor of Comparative Religion, was appointed as the new the academic director of the Leiden Institute for Area Studies (LIAS) with effect from 1 September. We asked him about his plans for the future of the LIAS.

Conference

What is the current state of democracy and how do we understand the effects of public support on democracy? The two-day symposium Support for Democracy: Measurement, Explanation, and Effect

Research

The Pieter de la Court building will be given a new name. This was decided by the university's Executive Board in the summer of 2025, at the request of the FSW Faculty Board. The name will no longer be used for our faculty's main building or the student medal.

Alumni event

Leiden University restores, modernises and builds for the users of its buildings in Leiden and The Hague. The building stock is very diverse: from historic buildings in the inner city to advanced laboratories at the Leiden Bio Science Park.

If you wish to find out about current construction projects, you will find an up-to-date overview of Leiden University construction projects below.

PhD defence

PhD defence

Course

Course, Training

Seminars, workshops

After years of development, the moment has finally arrived: a massive cryostat, a highly advanced freezer that keeps the sensitive components extremely cold, has arrived in Leiden from Zurich. The device is the largest component of METIS, one of the first instruments for ESO’s Extremely Large Telescope…

Are you organising a symposium or event and are you looking for a professional and experienced team to take care of the arrangements? Looking for a great venue in Leiden or The Hague, or will the event be taking place online? The Events Office is here to help.

You can participate in many different activities and events. A lot is organised by EUniWell and the partner universities. Such as the annual FestiWell, Summer Schools or various lectures and symposia. This is how you get to know EUniWell and its ideas. Below is a selection of what is on offer.

PhD defence

Should we ban snack bars from neighbourhoods where residents are overweight or have diabetes? At the Common Sense about Health knowledge festival, scientists, civil servants and other professionals discussed how South Holland can become healthier. The Healthy Society Map makes it clear where there are…

Lecture

Recent fieldwork at the vast desert region in north-eastern Jordan has revealed an immensely rich heritage of an area that is difficult to access and archaeologically less known. Professor Peter Akkermans was interviewed about his groundbreaking research in this area, known as the Black Desert.

Patients and healthcare providers use Remote Patient Management platforms to exchange information with each other. New methods like this are desperately needed to future-proof our healthcare systems. Professor Maaike Kleinsmann is working to scale up these systems and implement them nationwide.

Concrete pillars without a roof, windows without glass, storeys without walls. It’s clearly evident that the South Cluster is being dismantled. Take a look at the photos!

Study information

Summerschool

Course, Summer School

Lecture, Research Seminar Europe 1000-1800

Course, Summer School