PhD candidate Ola Gracjasz writes about fermentation practices in Gdańsk, Poland.

The world’s prosperity and well-being are seriously being threatened by the degradation of land and nature. Although there are opportunities to turn things around, fears of further deterioration in the coming decades must not be taken lightly. That is concluded at the Intergovernmental Science-Policy…

Lotte van Dillen has every confidence in the Executive Board of new-style Institute Psychology. ‘If we work on the basis of everyone’s good intentions, we’re going to do great.’ If you lack confidence, you’re not the kind of person to jump on your bike and go off to Sicily. Want to find out more about…

International students who have been awarded a LExS scholarship from Leiden University were welcomed in the Academy Building on 5 September. The 50 students were presented with a certificate symbolising their scholarship.

A Personal Report by Matthew Hobson on the First Meeting of Post-doctoral Researchers at the Institute for History.

Mexico is currently facing an unprecedented social and political crisis, with expanding criminal and political violence, rampant impunity and crumbling political institutions. Next to the daily report of anonymous victims of violence, last summer in Central Mexico at least 15 citizens were executed…

Alumna Jolien Schukking has been working as a judge at the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg since 2017. In this special role, she provides legal protection at an international level in major cases and concerning various topics. What is her job like and what motivates her?

On Tuesday, April 16, 2024, students, instructors, staff and other guests gathered at the Faculty Club for an exciting event: a discussion entitled “The First 20 Years: Reconsidering European Union Enlargement into Central and Eastern Europe.” His Excellency Mr. René Miko, Ambassador of the Czech Republic…

Dr Mike Field is the newly appointed Head of the Bioarchaeology Laboratories (Zoology, Human Osteology, and Botany). The new laboratories provide members of the Faculty with a first class infrastructure. “I see the laboratories as available for everyone to use.”

Archaeologist Hayley Mickleburgh has already appeared in the Dutch papers a few times already due to her unusual work: the study of decomposing bodies. She studied at Leiden University, where she is now a researcher.

The Netherlands-Flemish Institute in Cairo (NVIC) is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year. Thousands of students and researchers from eight partner universities in the Netherlands and Flanders have been able to gain valuable experience in Egypt through the institute. Good reason for a celebrat…

In a creative assignment as a part of the bachelor's course Visual Culture, students explored the impact and complexity of visual culture by means of visual culture. The resulting artworks were of such a high quality that it was decided to present these in an exhibition.

Even the Mohawk Indians were talking about Serv Wiemers’ thesis. This Law alumnus, who has been intrigued by the world of American Indians since he was a boy, recently wrote a book about that world.

The Sackler Distinguished Lecture Series on Human Rights was established at Leiden University through an endowment given by Dr. Raymond R. Sackler and his wife, Beverly, international philanthropists with a commitment to supporting scientific research. The lectures mark the annual celebration of International…

Fat is a very valuable food component, packed with calories, especially important when other resources might be scarce. Our earliest ancestors in Africa already cracked open bones to extract the fatty marrow from bone cavities. But now a new study published in Science Advances demonstrates that our…

Lecture

In order to vote or participate in politics in other ways, citizens need strong convictions – for instance about whom to vote for or about which policies to favour. In this talk, Jeroen de Ridder wants to investigate two sorts of demands that democracy makes on our political convictions and argue that…

Lecture and book presentation

Arts and culture, Pianoconcert

PhD defence

Prof.dr. M. Busuioc dr. D. Rimkute dr. S. Alon-Barkat

PhD defence

Conference

As the 2024 elections in the United States draw near, the political landscape is once again charged with intense debate and scrutiny. In this context, Studium Generale has invited Dr. Andrew Gawthorpe, University Lecturer in American history and foreign policy at the Institute for History, Leiden…

Scholars from the field of science, technology and innovation (STI) policy have often questioned whether there was substantive difference between international STI policy and science diplomacy. This is hard to answer, but at least we can observe that science diplomacy has had great appeal over the last…

How can we make sure that The Hague becomes even more of a city of education and knowledge? This was the theme during the festive opening of the college year in The Hague on 30 August. Filled with ambition, representatives from all The Hague's educational institutions, the municipality of The Hague…

The corona crisis relates to not only the medical field but also the field of the social sciences and humanities. SSH Beraad, a consultation body that aims to improve the position of the social sciences and humanities in the Netherlands, has launched a website bringing together experts in the social…

Mark Rutte: an exceptional politician whose time was up. What are the consequences of Rutte’s departure. Experts from Leiden University give their view on this political event.

The African Studies Centre Leiden presented the last book by its renowned colleague Prof. Stephen Ellis (1953-2015), This Present Darkness: A history of Nigerian organised crime, on 9 June. The book was published posthumously. Former colleagues and friends paid tribute to Ellis, who was regarded as…

The Hague Journal of Diplomacy's most recent special issue focuses on Caste and Diplomacy. As one of its editors, it is only appropriate that I take the opportunity in this blog to describe how I was introduced to this theme.

Islam can be a difficult or sensitive subject to discuss with pupils, regardless whether they are Muslim. Fourteen secondary-school teachers and university lecturers went on a fact-finding trip to Morocco accompanied by experts from NIMAR (the Netherlands Institute in Morocco). What did they learn from…

Robert Menasse talks with NRC critic Michel Krielaars about his new EU novel “The Enlargement”.

Research in the domain of language contact and areal studies so far has focussed on the diffusion of lexical, phonological and grammatical elements, and to a smaller extent - lexical semantics (Koptjevskaja-Tamm et al. 2022). Much less is known about the spread of discourse forms, although the…

Last November, it was announced that the European Commission has awarded a Jean Monnet Chair to Professor of Tax Law Irma Mosquera Valderrama. She will use the grant to shape the EUTAXGOV project over the next three years.

Cotton is the most widely used natural fibre for clothes. But how polluting are our jeans and shirts actually? Environmental scientist Laura Scherer coordinated an international research project on the impacts of cotton. ‘The purchases of consumers in Europe can contribute to water scarcity in China…

Lecture, Global Histories of Knowledge Seminar

Aditya Balasubramanian is a Senior Lecturer in History at the Australian National University. Toward a Free Economy: Swatantra and Opposition Politics in Democratic India is his first book. It was shortlisted for the Elder Prize of the American Institute of Indian Studies and the W.K. Hancock…

Historian Chelsea Schields illuminates how the contested management of sex and race transformed the Caribbean into a crucial site in the global oil economy, delving into her 2023 book, Offshore Attachments: Oil and Intimacy in the Caribbean (University of California Press).

Professor Rob de Wijk (International Relations) monitored Donald Trump's recent visit to Europe. We discussed the outcomes of the different summits with the Leiden scholar. ‘This visit delivered exactly what I predicted: nothing!'