In the context of the summer school "Medieval Religon" prof. Christopher M. Bellitto (Kean University) will give a keynote lecture on June 26th: "Politics and Religion in the Middle Ages and Today: Thoughts of an American Medievalist". This lecture is also open to those interested who do not participate…

The Research Training Group “Byzantium and the Euro-Mediterranean Cultures of War” invites scholars to submit paper proposals for a series of sessions on “Perceptions of Just War in the Middle Ages” at the IMC 2025. These sessions aim to explore the diverse theological, philosophical, legal, and cultural…

The volume Vernacular Books and Their Readers in the Early Age of Print (c. 1450–1600), edited by Anna Dlabačová (Leiden University), Andrea van Leerdam (Utrecht University), and John Thompson (Queen’s University, Belfast), explores approaches to study vernacular books and reading practices across Europe…

Kathryn Emerson defended her thesis on 28 June 2016

What is the provenance of introduced populations?

How do balanced lethal systems originate and persist in nature?

How does invasive hybridization affect threatened native species?

Does a moving hybrid zone leave a genomic footprint?

On 19-20 October 2023, Europa Institute’s Simona Demkova and Melanie Fink, together with Giulia Gentile (Essex Law School), co-hosted an Expert Roundtable on the topic of ‘The Future of EU Public Law in the Age of Artificial Intelligence,’ in the context of the Digital Constitutionalism (The DigiCon…

On November 23, 2017, Professor Simone van der Hof chaired a panel on age verification in the digital world at the Safer Internet Forum 2017 in Brussels.

Tracking early human behaviour through plant processing and -exploitation.

The Ra’s al-jinz project tackles economic diversification and social complexity in non-urban societies, from the perspective of Eastern Arabia, by exploring the Early Bronze Age settlement of Ra’s al-jinz RJ-3.

Scientific research, heritage management and public outreach intertwined.

On an excavation site in Oegstgeest Leiden University archaeologists discovered a very rare silver bowl from the first half of the seventh century. The bowl is decorated with gold-plated representations of animals and plants and inlaid with semi-precious stones. The discovery suggests the existence…

This conference explores how reading experiences were shaped both by producers and users of vernacular books. By adopting an international and interdisciplinary perspective (combining book history, literary history, art history, religious studies, and history of knowledge) it aims to contribute to the…

On 3 March 2024, the Swiss electorate decided in a sensational referendum in favour of an increase in the state old-age pension.

Kyra van der Moezel defended her thesis on 7 September 2016.

Alexander West defended his thesis on 20 May 2021

The Leiden Leadership Centre is an interdisciplinary network organisation branching out from its place within the Institute of Public Administration, Faculty of Governance and Global Affairs (Leiden University in The Hague). The LLC functions as a platform by connecting students, practitioners, and…

As part of the career orientation of the Master’s Vitality and Ageing, students visit various healthcare, policy and research organisations throughout the year. Students get introduced to relevant organisations where they have the possibility for a graduation internship and career opportunities. This…

City dwellers in the Middle Ages were probably no worse off than people living in villages. Both groups had very different health risks, is Rachel Schats' conclusion from her research on bone material. PhD defence 3 November.

On 2 March 2020 the report Kind in proces: van communicatie naar effectieve participatie (Children in proceedings: from communication towards effective participation) was published. This multidisciplinary research report is the outcome of an inspiring collaboration between various departments at Leiden…

The hypothesis of this research is that the municipality used the impressive the Town Hall to enforce its rule and represent its political ideas and make use of sources such as biographies, poems, pamphlets, sermons and governmental documents.

The Berkeley Center on Comparative Equality & Anti-Discrimination Law organises an annual conference on various topics of equality and discrimination law. The 12th such conference took place from 2 to 4 July 2025 at the Faculty of Law of the Slovenian capital Ljubljana

The emergence of metalwork deposition during the Bronze Age in Northwest Europe, c. 2300-1500 BC

How did people in the latter part of the Late Bronze Age organize themselves in order to be able to erect massive structures such as tholos tombs, citadels and how did they interact with these materials and circumstances while constructing? What impact did such a changing landscape have on their day-to-day…

From October 17 to October 20, the international conference "Patristic Sermons in the Middle Ages: Collections, Mediators and the Practice of Compiling" will take place at the Dutch Royal Institute in Rome. Research Master students can obtain 2 ECTS by participating in this conference an an additional…

On January 17th, Frits Scholten (Rijksmuseum Amsterdam) will give a lecture titled: "Private Devotion & Immersive Play - The Use of 'Spiritual Toys' in the Late Middle Ages." The lecture is part of a Lorentz Center workshop on 'Religious Imagination in the Late Medieval Low Countries' and can also be…

The book offers different theoretical perspectives to help examine the process of public sector reform. In addition it gives an overview of the major trends in the core areas of the functioning of the public sector.

This article explores how employees use leadership behaviours and how characteristics of the organizational context affect their engagement in leadership.

The Egyptian hieroglyphic script was exceptionally versatile, as becomes clear when studying its multiple uses both within Ancient Egypt and beyond its borders.

This dissertation is part of a broader research project that revolves around unraveling the evolution of balanced lethal systems.

In this article, Ben S. Kuipers and Joanne Murphy review recent critiques of leadership theory and practice.

In this thesis, topics relating to the optimization of high-throughput pipelines used for imaging are discussed. In particular, different levels of implementation, i.e., conceptual, software, and hardware, are discussed and the thesis outlines how advances on each level need to be made to make gains…

These are our lecturers (in alphabetical order) for the 2026 Summer School in Languages and Linguistics.

Exploring the application of data-driven AI optimizations, this work leverages past software performance to reduce the carbon footprint and energy consumption of powerful computing applications.

Learn all about the rich history of navigation, from ancient Greece to Europe’s Gallileo Programme, in the course ‘Navigation through the Ages’. This course is the second MOOC of Space Awareness and is aimed at teachers; registration is now open.

Plant architecture has distinct forms in different plant species, but also within a species the finalarchitecture of a plant is determined by its gradual development and changes therein induced by environmental conditions during the plant’s life cycle.

The excavation of three Bronze Age barrows and surrounding landscape at Apeldoorn-Wieselseweg

This series of seminars convenes researchers based in North America and Europe in order to inspire and further establish reflections about race, race-thinking, and racialization among scholars of late Antiquity and the Middle Ages. The first seminar will be held on Monday, October 19, at 12:00 EDT by…

When we are around four years old we suddenly start to understand that other people think and that their view of the world is often different from our own. Researchers in Leiden and Leipzig have explored how that works. Publication in Nature Communications on 21 March.

Nanodiamonds and charcoal in Dutch soil provide no evidence for the alleged impact of a meteorite at the end of the last Ice Age. This is the conclusion of a research done by Utrecht University in collaboration with Leiden University and the University of Groningen.

This project aims to identify which aspects of exploring a novel environment produce beneficial effects on memory. The effects of novelty will be investigated across the lifespan, including children, adolescents and older adults.

On 26 June 2025, Melanie Fink delivered a presentation titled 'Good Administration in the Age of AI: Explanation Rights and Human Oversight under EU Law' at the European Ombudsman.

The bottom-up development of post-Roman northwestern Europe

Our ability to learn and control movements is essential for engaging in goal-directed behaviour. From buttoning your shirt and driving a car, to cooking dinner and brushing your teeth -- our actions in daily life rely on this ability.

Volume 20 contains eight articles based on research of the Faculty of Archaeology, Leiden University.