This PhD project analyses the politics and aesthetics of depictions of torture in American and European ‘war on terror’ films.

An international team of more than 200 astronomers from 18 countries has published hundreds of thousands of unknown galaxies. The data are part of a project lead by Leiden professor of Observational cosmology Huub Röttgering. Both Dutch and international media reported extensively about the publica…

Snowball the cockatoo gained world fame on social media. Millions of people saw him dance to Queen and The Backstreet Boys. In the journal Current Biology scientists study Snowball's dancing abilities and what they teach us about the origins of dance. Professor of Animal Behaviour Carel ten Cate casts…

The Van Hecke group published in Nature Physics about programmable origami, which was covered in the following media.

An important award like the Spinoza Prize, the 'Dutch Nobel Prize', generates lots of media attention. An overview.

The 2018 Physics Nobel Prize is awarded to Arthur Ashkin, Donna Strickland and Gérard Mourou for their research on optical tweezers based on lasers. Leiden physicists comment in the following media.

This project investigates which aspects of social media content adolescents attend to and how these relate to their credibility judgments, aiming to systematically understand their susceptibility to misinformation and inform effective educational programs that foster youth’s resilience to misinforma…

In what ways can visual art play a vital role in countering the discriminating stigma experienced by transgender communities?

Media in the Netherlands and abroad reported extensively about the drug research led by Leiden chemist Mario van der Stelt. In this research, Van der Stelt shows which unwanted side-effects a French drug candidate has.

The environment also benefits when people follow national nutritional guidelines, Paul Behrens demonstrated in research published in PNAS. The publication attracted media attention both at home and internationally.

For the second time in six months, Hans-Martien ten Napel has been invited to write the opening essay for a series of international blog posts.

Our everyday life consists of all sorts of spatial processes: we find our way to work, remember where we left our keys, and are able to pick up our cup of coffee. We study how the human brain processes such spatial processes. From a clinical perspective, we are interested in how acquired brain damage…

Bram van Dijk works on his PhD within the Media Technology research group. He teaches within a course on Social Technologies in the Media Technology program. Read what he has to say about the program.

Political scientist Luzia Helfer (Leiden University) empirically tested claims about media-politics relatiopns using unique data from experimental studies with elected politicians and political journalists in Switzerland and the Netherlands.

Tarlach McGonagle has been appointed as Professor of Media Law in the Information Society as of 1 May 2019. The Chair is established by the Leiden University Fund (LUF) and is situated within the Department of Constitutional and Administrative Law.

Exploring cultural production in Europe, Latin America and Africa, the institute’s research programme focuses on the continuous interconnectedness of the Arts and Society in both the textual culture of literature, learning and public debate and the visual culture of art, architecture, film, photography…

As a researcher, it can be fun and useful to talk to the media about your work. But on what terms should you agree to do an interview or appear on a talk show? And how do you tell an engaging story? The Media Guide for Researchers is here to help. Three colleagues share their top tips.

Students at Leiden University College (LUC) gain an understanding of journalism ‘from the inside out’ through innovative teaching methods in the courses Multimedia Journalism, Investigative Journalism and Gender, Media and Conflict. By simulating the actual daily tasks of journalists, they are exposed…

Based on interviews with feminist Instagram users, this article studies emergent feminist visibilities on Instagram through the concept of filtering.

We are excited to restart the Media Technology alumni talk series, organized by students, for students and alumni. Upcoming edition will bring us two alumni to share their unique journeys after Media Technology: Ella Keijzer and Bastiaan Terhorst.

Rector Magnificus Carel Stolker expressed his support in the media for 'The Real Opening,' the protest against government cuts. 'The plans are a disaster for higher education.' Professor Remco Breuker, one of the organisers of this protest on 2 September, called in NRC Handelsblad for a stop to the…

On May 13 2022, Frans W. Saris will present the third of a series of "Hello World!" lectures, organised by the Media Technology MSc program of Leiden University. In his lecture titled "Computer Modeling to Save the World", Frans Saris addresses three alarming crises: energy and climate, biodiversity…

Conference

Dr.(mult.) Andrew DJ Shield is Assistant Professor of Migration History, and affiliated with the interdisciplinary research project “Social Citizenship and Migration.” He is the chair of Leiden’s LGBT+ Network. Shield specializes in sexuality, race, and diversity in Europe since 1945. He holds two…

How dangerous are AI tools, such as chatGPT? Media Technology researchers Max van Duijn and Tom Kouwenhoven explain the potential dangers of AI for EenVandaag national news outlet. "We must develop a critical view for applying such tools."

We are excited to announce the book publication of our alumnus Dr. Budhaditya Chattopadhyay: The Auditory Setting Environmental Sounds in Film and Media Arts.

It is always a pleasure when a young academic can reach out to the broader public and discuss his/her research's societal relevance and impact. Our own Vincent Walstra has been doing very well on disseminating his work and featuring in various media. This is a list of his recent publications and int…

Researchers have discovered oxygen in the furthest known galaxy JADES-GS-z14-0. Leiden astronomers Sander Schouws and Rychard Bouwens were part of the team that made this discovery. This news was reported in all newspapers and online media.

Mari Nakamura defended her thesis on 14 March 2017

The first Leiden Science Family Day on Saturday 6 October was a great success. During the ‘Weekend of Science’ more than 700 visitors, including 350 children, visited the Faculty of Science. With a program full of experiments, lectures, guided tours and demonstrations, visitors were given a glimpse…

Organised jointly by the Europa Institute, Leiden University and the Lisbon Centre for Research in Public Law, University of Lisbon on 31 May 2021.

Nicolaas Bloembergen, who won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1981, passed away on 5 September in Tucson, Arizona. Bloembergen obtained his PhD on nuclear spin resonance in 1948 at Leiden University. Some articles about his life.

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 &…

Political scientist Rebekah Tromble (Leiden University) and computational sociolinguist Dirk Hovy (University of Copenhagen) analyse how much hostility and sexism Clinton faces on Twitter, as well as who seems to be behind such attacks.

Political scientists Rebekah Tromble and Michael Meffert (Leiden University) address the question why certain frames persist over time in the media while others fade away and still others disappear very quickly. They suggest an approach based in event-history methodologies for assessing the causes of…

The interactive media and simulations studio designed and built by our in-house team.

2024 has been an eventful year, and this is reflected in our social media posts. An overview of the most liked, most shared or most impressive posts.

From the 1920s on, popular music in Southeast Asia was a mass-audience phenomenon that drew new connections between indigenous musical styles and contemporary genres from elsewhere to create new, hybrid forms. This book presents a cultural history of modern Southeast Asia from the vantage point of popular…

How is generative AI changing the way we learn, communicate, and make sense of the world today? As AI tools become part of everyday life, they don’t just produce text but shape meaning, influence trust, and impact how we find and share information. This project explores how people use, experience and…

How does the development of digital technologies impact society, and law/regulation within that society?

In October 2014, Leiden University established the ‘Leiden University Teachers’ Academy’. Helen Westgeest, who lectures in the BA and MA Art History and MA Media Studies, was put forward by the Faculty of Humanities for appointment in the so-called ‘LTA’.

“The first thing to know is…we don’t post anything without approvals,” the lead social media manager at the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) explained after I asked about the MFA’s social media processes. [1]

The research project Authoritarianism 2.0, funded by the European Research Council, invites eligible research institutions to submit applications. The successful subcontractor will conduct a nationally representative survey on Internet and social media use in the People’s Republic of China, relying…

Jiemiao Chen works as a postdoctoral researcher at the Developmental and Educational Psychology unit. Her research explores dynamics in young people engaging with real-world and digital social environments, with a specific focus on gaze behaviour.

On December 7th & 8th, visual artist Sophie Ernst will defend her thesis The Magic of Projection; Augmentation and Immersion in Media Art, to obtain her doctoral degree. The public defense takes place in two stages. On Wednesday 7 December 2016 at 4 PM Ernst will publicly elucidate the artistic work…