Lecture

On 10 May 1940, the Netherlands was taken completely by surprise by the attack of the German army. Wasn’t it? In his dissertation, Wouter Linmans debunks the idea that the Second World War took the Netherlands by surprise. ‘From 1935 onwards, all major political parties wanted to invest in the military.’…

Panel

Discussion

On 4 May, Leiden University remembered the victims of the Second World War from our university community. Alumni, students and present and former staff of the University came together for this Hour of Remembrance.

Stories of resistance in the Second World War are widely covered in Dutch historiography: Hannie Schaft, Erik Hazelhoff Roelfzema, and Professor Cleveringa are some of the best known. But these accounts largely focus on the Dutch domestic perspective. On the other side of the world, a complex colonial…

From memorials to the armed forces to memory stones for individual victims. It was only later that the Holocaust took a central role in Western remembrance culture, Cleveringa Professor Frank van Vree notes. ‘Nationalists and human rights activists both invoke the experience of the Holocaust.’

Lecture

Professor Ian Lilley, the Faculty of Archaeology’s Willem Willems Chair in Archaeological Heritage, was invited by Her Excellency Mrs. Marion Derckx, Ambassador of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Australia, to present the 2022 commemoration speech for Netherlands Memorial Day on May 4th at the Netherlands-Australia…

PhD candidate Wouter Verschoof-van der Vaart has received the Stichting Elise Mathilde Fonds grant from the Leids Universiteits Fonds (LUF) to work on a research project focusing on the landscapes of the Second World War. ‘We will combine citizen science with deep learning to uncover traces of the c…

These days we do not just have wars and civil wars – more of a global civil war, says Bashir Azizi, who received a PhD in April 2020 for his thesis on global citizenship. The second edition of his thesis was recently published.

His article on ‘the War on Drugs’ in Colombia and the Philippines has been in the top five most downloaded articles of Oxford University Press for some time. Now, Assistant Professor Santino Regilme is to receive a NIAS grant to map out the global war on drugs.

Library

During the ‘Hour of Remembrance’ on 4 May, the University community remembers its students and staff who were killed in the Second World War. It also looks at freedom and oppression today. Three questions for Sara Polak, chair of the Hour of Remembrance committee.

War and peace studies. A topic that is more relevant than ever because of the war in Ukraine. In September, the MSc Crisis and Security Management (CSM) will start a new track: War and Peace Studies. CSM’s Programme Director, Ernst Dijxhoorn, discusses the new track, how it was created and what students…

The Dutch universities are shocked by the Russian invasion of Ukraine and empathise with all those affected by this act of aggression. Leiden University also calls for solidarity with and support for all those affected by the war.

The impact of a ceasefire shifts over the course of a conflict, as conflict party leaders learn more about each other’s military and political aspirations and adapt their use of ceasefires accordingly. That’s the key message of the dissertation of Valerie Sticher, PhD-candidate at the Faculty of Governance…

The impact of war extends beyond destroyed buildings and torn families. In bilingual Ukraine, the ongoing war with Russia is a major driver for increasingly discarding the Russian language. What does this mean for the position of Russian in Ukraine?

On Wednesday 9 March, a Faculty meeting about the war in Ukraine was held for staff and students in the Lorentz Lecture Hall. By the time the meeting started at 17.00 hrs, the 220 available seats in the lecture hall had been filled mainly by large numbers of students.

In an essay published in three prominent European newspapers, Professor Luuk van Middelaar takes a close look at Europe’s role in the Russian invasion of Ukraine. ‘Europe shows plenty of political energy, but what is still lacking is strategic cool-headedness, in facing a nuclear power.’

According to Russian propaganda Ukrainians are Nazis and people from the West are Satanists. Egbert Fortuin thinks we should take this propaganda seriously.

Arts and leisure

When Russia invaded Ukraine at the end of February, normal life there came to a halt. To ensure that affected students and researchers can continue their studies and work, professor Ellen Rutten (UvA) and assistant professor Dorine Schellens (Leiden) set up an international mentor network.

The war in Ukraine has lasted almost two weeks now. What does Putin expect to achieve with his invasion and how big is the chance that the West will get involved? We phoned André Gerrits, professor and expert on Russia.

'When taking into account all finds in the Islamic world of this enigmatic vessel, it would perhaps be wise not to restrict this container to merely one function.'

For some grants applying as a foreign institution is possible, and for that reason we have registered Universiteit Leiden in the USA. Approach the Grant Development team as soon as you intend to apply at a funder outside Europe. More information and tips and tricks will follow.

For some grants applying as a foreign institution is possible, and for that reason we have registered Universiteit Leiden in the USA. Approach the Grant Development team as soon as you intend to apply at a funder outside Europe. More information and tips and tricks will follow.

For some grants applying as a foreign institution is possible, and for that reason we have registered Universiteit Leiden in the USA. Approach the Grant Development team as soon as you intend to apply at a funder outside Europe. More information and tips and tricks will follow.

For some grants applying as a foreign institution is possible, and for that reason we have registered Universiteit Leiden in the USA. Approach the Grant Development team as soon as you intend to apply at a funder outside Europe. More information and tips and tricks will follow.

For some grants applying as a foreign institution is possible, and for that reason we have registered Universiteit Leiden in the USA. Approach the Grant Development team as soon as you intend to apply at a funder outside Europe. More information and tips and tricks will follow.

For some grants applying as a foreign institution is possible, and for that reason we have registered Universiteit Leiden in the USA. Approach the Grant Development team as soon as you intend to apply at a funder outside Europe. More information and tips and tricks will follow.

For some grants applying as a foreign institution is possible, and for that reason we have registered Universiteit Leiden in the USA. Approach the Grant Development team as soon as you intend to apply at a funder outside Europe. More information and tips and tricks will follow.

For some grants applying as a foreign institution is possible, and for that reason we have registered Universiteit Leiden in the USA. Approach the Grant Development team as soon as you intend to apply at a funder outside Europe. More information and tips and tricks will follow.

UNESCO has recognized an international set of fifteen manuscripts about Ferdinand Magellan's first circumnavigation of the globe and the three Hikayat Aceh manuscripts as World Heritage. The manuscripts are inscribed in the global UNESCO Memory of the World Register. This list contains documentary heritage…

Research

An international team of astronomers led by Ardjan Sturm of the Observatory has made the first two-dimensional inventory of ice in a planet-forming disk of dust and gas surrounding a young star. The researches, including Melissa McClure, used the James Webb Space Telescope and publish their findings…

Frank van Vree, Emeritus Professor of War, Conflict and Memory Studies at the University of Amsterdam (UVA), is the new Cleveringa Professor at Leiden University this year.

The war in Ukraine is entering a new phase with the announcement of a partial Russian military mobilisation and the intention to annex four Ukrainian regions. Why is Putin making these decisions just now and what consequences will they have for the course of the war? We talk to professor and Russia…