A mere day after setting foot ashore in the Bahamas on October 13th 1492, Christopher Columbus notes the broad foreheads of the inhabitants of the Americas. These permanently altered cranial shapes are deliberately created through the application of pressure to the head of the infant in the first years…

How were war heroes and war criminals created, and how do these images relate to the historical context?

Political protest is often at least partially about the question of legitimacy. How can we distinguish whether a regime is legitimate, or merely purports to be so?

The main aim of this research is to understand the dynamics of identity within indigenous Caribbean communities as expressed through the practice of intentional cranial modification. A multidisciplinary approach will be applied to achieve this aim, combining current anthropological and sociological…

Peer-mentored cognitive behavioral therapy for adolescents with mild intellectual disability and anxiety disorder

Reading emotions from others’ faces strengthens social relationships. But how is that for children with hearing loss? Can they learn to read faces just as easily as hearing children? The study by Yung-Ting Tsou and colleagues shows that daily

In this dissertation several settings in the Online Learning framework are studied. The first chapter serves as an introduction to the relevant settings in Online Learning and in the subsequent chapters new results and insights are given for both full-information and bandit information settings.

In my thesis I study Majorana fermions from three different perspectives. The first one corresponds to non-interacting Majorana fermions that, however, pose non-trivial topological properties. The second one corresponds to strongly interacting Majoranas and the third to relic neutrinos. No one knows…

The largest fertility clinic in the Netherlands lied to women, sperm donors, and the Health and Youth Care Inspectorate. On ‘Nieuwsuur’, Mirjam Sombroek van Doorm, Professor of Law and Health, foresees legal consequences: 'The situation is too serious.'

To what extent are the rights to street children violated en how can their rights be protected?

RAWCLIC’s main goal is to develop knowledge on the future raw materials (RMs) demand, supply and associated environmental impacts induced by the energy and digital transitions in the EU, and to support fact-based industry- and policy- decision-making enabling these transitions.

On Thursday July 1, our alumna Lise Stork will defend her PhD thesis at Leiden University. It is about using AI to make sense of handwritten natural history archives.

On 30-31 October 2025, the University of Coimbra will host the workshop 'Small Communities Facing Danger. Strategies of Solidarity and Resilience Before the Modernity'. Deadline for submission of papers on 31 May.

External PhD candidate Liselore Tissen (Leiden University/Delft University of Technology) has been blogging on the Faces of Science website since March about her daily work as a researcher. ‘Academia is anything but stuffy.’

Academics regularly face threats, intimidation and abuse. The Universities of the Netherlands (UNL), the Dutch Research Council (NWO) and the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW) therefore launched the WetenschapVeilig platform on 7 November 2022.

The Faculty of Humanities, Leiden University Centre for the Arts in Society (LUCAS) is looking for a: PhD The Illustrated Aesopian Fable in Education in France 1500-2010 (1.0 fte) Vacancy number: 16-123

Recently, the University of Amsterdam was the scene of pro-Palestinian demonstrations that got out of hand. The demonstrators included rioters who wished to remain anonymous by wearing face coverings. Several experts, including Wim Voermans, Professor of Constitutional and Administrative Law, spoke…

In pursuit of solutions to China’s inter-regional cross-border insolvency cooperation, my doctoral dissertation provides 10 original recommendations accompanied with comments, which are entitled “China’s Inter-regional Cross-border Insolvency Arrangement” (CICIA).

Invoking old legislation, Spain has imposed fines on five airlines, including Ryanair, in an attempt to crack down on extra fees for hand luggage and seat reservations, as well as other surcharges. Steven Truxal, Professor of Air and Space Law, discusses this in Dutch daily newspaper ‘de Volkskrant’…

On Thursday 10 November, the GTGC organized a research seminar. During this seminar Saori Katada presented her paper on Regional Approach to Financial Statecraft: Japan and India in the Face of Rising China.

Every year on 26 November Leiden University commemorates the protest speech given by Professor Cleveringa against the Nazis. At least 663 students, staff and alumni of the University lost their lives during the Second World War, yet little was known about these victims. PhD candidate Adriënne Baars…

Why do we give students fictional assignments when there is a multitude of real-world problems just waiting to be solved? Leiden University, Leiden University of Applied Sciences and the Municipality of Leiden are joining forces with partners from the public sector in the Learning with the City project,…

The Developmental and Educational Psychology unit nominated Jiemiao Chen's paper

The government wanted to show some muscle by making it compulsory to wear face masks in public indoor spaces as of 22.00 hours on 14 October. But it looks as though this will be 1 November after all. No need for that, tweeted Leiden professor of constitutional law Wim Voermans on 14 October, you can…

Nichiran kankei-shi o yomitoku [Revisiting the History of Dutch-Japanese Relations] is a new, two-volume Japanese publication with a chapter written by Wulan Remmelink. Both volumes offer a new look on the historical relations between Japan and The Netherlands during the Edo period by examining various…

He was a popular face in the Leiden student world and even developed his own merchandise, but all good things come to an end. After seven years, community support officer Dennis Perdok (49) is leaving this role. Last week he bid farewell to the police and to his job in Leiden’s city centre.

To mark its 75th anniversary, the Netherlands War Graves Foundation is publishing a portrait of a war victim every week this year. On 24 January the drawing of Irawan Soejono, a Leiden student and Indonesian resistance member, was unveiled at the Groenesteeg cemetery in Leiden, the place where Soejono…

How can we make the information in handwritten historical research reports accessible and searchable? Data scientists at Leiden University are working with other universities on a method that will improve access to cultural heritage.

This case study-based textbook in multivariate analysis for advanced students in the humanities emphasizes descriptive, exploratory analyses of various types of data sets from a wide range of sub-disciplines, promoting the use of multivariate analysis and illustrating its wide applicability. Fields…

The university has been shaping the city of Leiden for 450 years. A brief history of the university buildings that have helped define the city.

Leiden University celebrated the Relief of Leiden with the 3 October University. This year the University also took part in the festive parade, to promote 444.

The Dies Natalis for alumni was held on Saturday 10 February, organised by the Leiden University Fund (LUF) together with the University. Almost 500 alumni came together in the Kamerlingh Onnes building to celebrate the 443rd anniversary of the foundation of their alma mater.

This PhD subproject concentrates on 16th-century ichthyology and takes Gessner’s Historia piscium (1558) (further HP) as its point of departure and focus.

In this article, Gerrit Dijkstra and Jos Raadschelders from the Institute of Public Administration, argue that Bosnia-Herzegovina survives so far on the basis of negative legitimacy.

A GIS-based study for the reconstruction and interpretation of the archaeological datasets of ancient Boeotia

While many European universities, Leiden included, have a proud tradition of research into Islamic studies, a topical and thematic focus on Shiʿi Islam in all its dispensation remains a desideratum.

This minor is focused on fundamental scientific research required for discovery of new drug targets and development of new drugs. Students learn how disease and drug-induced alterations in signaling pathways can be used for the discovery of new drug targets and the development of personalized drugs.

In this paper, the authors outline how the UK and USA adopt the Chilean pension model without proper attribution, potentially distorting the lessons.

Volume II: Plates of Room Contents

This dissertation aims to provide insight in ethnic prejudice in Chinese-Dutch children and the ethnic socialization context they are exposed to through three social-contextual factors, i.e., parents, children’s books, and the COVID pandemic.

Shining a new light on the Roman world

Scientists rarely take ‘paranormal experiences’ seriously. Furthermore, in the recent past the concept of the ‘paranormal’ did not even exist in philosophy. William James, who extensively studied mediumistic phenomena, labelled them ‘wild beasts of the philosophical desert’.

On Wednesday 13 December, Melanie Fink defended her doctoral thesis ‘Frontex and Human Rights: Responsibility in “Multi-Actor Situations” under the ECHR and EU Public Liability Law’. The supervisors are Rick Lawson and Jorrit Rijpma from Leiden, as well as Manfred Nowak, and Stephan Wittich from the…

This paper addresses the gap that explores how agencies might allocate their personnel so as to maximise performance with the personnel they have.

The month of May saw LUGO host its Spring Event, which consisted of a poetry reading and clotheswap! The event took place on May 10th at Rapenburg 100, in Leiden, from 17.30 to 20.30, and included free vegan snacks provided for by the Green Kitchen.

We develop open micro cavities to trap light in small volumes and thereby increase the interaction with intra-cavity emitters. Important aspects in this development are the optical penetration in the mirrors, coupling between optical modes, and scattering and clipping losses.

Submitted manuscripts will be subject to blind peer review.