Leiden University policy requires researchers to make all their Leiden-affiliated peer-reviewed articles available.

As one of the most influential ideas in modern European history, democracy has fundamentally reshaped not only the landscape of governance, but also social and political thought throughout the world.

Study information

Leiden University was the first university to be established in the Netherlands. William of Orange gave Leiden Academia Lugduno Batava in 1575, it is said in recognition of the city’s courageous resistance against the seige by the Spanish invaders.

During the Summer School Science Communication, you will learn everything about science communication.

The key subject of the Team Economic and Social History is Inequality (at local, national and global levels). We study this from an intersectional perspective: gender, class, ethnicity or race, religion, sexuality, age, ability/disability, citizenship and legal status. We study these categories of power…

About the history of ProParte and its predecessors.

The main question of this research project concerns the extent to which light verbs in West Germanic languages participate in processes of language change.

This special issue of Contemporary Levant critically explores, at a micro and macro level, the structural role and religious, cultural and political interactions of the Greek-Orthodox, Melkite and Syriac communities in late Ottoman and Mandate Syria and Palestine.

Bringing together the most current research on the relationship between crime and gender in the West between 1600 and 1914, this authoritative volume places female criminality within its everyday context.

On September 9th 2009, the study Life Science and Technology (LS&T) celebrates its 10th anniversary. In 1999, a group of enthusiastic pioneers within the Technical University Delft (TUD) and Leiden University (LU) founded a novel study based on the biotechnological expertise of research institutes within…

Birmingham and Leiden, as cities and as seats of global universities, shaped and were shaped by, empire. Both institutions have started to reflect critically on this legacy.

A new memorial stone on the facade of a student house in the Hugo de Grootstraat is a reminder of the dozens of Indonesian students who studied in Leiden before and during the Second World War. Some of them were active in the Resistance, which cost a number of them their lives.

The Uses of Justice in Global Perspective, 1600–1900 presents a new perspective on the uses of justice between 1600 and 1900 and confronts prevailing Eurocentric historiography in its examination of how people of this period made use of the law.

How did free agents in the Dutch Republic react to the creation of colonial monopolies (VOC and WIC) by the States-General? This project answers this question by looking at the role individuals played in the construction of an informal global empire parallel to the institutional empire devised by the…

Read more about the International Network Open Science & Scholarship Communities in our Vision and Mission statements.

The Project “Excellence in science and innovation for Europe by adopting the concept of Responsible Research and Innovation (NewHoRRIzon)” sets out to promote the acceptance of RRI in Horizon 2020 (H2020) and beyond. It will work out the conceptual and operational basis to fully integrate RRI into European…

Ariadne Schmidt will be appointed professor by special appointment of the Magdalena Moons chair at Leiden University. From 1 September 2018 she will carry out academic research and teach on the cultural history of the city, in particular of Leiden.

To safeguard the quality of research within Leiden University, a committee of external experts evaluates the University’s institutes once every six years according to the Standard Evaluation Protocol which is drawn up by the Association of Universities in the Netherlands (VSNU), The Royal Netherlands…

Fenneke Sysling has recently launched a podcast: Het Gemeten Zelf (in Dutch). This five-part podcast series explores the history of self-tracking.

The Flentrop Organ is the third organ to have been built for the Great Auditorium in the Academy Building in Leiden.

When you think of squatting, the picture that comes to mind is of young people occupying derelict buildings in big cities. Leiden also has a history of squatting, and that history is very diverse.

Find out all about our bachelor's programmes and studying at Leiden University at the Bachelor's Open Day on Saturday 7 March 2026 in Leiden and The Hague. There will be live talk shows about the bachelor programmes, campus tours and information markets where you can find out more about our programmes.…

Find out all about our bachelor's programmes and studying at Leiden University at the Bachelor's Open Day on Saturday 7 March 2026 in Leiden and The Hague. There will be live talk shows about the bachelor programmes, campus tours and information markets where you can find out more about our programmes.…

The opening of the Academic Year 2024-2025 took place on Monday 2 September 2024 in the Pieterskerk church.

With the aid of the General History of Africa (GHA) series of books, PhD candidate Larissa Schulte Nordholt researched what it meant to decolonise the history of Africa. This proved to be a tricky process, which was hampered by politics and lack of funding. PhD defence on 1 December.

The opening times of the Humanities buildings vary. The Lipsius building is opened during evenings as well, the other faculty buildings retain office hours.

What is the significance of the history of slavery for our present-day society? A special exhibition in the inner courtyard of the Academy Building features eleven insightful portraits of students and staff, and their answer to this question. The aim of the exhibition’s initiators is to make the subject…

On Tuesday 4 September, in a full lecture hall C1, Dean Geert de Snoo opened the Academic Year for the Faculty of Science. A year in which the ethics and responsibility of scientists will be invoked.

The opening of the Academic Year 2018-2019 took place on Monday 3 September 2018 in Pieterskerk church.

The Old Observatory has a rich history. On this page you will find a short version of the history that took place in the observatory.