What do you do as a government if you are at a loss? You ask an expert for help. In the seventeenth-century Republic of the Seven United Netherlands, one expert after another popped up to advise one of the many regional authorities. In her Veni project, researcher Anna-Luna Post sets out to discover…

Hoe kan het dat universele mensenrechten wereldwijd niet hetzelfde in de praktijk worden gebracht?

In a new study published in PLOS One, Leiden archaeologist Anastasia Nikulina, together with an international team from France, Denmark, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands, challenges the long-held belief that early humans had minimal impact on their environment before the rise of farming.

‘Critical thinking’ is an expression all academics have heard of: it’s the first learning objective in the Leiden Vision on Teaching and Learning. It’s both a historical topic with roots that reach back a long way and a topical problem too. The question on everyone’s lips is whether critical thinking…

A bloody civil war has raged for years in the Central African Republic. PhD candidate Crépin Mouguia points out a tragic pattern: young people have been recruited as fighters or soldiers for generations and thus fuel the conflicts.

Taking responsibility concerning colonial heritage and restitution is a pressing issue for countries and museums worldwide. On 23 and 24 May, a Leiden University interdisciplinary symposium will explore new perspectives as a basis for policies. Organising professors Carsten Stahn and Pieter ter Keurs…

Despite an eventful afternoon – with Students for Palestine occupying the Academy Building – political scientist Hélène Landemore gave her Cleveringa Lecture as planned on 26 November. She reflected on the protest and the importance of open debate, within the university and within a democracy.

Ksenia Fedorova is a university lecturer at the Leiden University Centre for the Arts in Society. Within the Modern and Contemporary cluster of LUCAS, she is affiliated with the Environmental Humanities sub-cluster.

Sarah Wolff is Professor in International Studies and Global Politics at Leiden University. Her research concentrates on EU-UK foreign and security cooperation, EU migration and asylum policies, EU-Middle East and North Africa, as well as EU’s policies on gender and religion abroad.

Rik van Gijn is professor by special appointment of ethnolinguistic vitality and diversity in the world at the Centre for Linguistics. His interests focus on the indigenous languages of South America, and in particular on the question of the historical development of the stunning linguistic diversity…

Eelco van der Maat is a University Lecturer at the institute for History.

Krista A. Milne researches book history and medieval English and French literature at Leiden University.

From 2018, Anne Gerritsen holds the Chair of Asian Art at Leiden University. This position is generously sponsored by the Royal Asian Art Society in the Netherlands, Hulsewé Wazniewski Foundation, Isaac Alfred Ailion Foundation, Foundation for the Study of China at Leiden University, and the Jan Menze…

Susanna de Beer is a Senior University Lecturer at the Leiden University Centre for the Arts in Society, and Endowed Professor Receptions of Classical Antiquity at the University of Groningen. Currently on detachment as Director of Ancient Studies and Classical Reception at the Royal Netherlands Institute…

Dr. Gerlov van Engelenhoven is an assistant professor at Leiden University Centre for the Arts in Society (LUCAS), teaching courses on postcolonial memory, law & culture, and cultural interaction. His most recent book is titled Postcolonial Memory in the Netherlands: Meaningful Voices, Meaningful Silences.…

There are many tributaries to Rosalin Kuiper’s story and they all lead to the sea. The 28-year-old sailor was one of the five-person Team Malizia in the world’s most prestigious sailing competition: the Ocean Race.

The results of the 2025 university elections are in. Who will represent us in the participation organs?

The development of the Faculty Strategic Plan (FSP) did not come to a standstill over the summer. We now have a draft version of the Plan that incorporates the feedback on the strategic objectives that we obtained from various meetings and bodies before the summer. The Research Directors and a number…

Wei Chu is Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Archaeology and PI of the HOME project.

Nidesh Lawtoo is Professor of Modern and Contemporary European Literature and Culture at Leiden University.

Lucien van Beek is Assistant Professor at Leiden University Centre for Linguistics. His research focuses on Comparative Indo-European linguistics (morphology, semantics, lexicography, etymology) and philology, especially regarding the oldest sources of Greek. He conducted a VENI project 'Unraveling…

In her research and teaching, Tessa Minter focuses on environmental anthropology, with a specific interest in livelihood strategies of forest-dependent and coastal peoples in the Asia-Pacific region, and their adaptation to social and environmental change.

Sylvestre Bonnet studies the (photo)chemistry of metal-based molecules in biological and biomimetic environment. By combining bioinorganic chemistry and photochemistry his group makes new light-activatable prodrugs for use as targeted anticancer agents with minimal side effects. Another part of the…

Marian Klamer is Director PhD programs and Professor of Austronesian and Papuan Linguistics at the Centre for Linguistics. She works on the description and comparison of smaller, under-described Austronesian and Papuan languages in Indonesia, and she studies the history and culture of the populations…

Léon Buskens is an anthropologist studying law and culture in Muslim societies. One of his main research interests is how Muslims shape Islam in everyday life, in relation to other practices and to religious teachings. He has a longstanding interest in Morocco, and has more recently also started to…

Rick Honings is a scaliger professor at the Leiden University Centre for the Arts in Society.

Adriaan Bedner is Professor of Law and Society in Indonesia at the Van Vollenhoven Institute for Law, Governance and Society. He is also Head of Department of the Van Vollenhoven Institute and honorary fellow of the Royal Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies (KITLV).

Those who apply for asylum at the Immigration and Naturalisation Service (IND) are often asked about their main reason for migration. This process puts asylum seekers in a specific category, while their experiences are often much more complex and multifaceted. With his research on queer migration, PhD…

For thousands of years, the prehistoric communities of the Low Countries followed their own path, compared with the rest of Europe. An international research team has now published these findings in Nature.

It was a busy turn-out at the first Study Abroad Festival held recently at the Gorlaeus Laboratory on 30 October 2015. Students gathered here to orient themselves - albeit often in an early phase - on studies or work placements abroad.

Ijeoma Uchegbu is Professor of Pharmacy at University College London (UCL). As a female scientist of colour, she was initially reluctant to play an active role in the university’s diversity policy. Until, that is, she had a radical change of heart: ‘I knew it; I had to become an evangelist.'

There are many links between Leiden and the US. The highest office there has been held an impressive nine times by presidents with Leiden roots. This has led to memorable visits to Leiden University.

Cramming from a book, making notes or learning summaries. In the past these were about the only ways to memorise your course material. But that has long since changed. Multimedia is the code word. But is it effective?

Western civil servants openly struggle with their government’s policies on the war in Gaza. During a meeting at Campus The Hague, three former civil servants told their stories.