The compulsory reading list is infamous among secondary school students, and for all the wrong reasons. This prompted the Faculty of Humanities and the Onderwijsnetwerk Zuid-Holland (South Holland Education Network) to launch the Alternative Reading List Award, in search of books that motivate young…

Following the success of the Dutch version, the podcast 'Scandal and Controversy in Russian Literature' is now also available in English. Senior University Lecturer Otto Boele guides listeners through eight infamous texts in this version.

Humanities Lab consists of four modules, a Bachelor Honours Class and a concluding project. You will cross academic boundaries and view the world through the lens of Humanities.

Leiden University student Anousch Khorikian has been awarded the Herman Servotte prize 2012 for her MA thesis ‘“You Gonna Kiss Me or Punch Me?”: Misogynist Nostalgia in Life on Mars and Ashes to Ashes’.

The theme of the opening of this year’s academic year was peace and justice. With the climate crisis and the war in Ukraine, these are turbulent times. During the ceremony those present reflected on what the academic community and universities can mean in times of crisis and conflict.

Good news for Linguistics alumna Anne-Mieke Thieme, who has won the thesis prize awarded by the European Federation of National Institutions for Language (EFNIL). ‘I emailed my thesis supervisor right away.’

MA International Relations: Culture and Politics student Annick van Rinsum created a play as a method to research her master’s thesis. “Through writing this play, I aim to contribute to our understanding of International Relations Theory. I’m specifically interested in the question how our theories…

Are you curious about other disciplines and would you like to develop yourself more broadly alongside your bachelor studies? Discover the Honours College!

Everyone has heard arguments like this before as a child: ‘Whether you like it or not, you have to go to school!’ It seems as though you are presented with two options, but there is only one real outcome. Charlotte van der Voort of the MA Dutch Studies won the Leiden University Thesis Prize on her research…

Scrap the radical cuts to research and teaching. This was researchers and students’ message to government at the opening of the new academic year. Various speakers in Leiden’s Pieterskerk highlighted the importance of science for society.

Which teacher has the talent to really motivate their students or is able to combine current research in their lectures? These are important qualifications for winning the yearly university wide Teaching Prize. Dr. Karène Sanchez, lecturer French language and culture, is one of the nominees.

Education

After a turbulent Covid year, the well-being of our students and staff has the highest priority. How can we prevent physical and mental health problems? This was the key question at the Opening of the Academic Year in Pieterskerk in Leiden on 6 September.

How do you recount historic events if you are not allowed to talk about them? For his dissertation, Taufiq Hanafi tried to find out how a period of mass murder – despite heavy censorship – found a place in Indonesian literature. PhD defence 31 March.

It was pouring with rain during the Opening of the Faculty Year, but in the Oranjerie, Dean Henk te Velde had a positive message for those present: the faculty is in better financial shape than expected, and a reorganisation is therefore off the table.

Russian literature is awash with disputes, riots and intense political debates. In the new Dutch podcast Schandaal en Controverse in de Russische literatuur, senior lecturer Otto Boele and film maker and journalist Kay Mastenbroek discuss the most talked-about Russian books published in the past two…

All students in the Netherlands are invited to take part in the National Student Survey (NSE) once a year. Via the NSE you can give your opinion on the positive aspects of your study programme, as well as what you think could or should be improved.

During the Opening of the Academic Year 2024-2025, we asked guests for their wishes and ideas for Leiden University's anniversary year in 2025.

Education

Russian writer and cardiologist Maxim Osipov will come to the Netherlands for a year to teach in Leiden about Russian literature, his own work and the political situation in Russian.

Dr. Sara Brandellero and Dr. Kamila Krakowska Rodrigues from Leiden University Centre for the Arts in Society will lead a collaborative research project funded by Horizon Europe Work Programme on Culture, Creativity and Inclusive Society. #DemocracyinAction studies arts and culture-based grassroots…

Last February, Leiden University Libraries (UBL) acquired a rare Chinese manuscript dating back to the Ming Dynasty. Three Chinese Studies students got the opportunity to decipher the edict (dated 1582) during their internships. In this UBLpodcast they share their findings.

The Leiden University College (LUC) education team behind The Learning Mindset (TLM) has received 800,000 euro’s during the Dutch Higher Education Award Ceremony 2022. The LUC team was second behind Universteit Twente. The prize was awarded during the annual Comenius Festival of the Comenius Network.…

The opening of the new academic year highlighted students' and lecturers' personal motivators. Incoming students were encouraged to be bold, forge their own paths and grow by trial and error.

Join the 2025 Legal Tech Challenge and collaborate with fellow students to design an innovative app that makes legal services more accessible. Gain practical experience, tackle real-world legal challenges and compete for an amazing prize!

After a gap of five years, Leiden has a new Professor of Modern China. Florian Schneider started his position on 1 September.

Organisation

On Thursday, December 12, 2024, historian and terrorism expert Beatrice de Graaf will deliver the 53rd Huizinga Lecture at the Stadsgehoorzaal in Leiden. Under the title "We Are the Times: History in Times of Crisis", De Graaf will explore how history is used during crises to give meaning to the times.…

The European Research Council (ERC) has awarded an Advanced Grant to six Leiden researchers. It awards these significant grants to established principal investigators for ground-breaking, high-risk research.

Social

Quietly read a book in our new reading nook, listen to interesting and bizarre stories set in early twentieth-century Leiden, walk past literary locations in Leiden and watch the best film adapted from a Leiden novel as decided on by you. April is Literary Leiden month! A month in which we pay special…

It has become tradition: the opening of the faculty year in the Hortus Botanicus. This year, too, staff and students of the Faculty of Humanities gathered in the botanical garden on the first Wednesday of September to raise a glass to the new academic year.

Two Leiden students stand a chance of winning the ECHO Award for Higher Education. Deniz Rana Kuseyri (Rana for short) and Ruşen Koç are two of the six finalists for this annual national prize that is awarded to students who promote diversity and inclusion in their own discipline.

2024 was an eventful year for the Faculty of Humanities. Despite becoming the centre of political discussion and budget cuts as faculty ourselves, exceptional research projects were carried out and new initiatives were launched.

As a result of the current corona measures, attendance at the Opening of the Academic Year on 6 September will be restricted to a maximum of 75 persons. The ceremony can, however, be viewed online by taking part in a video wall.

Alumna Jetske Breedeveld pursued both a Bachelor's in English Language and Culture and a Master's in Literary Studies at Leiden University. Her passion for film was a constant theme throughout her student life. Now working at the Leiden International Film Festival, she describes her job as 'really c…

At the Honours Conference, honours students shared interesting projects and valuable lessons learned during their honours education. As icing on the cake, the event provided opportunity for students to enter into interdisciplinary discussions with each other. ‘’We should have events like this every…

Some thirty Leiden students balanced on SUP boards for the Supping for Sustainability Lustrum activity. Together with alumnus Merijn Tinga, better known as the Plastic Soup Surfer, they paddled their boards through the Leiden canals and waterways, fishing plastic waste out of the water.

Today marks the start of the Healthy University - Let's Walk Week 2021, a week focused on the mental and physical health of our employees. Including an online program with interesting inspiration sessions, office workouts and sports lessons. And join our walking competition in the Ommetje app!

A team of Leiden researchers has won the Ammodo Science Award for innovative humanities research on perceptions of cultural heritage.

Organisation

What’s new, BAIS alumni? This summer, the BAIS Alumni Association hosted the yearly alumni reunion, organized in virtual format for the second time after the previous reunion also took place online in 2020. Feeling the need to compensate for the lack of in-person interaction, the Alumni Association…