This project combines an extensive new open database on linguistic distributions, spatial modelling and areal linguistics in order to disentangle the roles of social and environmental factors on the emergence of linguistic diversity patterns of South America.

How do processes of coalition-formation influence patterns of decision-making in the European Union?

This is a Special Issue of the peer-reviewed journal 'Social Sciences and Missions', which provides a forum for exploration of the social and political influence of Christian missions worldwide.

Andrei Poama, Assistant Professor at Leiden University, published a piece in the journal of Political Philosophy about social injustice, disadvantaged offenders and the state's authority to punish.

How can theatricality act as a mediating process between public space and public as ‘audience’? Does the presence of an observer change the nature of the observed and if so, how?

The main aim of this project is to reveal and unravel the invisible histories of the UN, transcending the dominant Western perspective to recover the historical agency of Global South actors. The research will investigate how the UN has both facilitated and limited their role in shaping global order…

The idea that socially anxious people avoid eye contact because they are not interested in other people needs to be changed. They take their information from other physical sources, such as people's hands. This is the finding of Leiden psychologist Mariska Kret whose research has been published in…

This dissertation explores how domestic political power struggles in Greece and Turkey during the Cold War engaged with the ongoing conflict in Cyprus and aims to demonstrate how socialist parties in Greece and Turkey struggled with the concept of the “nation” in battling for power and political positioning…

Sonic Modernities situates Southeast Asian popular music in specific socio-historical settings, hoping that a focus on popular culture and history may shed light on how some people in a particular part of the world have been witnessing the emergence of all things modern.

On Wednesday 11 June 2025 Steffie van Gompel successfully defended a doctoral thesis and graduated.

This article examines how the threat of terrorism has been addressed at the policy level through an analysis of a specific case in Mali.

On 11 January 2019, Maastricht University and the University of Groningen hosted a workshop on the regulation of social media influencers.

On Wednesday 3 July 2024 Renata Schiavo successfully defended a doctoral thesis and graduated.

WORLDING AMERICA researches how ‘play’ has been a key force in the past and present process of creating America as a coherent and hegemonic ‘world,’ from 1503 to the present.

Find out how to apply for North American Studies at Leiden University by following our step-by step guide.

Since the Middle Passage is in the North Atlantic, and the North Atlantic has a relationship with the arctic, what relationship does the Arctic have with the Middle Passage? How can this relationship be used to provide a space of healing by uncovering Afro/diasporic counter narratives?

Enhancing social inclusion through developing methods and analytical tools for understanding and reasoning about such phenomena based on sensor data.

How were (post) colonial migrants included in post-war welfare systems?

How is it possible that people kill each other? And above all: how is it possible that people who are able to peacefully live with each other at one moment, can kill each other at another one?

Childhood sexual abuse is a common problem, with approximately one in five girls and one in 13 boys worldwide experiencing some form of sexual abuse before the age of 18. Despite its high prevalence, many individuals remain silent about these experiences, often delaying disclosure for years, with one…

The VVI courses form part of the wider teaching programme of the Leiden Law School, which offers programmes both at the undergraduate (LLB) and graduate level (LLM, Advanced Studies, PhD). The Institute offers a MSc programme Law and Society: Governance and Global Development which is unique in Europe.…

During the project, this page will be updated with various written and audiovisual research outputs.

An acute shortage of social care staff means that family members often quit their jobs to care for relatives with severe disabilities. This seems too good to be true – and there is a catch. Barend Barentsen, Professor of Labour law, discusses this on Dutch consumer programme ‘Radar’.

How does the criminal justice system in Indonesia safeguard the rights of and access to justice for witnesses and victims?

On behalf of the interdisciplinary programme Social Resilience & Security, we would like to remind you of the call for proposals for seed funding (up to €4.000) to boost interdisciplinary research.

The 2012 crisis in Mali, where the state collapsed and terrorist groups took over the north, came as a surprise to many. Mali had been considered a poster-child for democracy and was judged as considerably more stable than its neighbors by leading quantitative indices of state fragility. This article…

The interdisciplinary minor American Studies offers a survey of U.S. history, literature and culture from the establishment of the first colonies on the North American continent in the 15th century to the present.

Leiden University has become a partner of the Global Coalition for Social Justice.

The multidisciplinary one-year master’s programme in North American Studies provides students with comprehensive knowledge of North American history, literature, film, and culture and their connection to contemporary social, political, literary and cultural developments in an international perspecti…

The League of European Research Universities (LERU) makes recommendations for the future of the Social Sciences and Humanities research in Europe. Social Sciences and Humanities (SSH) research is vital to build an innovative and resilient Europe.

This research project is an integral part of its mother-programme NEXUS1492 ERC Synergy Project directed by Prof. Corinne Hofman. Overarchingly, it aims at understanding and bridging from the archaeological perspective the late pre-colonial and early colonial history of the Southeastern Caribbean macroregion…

Unravelling networks of human mobility and exchange of goods and ideas from a pre-colonial, pan-Caribbean perspective

Lecture

LUCIS funded several research programmes to boost interfaculty and interdisciplinary cooperation and to widen the involvement of LUCIS members.

Delineating psychophysiological endophenotypes of social anxiety disorder

On 12 November, Clare Fenwick defended her doctoral thesis, The Political Economy of Immigration and Welfare State Reform: A Collection of Comparative Political and Economic Essays on Human Mobility and Social Protection. The PhD research was supervised by Olaf van Vliet and Kees Goudswaard.

Charisma K. Lepcha (PI, Sikkim University), Pradyut Guha (co-PI, Sikkim University), Rajib Sutradhar (co-PI, Christ University Bangalore) and Erik de Maaker (Leiden University) have been awarded a two-year grant of USD 18.000 to conduct research on the impact of ‘green farming’ on the sensitive mountain…

Chaider Bamualim defended his thesis on 9 September 2015

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