Thesis and papers
Tips & support
Good academic writing skills are essential for the successful completion of your study programme. Learn about the best ways to write and how you can motivate yourself to write well.
Using generative AI (GenAI)
The use of generative AI programmes (GenAI) can be a valuable aid when completing academic assignments, but it also carries certain risks. It is important that you use GenAI in a responsible and authorised manner.
Follow the rules of your course or study programme
Whether you are allowed to use GenAI tools, and how, may vary depending on the course or study programme you are following. You can find out more in Brightspace or on your faculty/study programme tab.
General rules and warnings
In addition to any course or programme-specific rules, there are also general rules and risks that you must take into consideration.
Don’t commit plagiarism: be transparent
In your academic work you must always cite your sources. This also applies when using GenAI. If you present an AI-generated text as your own work, you are committing plagiarism. Even if you rewrite or translate the text. It doesn’t matter whether you do this intentionally or unintentionally.
Plagiarism is a form of fraud. The university monitors this strictly and there are serious penalties in place. In the worst-case scenario, you may be barred from taking tests and examinations for a period of one year.
So be transparent about the sources of your texts at all times. And always follow the guidelines of your lecturers and the Regulations on plagiarism.
Unreliable results: be critical
GenAI often produces texts that are incomplete and inaccurate. It can also ‘make up’ sources and quotations. As a result, a text might appear to be academically sound when this isn’t the case.
There are also indications that GenAI produces results that are based on biases, for example regarding ethnicity or gender.
It is therefore very important to take a critical look at all GenAI output. Always check whether the claims in the text are accurate and whether the sources are reliable.
Share data responsibly: think about what you are entering
Whatever you include in your prompts becomes part of the database that GenAI draws on and is therefore available to everyone. Never enter data that is sensitive in terms of privacy, or that may not be made publicly available due to copyright, intellectual property, security, or other considerations.
Sustainability: avoid waste
GenAI uses a lot of electricity and water. By using it as little as possible, you can avoid waste. Always ask yourself whether using GenAI is really necessary.
Why it is so important to use GenAI responsibly
Academic integrity
The above-mentioned risks and drawbacks of GenAI are a problem because they run counter to the principles of academic integrity: honesty, scrupulousness, transparency, independence and responsibility. As a member of the academic community, it is essential that you are aware of these issues and deal with them appropriately.
Your academic development
The reason you are studying is to gain skills and knowledge. If you use GenAI to avoid making an effort or challenging yourself, you are doing a disservice to your own development. Always ask yourself: what am I learning from this? Your learning process is far more important to your lecturers than the result you hand in. And it should be just as important to you.
Faculty regulations
The thesis regulations are outlined in appendices of the Faculty’s Course and Examination Regulations. For both papers as well as thesis the rules on plagiarism and academic integrity apply. This means that you must also adhere to the Faculty’s rules regarding the use of GenAI in assessment.
Request for appointing thesis supervisor
The study programme ensures that each student is assigned a supervisor for their bachelor's or master’s thesis. The Board of Examiners is responsible for appointing the supervisor as an examiner for the thesis. Every study programme has its own procedure for appointing supervisors. Please consult the course description of the bachelor’s or master’s thesis in the Prospectus.
Need help with your writing assignment? Come to the Writing Lab!
Want to discuss your academic writing assignment (thesis, paper or other) with a trained peer tutor? Turn to the Writing Lab!
The Writing Lab also organises interactive, hands-on (and free!) workshops and thesis events every semester to help you improve your academic writing skills and/or make writing your thesis a success!
For more information or a free appointment, see: Writing Lab.
Thesis assessment
Your bachelor's or master's thesis will be assessed according to Faculty standards.
Thesis Database
Leiden University Repository
Theses written since July 2011 can be found in the Leiden University Repository.
MA theses
Research MA theses
Collection of theses written between 1962 and 2009
These theses are present in the University Library, open stock ('open magazijn').
Ancient History
Medieval History
Dutch History
Economic History
Social History
General History
Medieval and Early Modern European History
History of Migrants and Cities in a Changing World
History of European Expansion and Globalisation
History of Political Culture and National Identity
Thesis Prizes
The Fruin Prize
At the start of every Academic Year the best Master Thesis of the preceding year will be awarded the ''Fruin Prize'', named after the Dutch historian Robert Fruin. The prize includes a certificate and 250 euro. The winner is chosen by a jury, consisting of members of the Institute of History.
Prize winners (from 1989 onwards)
2025 | News item
Nina Witteman
Mosquitoes, Medicine, and Marshes: Malaria in the Late Medieval Low Countries.
Laudatio.
Honourable mention:
Desley David de Graaf, ‘The Men in One Hammock: Homosexuality and its Prosecution by the Dutch East India Company, 1625-1787’
2024 | News item
Samuel Rubinstein
Hitler’s Thucydides’. Percy Ernst Schramm as Nazi Historian and Historian of Nazism.
Laudatio
2023 | News item
Florian Herrendorf
Colonial mismanagement? The organisation and operation of the government of the WIC colony of Angola, 1641-1648
Laudatio
2022 | News item
Johan Visser
De geschiedenis van een bloedbad. Zutphen en 1572
Laudatio
2021 | News item
Nynke Anna van der Mark
Steam and Steel in Suriname. A Socio-Economic Analysis of the Lawa Railway, 1903-1987
Laudatio
Honourable mentions
Patrick van der Geest ‘The Banker’s Banker, Hope & Co and the Credit Crisis of 1772-1773’
Friso van Nimwegen ‘Prinsgezinder dan de Prins. Burgerlijk Orangisme en Oranjesociëteiten in de politiek, 1787-1788’
2020 | News item
Frederique Visser
“The Watch on the Danube’’: a Bridge between Stability and Conflict - Territorial Identification in Linz, 1908-1928
Report
2019 | News item
Patricia Kret
Functions of amulets: the power of objects in the ancient world
Laudatio
2018 | News item
Jip Barreveld
Two Worlds? State Space and Marginal Peoples in Late Antique North Africa.
Laudatio
2017 | News item
Maurits den Hollander
Comparative Cultures of Accountability. The Scottish Exchequer and the Audit Chamber of Holland between 1477 and 1515
Laudatio
2016 | News item
Arne Muis
Deutschlands Europaïsche Sendung (Germany's European Mission)
Laudatio
2015 | News item
Kaspar Pucek
Institutions in Transition. The Russian Aluminium Industry after Communism
Laudatio
2014 | News item
Matilda Greig
Narrating war and nationality: Identity as presented in the memoirs of Grande Armee veterans of the 1807-1814 Peninsular War
Laudatio
2013
Peter van den Hooff
Antonio Guaineri’s, De matricibus, sive De propriis mulierum aegritudinibus
Laudatio
2012
Stefan Penders
Imperial waters. Roman river god art in context
Laudatio
2011
Rosa den Heijer
Trotz alledem: over-leven en geloven in de DDR
Laudatio
2010
Jeroen Bouterse
Years of Silence. Holy men and knowledge in late Antiquity.
Laudatio
2009
Esther Zwinkels
Het Overakker-complot. Verzetsgroepen in confrontatie met de Japanse bezetter op Sumatra tijdens de Tweede Wereldoorlog.
2008
Paul Gill
Between Rabbis and pagans. Proposing a solution for the discrepancy in the evidence for the development of the Jewish community in Syria Palaestina A.D. 150-350.
2007
Kim Beerden
"Omen-mindedness" - Greek divination in context
2006
Anna Woltz
'There are things worse than death!'
Zwart-blanke seksuele relaties in het Zuiden van de Verenigde Staten tot 1940
2005
Arie van Steensel
Dienaars van de stad
Het ambtelijke personeel van de laatmiddeleeuwse steden Haarlem en Leiden, 1428-1572
2004
Damian Pargas
Weathering Different Storms. Een vergelijkende analyse van slavengezinnen in Fairfax County, Virginia en Georgetown District, South Carolina gedurende de antebellum periode
2003
Brian Heffernan
The churches and the Anglo-Irish War. An appraisal of the role of the bishops of the Roman Catholic Church and the Church of Ireland in the Anglo-Isrish War, 1919-1921
2002
Bartel Stompedissel
Grillig en ambitieus. Een onderzoek naar drie Nederlandse ontwikkelingsprojecten in Indonesië (1968-1983).
2001
Colette Planken
Rome aan tafel. Over de ideologische waarde van het Romeinse diner
2000
Antoine Buyse
De laatste harmonie. Johannes Kepler en de wetenschapsidealen van de zeventiende eeuw
1999
Jet Burgert
Zorgzaam binnen eigen kring. Haagse armenbestuurders, 1854-1912
1998
Matthijs Lok
Tussen God en Machiavelli: Spaansgezinde politieke theorie in de Nederlandse Opstand 1580-1620
1997
Stephan Kras
Houphouët-Boigny en Senghor in conflict met het Franse bestuur 1948-1951
1996
Soedish Verhoeven
Civilisatie en Menselijke Natuur. De sociologie en civilisatietheorie van Norbert Elias
1995
Karin Mössenlechner
Op het breukvlak van wetenschap en politiek: Donald F. Hornig in het Witte Huis, 1963-1968
1994
Tabitta van Nouhuys
Iets nieuws boven de maan. De Nederlandse kometentraktaten 1577-1620 en de val van het aristotelisch wereldbeeld
1993
R.J.H.A. de Vreede
De landbouw in een Zuidhollandse droogmakerij tijdens de agrarische depressie (1878-1895). De negotiatie `Land is een zekere bezitting' en de landbouw in Bleiswijk en Bergschenhoek in de tweede helft van de 19de eeuw
1992
Sebastiaan Reyn
Lyndon Johnson's policy of restraint toward De Gaulle. The case of the MLF
1991
Rienk Eggink
A.A. Zjdanov. Een politieke biografie, 1896-1948
1990
M.Th.R.M. Dolmans
De medische verzorging in het Romeinse leger van de eerste tot het begin van derde eeuw n.Chr.
1989
Eric van Luijk
Van Opiumregie tot heroïne verstrekking. Het drugbeleid in Nederlands-Indië en Nederland, 1889-1989
Other thesis prizes
An overview of all other thesis prizes can be found in the Humanities Nomination Calendar (in Dutch).