Many Asian countries are in a process of democratisation. The expectation was that citizens would gradually gain more control over the functioning of their elites. Experts from Leiden have concluded that this process often fails to improve the quality of the administration. They researched the nature…

Subproject of

On 22 June the International Centre for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD) organised a webinar on the challenges that have arisen for asylum seekers and refugees worldwide as a result of the COVID-19 crisis.

On Thursday 29 April 2021, Melanie Fink appeared before the European Parliament’s Working Group on Frontex Scrutiny.

Welcome to the WIIS NL community! We are excited to be launching our newsletter in the week we celebrate International Women's Day.

The team of WIIS-Netherlands exists out of the board members and the advisory council.

The making of sacrifices seems part and parcel of any elite sportsperson’s life. Remarkably, the insights that we find in the current literature in social sport studies are not able to make sense of the references to sacrifice in the data that emerged in the context of this study on the social significance…

The revolutionary organizations in Paris and Berlin around 1848.

How does stress affect different components of behavioral impulsivity and aggression in patients with Borderline Personality Disorder compared to clinical controls (patients with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) and healthy controls?

On 8 March 2023 Helen Duffy, Professor of International Human Rights and Humanitarian Law in Leiden, published a monograph on Global Trends in Counter-terrorism and the Implications for Human Rights in Africa.

Last week, to commemorate the thirtieth anniversary of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, Prof. Dr. Ton Liefaard shone a fresh light on children’s rights, in Italy.

Mark Klaassen and Peter Rodrigues have published a journal article on the role of the best interests of the child in EU family reunification law in the European Journal of Migration and Law. They conclude that even though the Court of Justice of the European Union has often referred to the best interests…

On 8-9 October 2020, ACES and the T.M.C. Asser Instituut organised an interdisciplinary online conference ‘Migration deals and their damaging effects’ on the implications of the increasing use of informal (non-binding) instruments in the field of migration.

For two years, Ineke Sluiter was president of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW). Now, she is returning to the university full time. ‘I always carry themes like accessibility, diversity and inclusion with me.’

Doing a PhD can be challenging. Moving to a foreign country can be challenging too. PhD candidate Ilya Kokorin, who was born in a small town in Siberia, faced both, while at the same time having to overcome a number of additional challenges and build a future post-PhD.

Have you had your eye on one of our Summer Schools? Or perhaps a Summer School elsewhere to complement your Law Master, but you have not been able to decide whether it has enough added value? One of our international alumni, Mariasole Forlani, tells us enthusiastically about her experience of the international…

Sweetie 2.0 is a research project commissioned by Terre des Hommes on online child sex tourism and criminal law.

Due to an exception in the law, domestic workers employed by private persons cannot automatially benefit from social security schemes. Home help Carol Kollmann did not agree with this and took her case to court.

The center studies the many ways in which issues of law and justice are dealt with in art and literature with a focus on liminal issues and cases. These are issues and cases where law comes to the limits of what it is capable of dealing with and art and literature explore the implications of what is…

On 4 March 2016, Melanie Fink presented her PhD research on legal accountability for human rights violations occurring during Frontex-coordinated joint border control operations at a workshop for recipients of the DOC scholarship of the Austrian Academy of Sciences.

The subject of motherhood is interwoven with themes of survival, power and identity. It is also at the heart of any consideration of women’s writing. Conversations of Motherhood sensitively charts common themes, intersecting experiences and related topics within the cultural specificities of South African…

LIAS aims to advance the globally conscious vision of area studies, both within and outside the academic community. Focusing on Asia and the Middle East, the institute is a meeting place of multiple fields of inquiry, theories and methods, historical periods, and areas.

Global Challenges is the research programme of the Leiden Institute of Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology.

Madeleine O. Hosli, Professor of International Relations, wrote this book in which she analyses the complex relations between the European Union (EU) as a regional organization and the United Nations (UN) as an international, global governance institution.

Yearbook of Women's History.

In Voices on Birchbark Jos Schaeken explores the major role that writing on birchbark – an ephemeral, even ‘throw-away’ form of correspondence and administration – played in the vibrant medieval merchant city of Novgorod and other cities in the Russian Northwest.

LIAS aims to advance the globally conscious vision of area studies, both within and outside the academic community. Focusing on Asia and the Middle East, the institute is a meeting place of multiple fields of inquiry, theories and methods, historical periods, and areas.

The Impact of Mobility and Migration in the Roman Empire assembles a series of papers on key themes in the study of Roman mobility and migration.

The research group of Silke Henkes at Leiden University. Part of the Leiden Institute of Physics (LION). The group studies the physics opf active materials.

As a scientific partner, the Sport Data Center offers (sports) organisations a wide range of services.

Aspects of Religious Leadership in Europe, 1100-2000

The primary goal of GAP is to study the impact of globalization and internationalization policies and practices on the gender balance in research and higher education in Norway.

Who has control over which piece of land? Since independence in 2002 East Timor has been struggling to create a land tenure system that can deal with the grievances of past colonial ruling and conflict, and address the needs of its citizens, says researcher Bernardo Almeida. PhD defence on September…

What is the first thing you think of when you hear the word UN? Is it just the Security Council and the ‘blue helmets’ or is there more to it? These are some of the questions tackled by the Chair’s research group.

Reports from Quebec media show the French-Canadian far-right organisation La Meute dealt itself another self-inflicted blow this week, with several club executives being forced out of the group and having a former co-founder, Patrick Beaudry, publicly declare ‘the ship is sinking.’

During her master's thesis, Nashanty Brunken (24) worked in a team with five other women. With this female team, they discovered the largest molecule so far identified in a disc. 'I have learned so much and because we are all women, it is incredibly empowering. It's very cool to see how far we've come…

A growing number of AI tools are being developed for the legal sector, to help professionals search lengthy texts or check court rulings. Leiden SAILS researcher Masha Medvedeva, an expert on the technical development of these systems, warns: ‘Users should know what’s under the hood.’

'The kind of knowledge you gain in International Studies can take you anywhere,' says Gaby van de Wal (26, The Hague, The Netherlands), who graduated from the programme in 2018. Her own career path is proof that indeed, an International Studies degree comes with many opportunities.

Many students see themselves working at an NGO in Brussels after graduation. Alumnus Calum Thomson (26) is doing just that. In 2021 Calum started working at the Eastern Partnership Civil Society Forum (EaP CSF): a platform aimed at promoting European integration, facilitating reforms and democratic…

How you think about yourself is important for the choices you make. Adolescents are faced with choosing a study programme that will determine their future, while their self-image is still under development. Tough choice? Research by psychologist Laura van der Aar has shown that taking a training course…

What would it be like if you could work with the best in your field every day? Alumnus in International Studies Niels Drost knows just what that’s like. He currently works as a junior researcher at the Clingendael Institute.

Marleen Hogendoorn (36) studied Dutch Language and Culture at Leiden University and is now editor-in-chief of the feminist monthly OPZIJ.

How do commissions of inquiry operating in conflict situations utilize international law, and how can inquiry findings be utilized by other bodies belonging to the international legal community?

On this page you will find information on the general programme of Cities, Migration and Global Interdependence and some of the various fields of research that you can study here.