The NestWacht project is a Citizen Science collaboration between Science Centre Delft, Naturalis, and the Citizen Science Lab of Leiden University to engage individuals, families and primary schools in Leiden and Delft in scientific research on the impact of climate change on nature in their city, and…

Promotor: Prof.dr. G.R. de Snoo, Prof.dr. G.A. Persoon

Combining approaches from intellectual history, philology and the study of Arabic manuscripts, this study places the Bornu scholar Muḥammad al-Wālī within his intellectual environment on the one hand, and it portrays him as someone who responded to the concerns of ordinary Muslims around him on the…

Embracing the Provinces is a collection of essays focused on people and their daily lives living in the Roman provinces, c. 27 BC-AD 476. It offers an overview of current research on Roman provinces and frontiers, deconstructing some long-held preconceptions and providing refreshing insights into unexplored…

For the first time, a group of international and interdisciplinary researchers led by Karline Janmaat and her former MSc Student Chirag Chittar, have tested the several hypotheses on music simultaneously in a modern foraging society during their daily search for tubers – their staple food. They found…

In the National Think Tank, 20 young academics spend four months mulling over a solution to a societal problem. Two Leiden alumni tell us more.

For decades, the trade in pocketbooks prescribing how to be a good Muslim flourished in East Africa, but in recent years the number of books in circulation has been declining. University lecturer Annachiara Raia is the recipient of an Impact Explorer grant to revive this tradition, in cooperation with…

What are trait-trait relationships in wetlands? To what extent the so-called leaf economics traits deviate from terrestrial ecosystems? How traits specific to wetland plant relate to plant strategies? What’s the relationship between wetland plant traits to the ecosystem functioning (e.g. productivity,…

The fourteen Dutch universities have published a digital magazine in which the researchers explain the Digital Society programme in text and images.

From the influx of migrants to the Ukraine referendum: Europe is playing an ever bigger role in our lives. Leiden scientists shed light on developments in Europe and examine the impact of the Union on the lives of its citizens. Read more in the new research dossier on Europe.

On 15 May the new website about the research programme Digital Society has been launched.

Colleagues from the Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences work on a variety of topics that contribute to a healthy society. Erik Bähre, Tessa Minter and Natashe Lemos Dekker presented their work during the Healthy Society Event on 9 June 2022.

The Museums, Collections and Society programme, a joint initiative of the Faculties of Humanities and Archaeology, examines the dynamics and implications of the art of collecting as a universal phenomenon. The activities in the programme, which will be accommodated under LUCAS, will focus on three…

This book is the first systematic analysis of the changes in the use of goods and services by households of Black South Africans since the early nineteenth century.

This book is the first comprehensive presentation of the archaeology of Syria from the end of the Paleolithic period to 300 BC.

A practical checklist with legal, technical and ethical points of view will from now on guide the data scientists when working in Artificial Intelligence: the AI Impact Assessment (AIIA). It has been developed by ECP (Platform of the Information Society) and nine other partners, among them the Leiden…

The experiments described in this thesis employ local lentiviral knockdowns in brain areas of female zebra finches followed by behavioural assays consisting of preference and Go/Nogo tasks.

Promotor: Prof.dr. M. Danhof, Co-promotor: E.C.M. de Lange

This project investigates how the first generation of Dutch printed books (the incunabula, 1473-1501) affected late medieval spirituality, religious practice and visual culture in the Low Countries.

Promotors: Prof.dr. G.R. de Snoo, Prof.dr. G.A. Persoon, Prof.dr.ir. H.H. de Iongh

The Digital Society research agenda was presented by the Dutch universities during the VSNU Impact festival on 23 November.

Students, staff and alumni of the Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences joint forces to interact, debate, pitch, and speed date together at the Connecting Social Sciences science festival on Friday 22 November, 2019. After the opening speeches and panel discussion on science and societal impact,…

Leiden University Academy of Creative and Performing Arts (ACPA) launches the open online course Music & Society on Coursera to advance worldwide access to high-quality education. The course starts on January 9, 2017 and will be taught by Prof. dr. Marcel Cobussen and drs. Hafez Ismaili M’hamdi.

Rebecca Tompkins defended her thesis on 21 March 2019

In court, victims of violent crime and sexual offences are permitted to comment on the defendant’s guilt and the sentence to be imposed. But legal experts believe this allows them to influence the judge. Lecturer Joyce Schot has received a Meijers PhD grant to investigate whether the right to speak…

The authors in this volume explore how external innovations (products, technologies, services, institutions and processes) have been appropriated in African societies in order to be acceptable and relevant to local conditions, expectations and demands.

Andrea Evers, Professor of Health Psychology at Leiden University, has won the Stevin Prize – alongside the Spinoza Prize, the highest scientific award in the Netherlands. She is the third social scientist from Leiden in a row to win one of these prizes. ‘Leiden attracts freethinkers.’

Marc Koper has been selected as one of the six new fellows in 2015 of the International Society of Electrochemistry.

Rong Yuang, PhD candidate from the Institute of Environmental Sciences investigated the impact of the renewable energy expansion on China’s carbon emission. On 17 May, she will defend her thesis. China is investing heavily in the development of low-carbon electricity sources, like nuclear, hydro-,…

Marc Koper, Professor of Catalysis and Surface Chemistry, has been elected as President Elect of the International Society of Electrochemistry (ISE). He will be President Elect for two years starting January 2019, followed by two years as President and two years as Immediate Past President.

Rector Magnificus Carel Stolker retired on 8 February. If there was one theme running through his career, it was the links between the University and society. Before he left, Stolker spoke one last time to people from within and without the university about the societal impact of research. On topics…

Researchers from the Institute of Public Administration and the Institute of Security and Global Affairs at FGGA are launching a new research programme: Governing Polarized Societies (GPS). The programme will focus on the way in which governments are dealing with the increasing polarisation in society.…

ACPA Professor of Auditory Culture and Music Philosophy Marcel Cobussen will give a lecture at the Gaudeamus Academy Workshop Weekend. The GMW Academy is a prelude to the contemporary music festival Gaudeamus Muziekweek, taking place from 7 to 11 september in diverse venues within the center of Utr…

Broader and more-transparent metrics could help improve how academic quality is assessed. This is what Centre for Science and Technology Studies (CWTS) researchers Paul Wouters (also Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences), Sarah de Rijcke and Ludo Waltman write together with colleagues in a comment…

While offshore wind farms generate clean and green energy, scientists are becoming increasingly aware of the harmful impact they may have on marine life. To get a better overview of these impacts and to find the best locations for future wind farms, environmental scientist Yali Si and her colleagues…

On the 1st of October a new project funded by the Joint Industry Programme (JIP) started at the IBL on the potentially negative effects of sound on fish. Behavioural biologist and bioacoustic specialist Dr. Hans Slabbekoorn leads the international research team.

At the end of 2019, Leiden law student Aoife Fleming was elected UN Youth Representative for Sustainable Development. What impact is the corona crisis having on international climate negotiations?

The Executive Board has appointed Pieter ter Keurs as professor of Museums, Collections, and Society as of 1 September 2019. The chair will be part of LUCAS (Faculty of Humanities) and is a collaborative effort of the Faculty of Archaeology and the Faculty of Humanities. Ter Keurs has his roots in…

On the 15th of July Sawako Takemura successfully defended a doctoral thesis and graduated.

Prof. dr. Roberta D'Alessandro has written an article on the increasing difficulties that researchers encounter when they apply for a research grant in the Netherlands.