The interdisciplinary research platform "Futures of Democracy" (UU) organizes a seminar series on democratic innovations. Two medievalists will present at these monthly meetings in Utrecht (Serena Ferente on January 19, 2023, and Wim Blockmans on April 20, 2023). You are of course also kindly invited…

Leiden University mourns the victims of the terrorist attacks in Brussels. These attacks are an assault on our democratic society. We will continue to defend our European values of freedom and tolerance against all attempts to undermine them.

Level Up is a non-profit project led by a multi-disciplinary team of doctoral researchers in the framework of the Europaeum Network was founded by the University of Oxford University. Sophie Veriter explains the importance of Level Up, the development of the ‘Level Up Toolkit’, and why this project…

On Tuesday 8 November, Americans will go to the polls for the so-called midterm elections. 'We tend to look at this election as if it were a poll on Biden. But it’s not a presidential election,' emphasises associate professor Sara Polak.

The ongoing conflicts between the United States and its allies and Russia and between the United States and its allies and China reflect both the anarchical nature of the international system and the uncertainty with which decision-makers and diplomats have to deal with in attempting to solve the conflicts…

Eleven Leiden researchers have been awarded an 800,000 euro Vidi grant by the Dutch Research Council (NWO). This will enable them to develop their own innovative line of research and start their own research group.

Study information

Did you know that research and education in the field of digital innovation are key pillars of the Faculty of Governance and Global Affairs? Over the next seven days, we are organising Cyberweek on our social media channels to showcase what we have to offer.

The CADS Research Cluster People, Power and Diversity aims to further theoretical and methodological debates on the classifications of human difference, such as gender, race, ethnicity, sexuality, class, age, ability, religion, level of development, time, etc., and the way these classifications organize…

Did you know that research and education in the field of digital innovation are key pillars of the Faculty of Governance and Global Affairs? Over the next seven days, we are organising Cyberweek on our social media channels to showcase what we have to offer.

The Faculty of Humanities is committed to creating an inclusive and diverse community, where all students and staff are supported, respected, and empowered to do their best work, irrespective of gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, ability, age, religion, or socio-economic background.

Subproject of

What Accounts for the Variety of National Policy Responses to the COVID-19 Pandemic in Europe?

The CEES Centre regularly hosts (guest) lectures, roundtables, and film screenings.

Let’s get this out of the way: Hillary Clinton won the 26 September 2016 presidential candidates television debate. Handily.

To understand which groups turn against their government, you need to understand the political culture in which they grew up, what they expect from a ‘state’ and what alternatives there are. With its long interdisciplinary experience, ASCL is often considered to be a regional expertise centre. But this…

Leiden University will be recording a brand-new series of podcasts in 2019: Science Shots. Our top scientists will talk about their research in less than 15 minutes. Tip: something to enjoy on the train journey between Leiden and The Hague, our two University cities!

The research project MAXCAP: Maximizing the integration capacity of the European Union: Lessons and prospects for enlargement and beyond starts with a critical analysis of the effects of the 2004-2007 enlargement on stability, democracy and prosperity of candidate countries, on the one hand, and the…

CompaRe aims to conduct and stimulate research on comparative regional integration in Europa, Asia, Africa and Latin-America. To this end, CompaRe organizes conferences and workshops, and CompaRe members contribute to conferences, research papers, publications and reports on comparative regional…

Here you'll find selected publications and media attention from our group.

Read more about our staff here.

Welcome to Leiden University's Global Transformations and Governance Challenges (GTGC) programme!

Which key factors contribute to effective land justice pathways for the protection of people’s land rights and prevention of conflict?

On Monday 4 September, Professor Christopher Martinez, from the Universidad de Concepción (University of Concepción), Chile, was invited by the Department of Constitutional and Administrative Law to introduce his forthcoming book at our university.

The Crafting Resilience Kick Off on 30 March seeks to inspire conversations around new state-citizen relations in the social domain. At this conference, international researchers discuss core questions at the heart of the new NWA Crafting Resilience project.

As a Leiden University’s master’s student in Political Science you conduct independent research and report your findings to fellow academics and, who knows, to a larger audience. Your thesis is a showcase of your academic skills and personal interest, and perhaps even passion. Easier said than done,…

The 7th Pan-European Conference on the European Union hosted from 5 until 7 June 2014 by the Campus The Hague was a success.

This HJD Forum will look at the implications for diplomacy of greater people involvement in diplomacy, as part of the wider governance process. The Forum will interrogate the functions and practices of varying modes of people engagement in external relations in terms of diplomatic innovation. Such participation…

The Schoof cabinet has several plans that are just not legally feasible. Yet they are often still forced through, knowing, or even hoping, that the courts will intervene. This is dangerous policy that in the long run even undermines trust in politics, the judiciary, and the law itself, argues Armin…

JSixty researchers have received a grant of approximately 50,000 Euros during round 3 of the NWO Open Competition SSH-XS pilot programme. Two of them are working at FGGA: Jolien van Breen and Honorata Mazepus. The sixty researchers received the grant to start working on a promising concept or an innovative…

It appears that interest groups are increasingly finding their way to court or other ways of making use of the legal system as a means for societal change. Over the summer, Rowie Stolk, PhD candidate at the Department of Constitutional and Administrative Law was one of the speakers at the workshop ‘Legal…

A flood of news reports, push notifications and even extra news broadcasts: on Wednesday, the world was shocked by the storming of the Capitol in Washington. Americanist Sara Polak discusses the events.

The last names for the future European Commissioners were made public at the beginning of September 2019 and also which candidates have been put forward for the new European Commission by the different member states.

The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has formally approved the withdrawal of Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso from the regional body. The approval comes just days after President Bola Tinubu promised German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier that ECOWAS would handle the three countries'…

A team of researchers has dated a prehistoric painting in Indonesia to at least 51.200 years ago, they have proposed in a study that this painting is the oldest known example of “figurative” art.

Last Saturday, Reijer Passchier was a guest on one of his favourite radio programmes: Dr. Kelder en Co.

On Monday 11 September, Matthew Hoye presented an early draft of a grant proposal on 'Remittance, Paradigms, and Extreme Cases' during a GTGC lunch seminars.

University lecturer Andrew Gawthorpe is quoted in a Financial Times article on the Republican primaries.

It was challenging to get civil servants from the first Trump administration to speak about their work experiences, but sociologist Jaime Lee Kucinskas succeeded. The picture that emerged from her findings, she says, is far from positive. 'The more I spoke with them, the more emotions I saw. They were…

What does a political party do in the wake of a disastrous electoral defeat? Martijn van Nijnanten researched this and discovered that parties turn to core values from the past. PhD defence on 12 September.

We are pleased to invite paper proposals for the 1.5-day interdisciplinary workshop: “Who rules over migrants? Autocratic elements in migration policies”, that will take place at the University of Leiden on 14 and 15 November 2024.

All the world leaders have had to choose an approach during the global Covid-19 crisis. But which approach is the most effective? André Gerrits, Professor of International Studies & Global Politics, who lectures in the BA International Studies, is observing some interesting developments. ‘Democracies…

Digital journalism is transforming the way in which information and communication technologies are used by media workers. With this change journalist practices, norms and values are also being reshaped. This is the conclusion of Tomás Dodds PhD research.

It’s impossible to avoid, even in the Netherlands: the US will soon be going to the polls. Where does it come from, this fascination with US elections? PhD candidate Bram Eenink explains.

With only a month until the 2020 United States elections, William Michael Schmidli, University Lecturer of American history, reflects on the latest developments. President Trump’s COVID-19 diagnosis seems apt for the nation too, he argues.

Major developments worldwide are creating new challenges for society. The pandemic has hit us hard, for example, and we are already feeling the effects of global warming. How can society and politics deal with the urgent problems of our time? That is the theme of the Global Transformations and Governance…

Should criminal law have a greater role in protecting this democracy? In his inaugural lecture, Professor Jeroen ten Voorde urges caution.

The Centre for Public Values & Ethics (CPVE) is an interdisciplinary, academic centre of expertise aiming to conduct and disseminate scientific research on normative issues in the public sector, in particular the fulfillment of public office and the planning, making and executing of public policy, both…