News
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Sjoerd van Trigt: ‘Rowing is how I relax.' 18 March 2024
When Sjoerd van Trigt, a student of International Studies, is not in the lecture hall, you can find him at Rowing Club Asopos de Vliet. He trains there seven times a week. Soon, he will be leaving for a six-month stay in Japan.
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Word of the Chair: Book Shelf Wealth 11 March 2024
Where you study is as important as how you study. Having a quiet and comfortable corner to fully concentrate, makes all the difference when you have to read, analyse and write. Contrary to the popular life style guru Mary Kondo’s philosophy of minimalism, the new interior design trend of 2024 is focusing on aesthetically pleasing interiors, including presenting abundant book collections in what is called ‘Book Shelf Wealth’.* The idea is that you showcase your books (read or unread) by size, author or jacket cover colour. Many appealing images of nicely arranged book collections are circulating on social media.**
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Peace in the Middle East? Students seek solutions in Peace Academy 14 February 2024
Finding solutions to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is the not-inconsiderable task of the new Peace Academy in The Hague. Professor Maurits Berger and twelve students from different conflict zones are starting a creative thinking process that aims to discover the basic conditions for peace in the Middle East.
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Eight projects receive funding from JEDI Fund 14 February 2024
From a queer art exhibition to a podcast about people with disabilities, the JEDI Fund this year again honored several projects that contribute to diversity and inclusion.
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Follow the module - Gen AI and LLMs in the Academic Community 08 February 2024
An online module (in English) is now available for students and staff that explains the possibilities and misuse of GenAI, LLMs and Machine Translation. It contains videos, quizzes and information about the use and abuse of ChatGPT, for example. This is a first basic module about what LLMs are and how they work.
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Sarah Wolff: 'Doing research and teaching are inseparable' 05 February 2024
It is time to get to know a new face at International Studies. Sarah Wolff has been professor of International Studies and Global Politics since 8 January. She just started teaching in our programme in a thesis seminar. What is her field of specialty and what are her academic interests? Where else will we encounter her at International Studies?
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International Studies Newsletter – Word of the Chair 05 February 2024
It is a terrible cliché, at the start of a new year, to come up with a statement about the uncertain times we live in. Every generation has a tendency to think that their time is marked by humanity’s largest challenges. It gives us pause for thought to realize that we are not the first, and will certainly not be the last, to think along these lines. Recently, two thought-provoking reflections appeared, which offer hope, especially when you feel troubled by bleak thoughts about conflicts and the future of humanity.
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Tips for the upcoming Winter break 19 December 2023
What to read and watch this Winter holiday? According to good tradition, the International Studies Blog has collected tips from your lecturers.
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Not Stolen: A panel against polarisation 14 December 2023
On Wednesday 29 November 2023, a panel was held on the controversial recent book of staff member Dr Jeff Fynn Paul, called Not Stolen: The truth about European Colonialism in the New World. Already before and right after its publication, the book was met with some criticism from within the Leiden academic community, as became clear from the article submitted by an anonymous student to BAISmag* (followed by Dr. Fynn Paul’s response**) as well as the initial postponement of the panel.
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Word from the Chair: Season’s Greetings 14 December 2023
While good wishes should naturally be welcomed any time, there is a long tradition to extend well wishes and good will at the end of the year. Today the ‘Happy Holidays’ wish appears most common, replacing the ‘Merry Christmas’ wish, which has a long historical pedigree in the West. Still, ‘Happy Holidays’ derives etymologically from the old English haliday, which means holy day.* In Christianity the holy days refer to the period of Advent, four Sundays leading up to Christmas day and also include Epiphany on 6 January. In a diverse and secularizing world, not only language is changing but also the wording of wishes is subject to diversification. For some, the ‘War on Christmas’ wishes can sometimes become intense.