Young Academy Leiden
Newsletter - August 2026 |
Welcome back! We hope you had a great summer break and are ready to start the academic year with renewed energy! At YAL, we haven't been sitting still during the summer. As you'll read in this newsletter, we have 3 exciting events planned, we wrote a new blog post and launched a podcast! 🔊 |
 Deep time walk (rescheduled)
Date: Sept 18, 14-17.30 hrs
Location: Haagse Bos
A guided outdoor walk that translates the 4.6-billion- year history of our planet into a 4.6 km walk. More info and sign-up (limited spots) here. |
Interfaculty lunch Course Evaluations
Date: Sept 29th, 12-13hrs,
Locatin: Herta Mohr, room 0.12
YAL is organising an Interfaculty Lunch on course evaluations. Mario de Jonge from ICLON will give a talk on alternatives to standard evaluation forms. In addition to being an informative afternoon, this is also an occassion to meet (young) academics at other faculties. Everyone is welcome - and there will be a free lunch!
For more information and registration: click here. |
Popping the Academic Bubble: Expertise Meets Experience
Date: Oct 8 2026, 15.00-16.30 hrs
Location: FSW Cafe (Agora)
On Oct 8, YAL organises a Community. Conversation. Connection. event to explore the relationship between academic expertise and lived experience. Is there a gap between academic knowledge and practical experience? Who experiences this gap, and why? And most importantly, what can we do, individually and as a university community, to bridge this gap in a more inclusive and meaningful way?
More information and the registration link can be found here.
The Community. Conversation. Connection. series are lectures, debates and meetings about political and societal issues that impact the university community. |
New blogpost: Practice what you preach: Why Leiden University should suspend all collaborations with Israel
The Executive Board has decided not to implement the recommendation of the Committee on Human Rights and Conflict Areas to suspend all collaborations with Israel, failing to uphold the values of human rights and international justic e they claim to defend. In this blog post, Caspar Jacobs, Julie Hall, Lieke Smits and Sara de Wit analyze this decision from four different angles: the process of decision-making, the argument of reputational risk, the related questions of solidarity and academic freedom, and a historical perspective. They argue that by doing so, the university fails to uphold the values of human rights and international justice it claims to defend. |
YAL launced a podcast series!
In this podcast, we discuss topics, trends and movements that occupy young academics today. We hope this sparks and inspires ongoing conversations on how to make academia a better version of itself.
.png) The first two episodes are now online. In the first episode, the hosts Michiel Veldhuis and Shivant Jhagroe talk about Slow Science with Anne Urai and Sanli Faez. In the second episode, they hosted Jan van Rijn and Marcel van Daalen to talk about AI in Education.
Happy listening and stay tuned, more episodes will follow! Have anything to add to the discussions? Feel free to start a post in the YAL Community teams channel! |
| Things that might interest you: |
 Anne Urai at UNL about making decisions
We all make choices, but how? What happens in the brain when we decide? Cognitive neuroscience researcher Anne Urai studies how brain regions work together during decision-making and talks about it at Universiteit van Nederland. Watch it
here (in Dutch, English subtitles available!) |
APNet Leiden Summer Social Event: Indoor Minigolf and Drinks on September 8th 2026
APNet Leiden is organizing a social event with Indoor Minigolf and Drinks at Dekker Warmond on September 8th 2026.
Program:
17.00 – 18.00: Walk-in and Welcome Drink
18.00 – 19.00: Minigolf Activity
From 19:00: Networking Opportunity over Drinks (Drinks not included)
Please register here (Deadline: September 2nd; only 20 spots available; €10). |
Started teaching in the last five years? University of Amsterdam wants to hear from you!
The University of Amsterdam is conducting research into the challenges and tensions experienced by early career university teaching staff across the Netherlands and what role these play in their professional learning. All teaching staff with up to five years of teaching experience can participate! Want to help improve the support provided to early career university teaching staff and to improve development programmes?
Fill out the questionnaire (takes approximately 15 minutes)! |
De Jonge Academie: Thermometer The National Young Academy just published survey results on their 'Thermometer' among academics about their mental health. Results show that especially for international and early-career researchers mental health is under strain. The findings of the Academy Thermometer survey and the resulting recommendations will be discussed during a meeting at the Academy’s Trippenhuis Building on 23 September 2026. You can find more information about the meeting and how to register here. |
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