Young Academy Leiden
Newsletter - May 2026 |
The weather is getting better and YAL has several interesting events before the summer! Read the newsletter for more information about: Events added to the Spring of Time! ⌛ Parenting in academia events coming up soon! New entries on the blog! |
As part of our ongoing Seasons of Interdisciplinarity, the Young Academy Leiden is proud to present: the Spring of Time. Join us for thought, talk and walk in the theme of time: what is time, and how do we experience and relate to it? Time is a timeless topic, for instance in NWO's the battle for time. - 20 May 2026, 17:00-18:30 in The Hague. Time Talks; temporality across disciplines, four YAL members share their discipline's views on time, co-hosted with Studium Generale. Info & sign-up here
- 2 June 2026, 12:00-13:00 in Leiden, FSW. Planning meets reality in academia. Following up on a successful previous YAL event, we are organizing an Interfaculty lunch on 'a week in the life of a young academic'. Sign-up link here.
- 26 June 2026, 14:00-17:30 in The Hague. Deep Time Walk: 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
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Academia in Motion symposium and Town Hall meeting
Academia in Motion (AiM) aims to reshape culture at Leiden University, combining Recognition & Rewards with Open Science & Education. YAL sat down with programme coordinators Karlijn Hermans and Cas Henckens to learn why AiM is important, and particularly relevant to early-career academics. Read the interview here!
If this interview inspired you to join the symposium and town hall click here for more information and to sign up!
When: 12 May 2026; 10:00 – 16:00
Where: PLNT, Leiden |
👩🎓👶 Parenting in Academia – Panel Session How do you combine an academic career with parenting young children? Many early career researchers face this question every day—navigating lack of sleep, unpredictable childcare, publication pressure, and implicit expectations within academia.
📅 12 May 2026
⏰ 10:30 – 11:45
📍 PLNT, Langegracht 70, 2312 NV Leiden During this panel session, academic parents and experts will share their experiences and insights: - What obstacles did they encounter?
- What genuinely helped?
- What needs to change at the institutional and cultural levels to support sustainable academic careers alongside parenthood?
🎤 Speakers - Marieke Adriaanse (Department of Health, Medical and Neuropsychology; Public Health and Primary Care)
- Peter Bos (Institute of Education and Child Studies)
- Mariska Kret (Cognitive Psychology Unit)
- Merith Cohen de Lara (Resilient Parenting)
🎙 Moderators: Martin Berger (Faculty of Archaeology) & Julia Henrich (Health Campus Den Haag)
This workshop is organized by YAL as part of the Academia in Motion Symposium and Town Hall meeting. 🔗 Register here
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Can't make it on the 12th? YAL is also organising a Listening session about Parenting in Academia on the 11th of May.
In this YAL listening session, Leiden “academic parents” share their experiences: what obstacles did they face, what really helped, and what is needed to better combine parenting with a sustainable academic career? Together, we’ll discuss what’s working well at the institutional and cultural levels and what can (or must) change.
Join us at May 11, 12.00-13.00, Agora (FSW), Room SA.37 |
New Blog: Academia in Motion for young academics: an interview with the programme coordinators
Academia in Motion (AiM) aims to reshape culture at Leiden University, combining Recognition & Rewards with Open Science & Education. YAL sat down with programme coordinators Karlijn Hermans and Cas Henckens to learn why AiM is important, and particularly relevant to early-career academics. Read it here!
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New Blog: Early career challenges at Leiden University: An analysis of the Work Experience Survey 2025
YAL was given access to results of Work Experience Survey 2025. Early career academics are currently left behind by the university, as our comparative analysis demonstrates. Improving the position of early career academics is not a marginal issue but a strategic necessity. Read more about our findings. |
| Things that might interest you: |
Leiden University Libraries Centre for Digital Scholarship’s Summer Training Week Have you been wondering how to share your research data? What happens with copyright when you publish a paper in open access? If and how to upload your work as a preprint? Or how to get started with network analysis? You can find out about all of these things during our Summer Training Week!
The fourth edition of the Leiden University Libraries Centre for Digital Scholarship’s Summer Training Week will take place from June 8 to 12, 2026. Sessions and workshops on topics involving research data, scholarly publishing, copyright, and digital data are open to all. A detailed programme overview and a link to the registration form are now available on the event page. For questions on the CDS Summer Training Week, contact cds@library.leidenuniv.nl 
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“Mijn cv van mislukkingen en losse snippercontracten maakte het meeste los”
 In her new blog, Lieke Smits offers a strikingly honest look at life in academia. Going from short-term contracts to a long list of rejections, she noticed what resonated most with her audience wasn’t success, but failure. In a system shaped by precarity, competition, and constant evaluation, she argues that being more open about setbacks might make academia a little less lonely. |
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