Research at CWTS is organised in three focal areas. These focal areas represent our core areas of interest, as defined in our knowledge agenda for the period 2023-2028..

Brief outline

Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology at Leiden University studies the everyday practices of individuals and groups around the world in relation to the complex global challenges of diversity, sustainability, and digitalisation. As a discipline concerned with social relationships across space and time, Anthropology provides an in-depth understanding of human behaviour in context essential for tackling today’s social, economic, and political challenges. The strength of an anthropological approach lies in its ability to connect global crises to people's everyday strategies of resilience.

Most broadly, the Institute's research programme concentrates on the intensive, localised study of human differences in a world in motion, where global connections are differentially reproduced from place to place. Specifically, the research profile of the Institute highlights visual anthropology and the study of media, performance and material culture; the historical ethnography of social policy, social movements and global religion; and the anthropology of landscape, environmental studies and urban development.

Additional research

Research is the core of the PhD programme with _hD candidates conducting original research leading to a dissertation under the guidance of one or more supervisors. Although the primary emphasis is on the skillful and timely execution of the original research plan, PhD candidates may also be asked to join staff members in additional projects, which may include:

• conference organisation,
• the further elaboration of the Institute’s research profile and plans for attracting funding,
• exhibitions or publications
• and other forms of disseminating the results of research.

In all of this the supervisor(s) of the PhD candidate oversee the educational content of these activities and make sure that the candidate is not unnecessarily distracted from the actual work of research and writing the dissertation.

Admission requirements

1. A strong background in social science methodology.
2. Experience with conceptualizing and implementing a research project.
3. Knowledge of the contemporary social science literature as it pertains to cultural anthropology and development sociology.
4. Strong writing skills.
5. The commitment required for prolonged ethnographic fieldwork.

Supervisors

All full professors at the institute have the ius promovendi (the right to act as a PhD supervisor).

With their focus on child rearing, development, support services and education, the researchers at the Institute of Education and Child Studies have two feet in society. They are in regular contact with government institutions, schools, childcare organisations, care institutions, adoption agencies and foster organisations. Their research contributes to knowledge that can have an immediate effect on society. The research is organized into 6 programme groups, each covering one of the sub-areas within education and child studies.

• Clinical Neurodevelopmental Sciences
• Educational Sciences
• Forensic Family and Youth Care Studies
• Learning and Behaviour Problems in Education
• Parenting, Child Care and Development
• Research Methods and Statistics

Brief outline

This research programme combines focal points relevant to all of the research staff at the Institute of Political Science and thematic clusters of expertise that support collaboration and profiling for sub-sets of colleagues. The common focal points involve the dynamics and the interaction of political institutions, individual decision-making, and collective behaviour. Members of staff focus their research on various dimensions of this conceptual space and participate in one or more thematic ‘research clusters.’ Most do theoretically-informed empirical work – whether quantitative, qualitative, interpretive, or experimental in approach – while others adopt a normative or philosophical perspective on similar concepts and themes.

Brief outline

The view that human beings are adaptive agents that construct their own intellectual and physical environments is not only highly relevant to basic research in psychology, but also to a wide variety of applied issues. In daily life, cognition cannot be separated from individual attitudes and ambitions. Motivation, emotion and cognition are inextricably linked and have a combined effect on action control.

Additional research

Research is the principal part of the PhD programme. PhD candidates conduct original research leading to a dissertation under the guidance of a supervisor. Almost all PhD candidates are engaged in additional research projects, either individually or with other PhD candidates or members of the staff of the Institute, and they routinely attend scientific conferences where they present their work.
 

Admission requirements

1. Considerable methodological knowledge and skills.
2. Some experience in designing and conducting empirical studies.
3. Up-to-date knowledge of psychology.
4. Good writing skills.
5. A strong interest in doing original research at the highest

Membership research schools

• Interuniversity Graduate School of Psychometrics and Sociometrics (IOPS)
• Kurt Lewin Institute (KLI) 
• Experimental Psychopathology (EPP) 

Supervisors

All full professors at the institute have the ius promovendi (the right to act as a PhD supervisor).