7 April: Screening Amplop Demokrasi
The documentary Amplop Demokrasi (Democracy of Envelopes) follows the political cost of local elections and environmental decision-making in Indonesia in 2024. The film is a result of research by KITLV researcher Ward Berenschot and made by Watchdoc.
Latest news
Podcast | 'Sounding freedom and liberation' with Francio Guadeloupe
28-02-2026
A conversation with Francio Guadeloupe (KITLV) as he elaborates freedom as a practice that places us in relation to different spheres, including the political and religious, and to all forms of life (not just “those who human”). The podcast is part of the podcast Thoughtlines, an academic 'outside the box thinking' podcast series made by the University of Cambridge.
Award | TCID Author Award for Adrian Perkasa
26-02-2026
KITLV researcher Adrian Perkasa received The Conversation Indonesia award for his article 'Indonesia plans to rewrite its national history: A return to an incomplete narrative?' in the category Editor's Choice for Education and Culture Article. Adrian's article was read by a large number of readers and translated and republished in several media, including The Conversation International.
Announcement | New seminar series Time for Papua
02-02-2026
Papoea Huis, KITLV and the Wereldmuseum Leiden proudly present the Time for Papua seminar series, an interdisciplinary seminar series dedicated to exploring the shared histories between the Netherlands and West Papua, and the ways these histories continue to shape the present. The series brings West Papua to the centre of public conversation.
Events
31 March
Time for Papua film seminar | Muman Minggil (The road to ancestor land - Jayapura, Papua) | Yonri Revolt
2 April
Book talk | Empire of improvisation: Taxation and governance in colonial Indonesia | Maarten Manse
9 april
Anniversary seminar | How to write New Order within American imperialism: Natural resource management crisis of the 1970s | Farabi Fakih
Latest calls
Call for papers
Graduate workshop for graduate students: Early modern Caribbean and Atlantic slavery and emancipation.
Deadline: 30 March 2026
Call for research papers
Workshop Reinterpreting the Caribbean age of revolutions: Slave revolts, their non-slave participants and proto-citizenship.
Deadline: 30 March 2026
Vereniging KITLV funds
The Vereniging KITLV invites its members to submit an appication to the Activities Fund and Collection & Publication Fund.
Deadline: 15 September 2026
Who we are & what we do
The KITLV is a research institute dedicated to the study of societal challenges, focusing on the histories and afterlives of colonialism in the Caribbean, Southeast Asia, and the Netherlands. Our aim is to produce quality research that furthers justice and envisions alternative futures beyond dominant perspectives.
Our research is informed by intimate familiarity with the cultures, histories, and languages of the places we study. Combining history, anthropology, archaeology, political science, linguistics, and the arts, our interdisciplinary perspective is critical and sensitive to marginalised voices.
Research Lines
Project
Cyber troops and computational propaganda in Southeast Asia: A comparative study of public opinion manipulation
Expensive elections campaigns are a threat to democracies around the world, because they generate corruption and political inequality. Yet, due to methodological obstacles and a western bias in the current literature, we do not really know what makes election campaigns expensive.
Project
From nomadic nets to fixed shores: Navigating resource access and traditional ecological knowledge in post-sedentary Sea Nomads
The islands and coastlines of Southeast Asia are home to Sea Nomads, including Moken/Moklen, Orang Laut, and Sama-Bajau, each with their own distinct yet related cultural identities, languages, and histories. For centuries, these groups have maintained a close relationship with the ocean, often living nomadic or semi-nomadic lives where their houseboat served as both homes and the primary means of sustenance.
Project
International knowledge cooperation History of Slavery, Indonesia, Suriname & South Africa
The Royal Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies (KITLV) has been commissioned by the Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture, and Science to advance international knowledge cooperation regarding the history of slavery in Indonesia, South Africa, and Suriname.
Project
Island(er)s at the Helm: Co-creating sustainable and inclusive solutions for social adaptation to climate challenges in the (Dutch) Caribbean
Driven by the increasing public awareness of the impact of hurricanes and the devastation of coastal areas, Island(er)s at the Helm contributes to equipping (Dutch) Caribbean societies with proficient tools for confronting these challenging climatic phenomena.
Project
TRACE: Tracing evolutionary pathways in grassroots climate governance
Climate change demands urgent action, yet global climate governance is at an impasse, unable to inclusive, just, and nested adaptive strategies. TRACE pusher for a paradigm shift in climate governance. It aims to amplify grassroots forces and spearheading systematic transformations, focusing on Southeast.
Project
Trajectories of TASTE: An analytical framework of culinary change after migration
The TASTE Project, funded by the European Research Council and running from June 2024 to the summer of 2029, examines shifting food preferences and culinary change. Centered on three Indonesian diasporas, the project explores how people have adapted their culinary traditions to new environments in the past and continue to reshape them today. In doing so, we scrutinize how cultural, historical, social, economic, and environmental factors operate, intersect, and occasionally conflict in these transformations.
Project
Unpacking KITLV Special Collections: Colonial histories, object biographies, knowledge practices, and local agency
A project on the coloniality of Asian library and manuscript-formations. With KITLV Special Collections as point of departure, we study the social biographies of manuscripts, and the colonial histories of collecting, to gain insight into the role of violence therein, and to recognize local agency in the makings of so-called Asian Libraries.
Our work
Widya Naseva Tuslian
Our publications
Unsettling ground: Rethinking land tenure security in Indonesia’s legally plural setting
When does the law create a sense of security, and when does it produce the opposite? This article takes that question as a starting point to examine land tenure security in Indonesia’s legally plural context.
Tom Hoogervorst et al.
Blogs
Custom, combat, and ceremony: Java and the Indo-Persian textile trade
Textile trade provides a multidisciplinary avenue to examine flows in material culture, performances of power, and ultimately changes in the perception of the self. This article focuses on pre-Islamic contacts between the Malay World, Java, the Persian Gulf, and the Indian Subcontinent.
Wengki Ariando et al.
Our publications
Cross-religious enrollment of suku laut students in Bintan Madrasahs
This research examines religious moderation at Madrasah Ibtidaiyah Negeri (MIN) 1 Bintan, focusing on the children of the Sea Tribe from Kampung Panglong, Desa Village, Bintan Regency, Riau Islands Province, who choose to attend this madrasah despite being Catholic and Protestant.
Diana Suhardiman et al.
Our publications
Rethinking environmental governance
This book brings to light the pluralistic views, diverse forces, and multiple realities (re)shaping formal and informal decision-making structures, processes, and power interplay in environmental governance.
KITLV / BRILL
KITLV Journals
New West Indian Guide (NWIG)
The latest issue of the NWIG (volume 99: issue 3-4) is now available, with articles on the Caribbean in the fields of humanities, social & political science, archaeology, economics, geography and geology.
Ward Berenschot et al.
Our publications
Dispossession by archive: Contemporary land grabbing through colonial land deeds in Indonesia
This article examines a new pattern of land grabbing in Indonesia, where coalitions of state and private actors use colonial-era land deeds to expropriate community land.