Visiting fellowships 2025
KITLV invites scholars working in the fields of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies to apply for a Visiting Fellowship in 2025
Latest news
Save the date | End conference Island(er)s at the Helm
21-02-2025
During this conference researchers will present their findings, reflect on the last four years of the Islanders at the Helm project and share insights that matter for everyone living and working on any of the islands of St. Maarten, Saba, St. Eustatius, Aruba, Bonaire and Curaçao.
Media | Sulakshana de Mel on celebration 125 years Ladies College Colombo
21-02-2025
In February PhD researcher Sulakshana de Mel went back to Sri Lanka for the 125 years' celebration of Ladies' College Colombo. Sulakshana who is an alumna of LC spoke with several media about the coffee table book she composed about LC.
Media | Kadaster St. Maarten and KITLV to preserve heritage documents
13-01-2025
KITLV director Diana Suhardiman visited the Kadaster of St. Maarten during her tour in January through the Caribbean & Surinam, in the company of Francio Guadeloupe who has been doing research on and in the Caribbean for many years.
Events
10 March
Oratie | Op voet van gelijkwaardigheid? Schaal en democratie in de Koninkrijksrelaties | Wouter Veenendaal
13 March
UUKS seminar | The inclusion of Maori ecological values in New Zealand's legislation | Marielle Matthee
27 March
Seminar | How beer became a global commodity | Jeffrey Pilcher
Latest calls
KITLV Visiting Fellowships
KITLV invites scholars working in the fields of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies to apply for a Visiting Fellowship in 2025.
NIAS-NIOD-KITLV Fellowship
This fellowship is intended for researchers from formerly colonised countries with an interest in (lost) collections or objects.
CfP: Climate challenges Caribbean
Island(er)s at the Helm closing conference Climate Challenges in the (Dutch) Caribbean in October 2025.
CfP: Online influence SEA
Call for Papers: Online Influence Operations and Democracy in Southeast Asia for a closing workshop in August 2025
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
Costs of democracy: The political economy of campaign finance
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
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
How slaves became citizens: Proto-citizenship, empowerment, and inequality in the Age of Emancipation, 1770-1930
What did enslaved people do to gain citizenship rights and what determined their success? By analyzing and linking different archival collections, this project investigates how people in Dutch colonies emancipated over several generations and developed an informal form of citizenship.
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
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
KITLV / BRILL
KITLV Journals
New West Indian Guide (NWIG)
Published continuously since 1919, the New West Indian Guide / Nieuwe West-Indische Gids (NWIG) is the oldest scholarly journal on the Caribbean.
Gert Oostindie
Our publications
Het koloniale verleden van Nederland
Het koloniale verleden van Nederland: Een hoorcollege over de geschiedenis en rekenschap van het Nederlandse koloniale en slavernijverleden.
Ramona Negón et al.
Our publications
The Dutch Transatlantic slave trade
In this book The Dutch Transatlantic slave trade: New methods, perspectives, and sources, a new generation of scholars offers fresh perspectives on the history of the Dutch slave trade.
Tom Hoogervorst et al.
Our publications
Chinese Life in Colonial Indonesia (Part.1)
Chinese Life in Colonial Indonesia (Part.1): The Kong Koan Archives 1909-1920.
Mirjam Shatanawi
Our publications
The (un)making of Indonesian Islam
Legacies of colonialism in museum collections: The (un)making of Indonesian Islam in the Netherlands tells the untold story of Indonesian Islam in museums.
Richard & Sally Price
KITLV Journals
Rip Van Winkle in the Rainforest
New advanced article in the New West Indian Guide (NWIG) titled ‘Rip Van Winkle in the rainforest’.