KITLV aims to be a world-class research institute for the study of Southeast Asia and the Caribbean, with a focus on Indonesia and the ‘Dutch’ Caribbean, in an interdisciplinary and comparative perspective. Benefitting from the unrivalled collections offered on campus by Leiden University, KITLV researchers explore (dis)continuities between the (pre)colonial and postcolonial period, and articulate their research agendas empirically and theoretically in order to advance wider debates on the meandering paths of globalization. KITLV is an institute of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW).
As our mission statement indicates, KITLV invests in three long-term research themes: State, Violence and Citizenship, Mobility and Belonging and Governance of Climate Change Adaptation. While most research projects fit into either of these themes, a few address both. Below, the research projects within the three themes are presented, with a differentiation between larger, mainly externally funded programs and individual, either internally or externally funded projects.
1. State, Violence and Citizenship
Collaborative projects
Confronting Caribbean challenges: Hybrid identities and governance in small-scale island jurisdictions
Costs of democracy: The political economy of campaign finance
Cyber troops and computational propaganda in Southeast Asia: A comparative study of public opinion manipulation
From clients to citizens? Emerging citizenship in democratising Indonesia
Independence, decolonisation, violence and war in Indonesia, 1945-1950
Indonesia in transition. A history from revolution to nation building, 1943-1958
Palm oil conflicts and access to justice in Indonesia
Village governance in Indonesia
Individual projects
Biography Grace Schneiders-Howard
Child marriage in Indonesia
Diversifying the collections: Inclusive citizenship and public histories of exclusion
Narrative and trauma: Indonesia 1965-1966
Post-New Order memories in Indonesia
Shades of clientelism: A comparative study of Indonesia’s patronage democracy
Sultan Hamid II of Pontianak (1913-1978) and the independence of Indonesia
Understanding insurgencies
When things get personal: Explaining political stability in small state
2. Mobility and Belonging
Collaborative projects
CaribTRAILS – Caribbean Transdisciplinary Research. Archaeology of Indigenous Legacies Spinoza
Confronting Caribbean challenges: Hybrid identities and governance in small-scale island jurisdictions
How slaves became citizens: Proto-citizenship, empowerment, and inequality in the Age of Emancipation, 1770-1930
Recording the future: An audiovisual archive of everyday life in Indonesia in the 21st century
Re/Presenting Europe: Popular representations of diversity and belonging
State and slavery: A field exploration of the colonial Kingdom of the Netherlands (in Dutch)
The colonial and post-colonial past of Tilburg (in Dutch)
The colonial and slavery past of Haarlem (in Dutch)
The colonial and slavery past of Rotterdam (in Dutch)
The colonial and slavery past of The Hague (in Dutch)
Traveling Caribbean heritage
Unpacking KITLV Special Collections: Colonial histories, object biographies, knowledge practices, and local agency
Individual projects
Embodied borders: an ethnography of female migrants in Singapore
Family matters
‘Hai tanahku Papua…’ O my country Papua… Isaak Samuel Kijne, 1899-1970: A protestant missionary and teacher in New Guinea
Indonesia and Greater India
Seeing is believing: Female Islamic leadership and visual rhetoric in Southeast Asia
The language of popular culture: Digitizing Sino-Malay literary heritage
3. Governance of Climate Change Adaptation
Collaborative projects
Climate change and governance in Indonesia and the Caribbean: A pilot program on marine protected areas (MPA’s) and coastal nature reserves
Island(er)s at the Helm: Co-creating sustainable and inclusive solutions for social adaptation to climate challenges in the (Dutch) Caribbean
OUR PROJECTS
KITLV/Royal Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies initiates and coordinates innovative research projects on Southeast Asia and the Caribbean. It engages in research that is theoretically informed, compara- tive, and empirically strong. Research on both regions focuses on contemporary developments as well as on historical themes. This page lists the research projects ongoing at KITLV and in collaboration with other departments and institutions.
Completed Projects
Click here to review the research projects that have been completed since 2014, the year KITLV was established as a new research institute.
