Last fall, I saw a job announcement for a PhD position at the KITLV. It identified KITLV as ‘a formerly colonial institution reflecting on its own past’ and suggested ‘a fresh research agenda that aims to understand the nature and impact...
Where is my golden pen? An academic cannot be an anti-racist activist today without a smartphone. I know, I can also join a protest march and carry a placard stating that Black Lives Matter. I can, yes, but then I will...
Twelve years ago, I was in the KITLV special collections room, studying archival materials about the colonial subjugation of Aceh, the region on the northern tip of Sumatra. It took four decades, from the 1870s...
For the longest time, this little girl wanted to be white. She did not like her hair; she did not like her dark eyes; she did not like anything about the way she looked. She had very dry skin, and when she...
It was a sad moment in my academic life. Last week Friday afternoon, after months of intense writing, I had given myself the luxury of reading. I had been rearranging my bookshelves at home with adding ...
As outrage about police violence in the U.S. has resulted in protests all over the world, we have seen a great number of academic institutions making statements condemning racism. At KITLV we also feel compelled to speak out, particularly in view of...
"Je kan niet zo maar alles weghalen, als de geschiedenis niet bevalt", zegt Gert Oostindie. "Maar juist door een koloniaal monument te laten staan en iets toe te voegen, laat je het koloniale verleden zien. ...
Een interview met Gerhard de Kok over zijn pas verschenen boek Walcherse ketens: De trans-Atlantische slavenhandel en de economie van Walcheren, 1755-1780, gaat over de Walcherse...
Opnieuw klinkt in Nederland de roep om koloniale standbeelden omver te halen. In het Noordhollands Dagblad zegt Gert Oostindie, dat dit een fluitje van een cent moet zijn, want zoveel koloniale...
The NWIG is a scholarly fully open access journal on the Caribbean, featuring English-language articles in the fields of anthropology, art, archaeology, economics, geography, geology, history, international relations, linguistics, literature, music, political...