Webinar | ‘Something has been going on all the time’: Otherness and the neglect of the Dutch Caribbean in Caribbean studies | Margo Groenewoud

‘Something has been going on all the time’: Otherness and the neglect of the Dutch Caribbean in Caribbean studies

This presentation is based on an essay recently published in Small Axe journal. The essay traces roots of marginalization of the Dutch Caribbean in Caribbean studies, and approaches these roots as an integral part of a shared Caribbean intellectual history. In the age of anticolonialism, nationalism, and decolonization, local intellectuals emerged in the public arena throughout the Caribbean region. Margo Groenewoud started her research with the questions if, and how, Dutch Caribbean thinkers and writers were involved in this. From analysing interactions, events and intellectual outputs, Groenewoud concludes that neglect and erasure impacted Dutch Caribbean studies first and foremost from within. This has reflected on the self-image of the Dutch Caribbean and on an observed otherness attitude in Dutch Caribbean intellectuals.

Article

Groenewoud, Margo, ‘Decolonization, otherness, and the neglect of the Dutch Caribbean in Caribbean studies’, Small Axe 102–115, March 2021.

Speaker/Author

Margo Groenewoud is a Caribbean lecturer and researcher working at the intersection of humanities and social sciences. She obtained a PhD degree at the University of Leiden and the University of Curaçao. As social historian she specializes in the twentieth century Dutch Caribbean, with as particular interests postcolonialism, social justice, community development, cultural history and digital humanities. She is senior lecturer at the University of Curaçao and board member of the University of Curaçao Research Institute (UCRI). Current research projects include Traveling Caribbean Heritage (NWO, 2018-2021) and participatory action research studying policies and practices relative to equity and inclusion in small island developing societies (ZonMw, 2020-2021).

Moderator

Rosemarijn Hoefte, senior researcher at KITLV & Professor in the history of Suriname after 1873 in comparative perspective at the University of Amsterdam.

Registration

Registration is required. Please register if you wish to join this book discussion by sending an email to: [email protected]. You will receive an invitation to participate in a Zoom meeting by email.

Live stream on Facebook

This webinar will be streamed on the public KITLV Facebook page.

Image by Margo Groenewoud, 2021.