David Kloos is a historian and anthropologist with a focus on Southeast Asia (particularly Indonesia and Malaysia). He works at the KITLV as a senior researcher and a member of the KITLV Management Team (Portfolio Research). His main interests are religion (particularly Islam), gender, the politics of knowledge formation, visual methods, and the study of the social, political, and cultural aspects of climate change.

David joined the institute in 2014, after obtaining his PhD from the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam on the basis of a dissertation about Islam in Aceh, Indonesia. Since then, he has worked on, among others, women’s Islamic authority and public communication in Southeast Asia (through an NWO ‘Veni’ grant, 2016-2020) and tropical marine conservation in the context of climate change and community engagement (in a transdisciplinary setting, through a collaborative KNAW grant, 2020-2023).   

One of his ambitions as a member of the institute’s Management Team is to critically interrogate, and where necessary break through, the boundaries between academic research and other forms of knowledge making. 

Selected Publications

Kloos, David, Johan Lindquist and Merlyna Lim (eds.), ‘Faith, followers, and factions: Making social media publics in Indonesia’, Indonesia. Introduction to a special issue on social media in Indonesia. Forthcoming 2025.  

Kloos, David, Leonie Schmidt, Mark Westmoreland and Bart Barendregt (eds.), Provocative images in contemporary Islam. Leiden University Press, 2023. 

Kloos, David & Nor Ismah, 'Siting Islamic feminism: The Indonesian Congress of Women Islamic Scholars and the challenge of challenging patriarchal authority', History and Anthropology 34-5, pp. 818-43, 2023.  

Kloos, David, ‘Risky appearances, skillful performances: Female Islamic preachers and professional style in Malaysia’, American Anthropologist 123-2, pp. 278-91, 2021.  

Kloos, David, ‘Experts beyond discourse: Women, Islamic authority, and the performance of professionalism in Malaysia’, American Ethnologist 46-2, pp.162-75, 2019.  

Kloos, David, Becoming better muslims: Religious authority and ethical improvement in Aceh, Indonesia. Princeton University Press, 2018). 

Kloos, David & Daan Beekers (eds.), Straying from the straight path: How senses of failure invigorate lived religion. Berghahn Books, 2018.  

Kloos, David &  Mirjam Künkler (ed.), ‘Studying female Islamic authority: From top-down to bottom-up modes of certification’, Asian Studies Review 40-4, pp.  479-90, 2016. Introduction to a special issue on female Islamic Authority in Asia.   

Kloos, David, 'Living in a makeshift world? Mobility, temporariness, and everyday life in Indonesia', Visual Anthropology Review 31-2, pp. 147-62, 2015.