Researchers – Paijens
Paijens, MA Katja
Katja Paijens is a PhD candidate based at KITLV and the Leiden University Institute for History. She is writing a political biography of Sultan Hamid II of Pontianak (1913-1978). Her thesis focuses on Hamid’s role in and significance to Indonesia’s decolonization and state formation (1945-1950).
Sultan Hamid II is an interesting person through whom to investigate the decolonization of Indonesia. Ethnically, socially, culturally and politically Hamid was affiliated to Indonesia, though by upbringing, education, marriage and as a military officer in the Royal Netherlands East Indies Army (KNIL) he was Europe-oriented and connected to the Dutch. Hamid was a proponent of an independent Indonesia founded as a federal state, not a unitary state as the Republicans aimed for. Hamid’s unique position provides important new insights in Indonesia’s complex process of decolonization and the different stakeholders involved in it.
Paijens studied Economical and Social History at the University of Amsterdam and Swansea University in Wales. She has mainly specialized in the imperial history of Indonesia under Dutch colonial rule and photos as a historical resource. Later on her research focus extended to the decolonization of Indonesia.
Previously she has worked at the Special Collections of the Leiden University Library, Museum Bronbeek, Tropenmuseum in Amsterdam, and World Press Photo.
Selected Publications
Articles about the governors-general J.P. Coen and mr J.W. van Lansberge, Sarong and kebaja clothing, drawings made in Japanese internment camps and a POW life jacket, in: Mark Loderichs (ed.), Catalogus Museum Bronbeek, 2015.
‘Een geregisseerde werkelijkheid; Foto’s van de onafhankelijkheidsstrijd en de dekolonisatie van Indonesië’, Oorlog! Van Indië tot Indonesië 1945/1950, 99. 34-35, 19 februari 2015.
‘Sarong kabaai’, Moesson 8: 41-42, februari 2015.
‘Mobiele snapshots in de pers’, Fotografisch Geheugen 67: 9, 2010.
‘Herinnering aan mijn diensttijd overzee; De fotografische nalatenschap van de onafhankelijkheidsstrijd in Indonesië’, Fotografisch Geheugen 64: 26-27, september 2009.
‘Historisch beeld in een hedendaags kader; Haagse archieffoto’s in het straatbeeld’, Fotografisch Geheugen 63: 10-11, juni 2009.
‘Gymnastiek met de karabijn’, Fotografisch Geheugen 60:12-14, oktober 2008.
‘Living in the past; Bert Sissinghs licht op het onzegbare’, Fotografisch Geheugen 59: 13-15, juli 2008.
‘De dood tegemoet; Foto’s van de Bali-expeditie van 1906’, Nieuwsbrief van het Nederlands Fotogenootschap 56: 18-19, september 2007.
De verbeelding van Indië; Foto’s van Indonesiërs in Nederlandse tijdschriften, 1870-1910, master thesis, University of Amsterdam, 2002.
