Traveling Caribbean Heritage

Rose Mary Allen

Dr. Rose Mary Allen is a cultural anthropologist and a visiting lecturer at the University of Curacao (UoC). Her publications Her many publications focus on the cultural and social history of the Dutch Caribbean islands, particularly cultural heritage, migration and diaspora, gender studies and cultural diversity. In our NWO-project she also brings in her experience as a member of the Commission Historical Canon of Curaçao, as well as of the Steering Committee Intangible Cultural Heritage of Curaçao.

(From March 2017-to the present).

Luc Alofs

Dr. Luc Alofs is a cultural anthropologist and historian, who works as Associate Professor of Research at the University of Aruba. His focus is particularly on Aruban history, culture and art, from pre-colonial times to the present. He is also a specialist in heritage education which is part of his contributions to our TCH project. He is a partner in the NWO-funded programme ‘De Zaak’ as well, which is about circular economy and corporate finance. Until recently he was chairman of the National Commission of UNESCO on Aruba and still is, for decades now, a core person in the history and heritage field of Aruba.

(From March 2017-to the present).

Dyonna Benett

Dyonna Benett is a research assistent at KITLV as part of the research project Traveling Caribbean Heritage. As a freelancer within the museum, archive and heritage sector, Dyonna is an all-round heritage professional, speaker, curator and community coördinator and she passionately pollinates the museum, archive and heritage sector. In this she focuses on heritage, inclusivity and representation of marginalized groups and underexposed subjects. During her studies, her graduation thesis The mirror of a nation: an investigation into the representation of identity in the museums of Curaçao was nominated by the International Council of Museums Thesis prize. As one of the pioneers in the field of many-voiced heritage and with the research results from her thesis, it makes her competent to define sensitive issues and to translate this empathically to a larger audience.

(From July 2020-to the present).

Manon van den Brekel

Manon van den Brekel is a journalist and studies Colonial and Global History at Leiden University. In 2018, she was briefly involved in the TCH project as an intern, researching how Caribbean perspectives can be added to Wikipedia articles. Currently, she is researching how the initiative Wiki goes Caribbean helped adding Caribbean histories and Caribbean perspectives to Wikipedia.

(From September 2020-to the present).

Artwell Cain

Dr. Artwell Cain is a cultural anthropologist with a focus on Caribbean and Latin American economic and cultural developments and changes, as well as on social mobility of ethnic minorities. His latest book, ‘A sense of Belonging’, deals with narratives of Arubans regarding migration, identification and representation. In our TCH project he researches heritage collections and lectures in our TCH related course on heritage at the University of Aruba.

(From September 2018 until September 2019).

Thaïs Franken

Thaïs Franken was born on the Dutch Caribbean island Aruba. In 2018 she graduated from the University of Aruba (UA) and obtained her Bachelor of Arts in Organization, Governance & Management from the Faculty of Arts and Science. For her bachelor thesis Placing Culture and Creativity at the Heart of the Aruban Sustainable Development she investigated the possible socio-economic and cultural impact of a Creative Industry in Aruba. For this thesis Thaïs received the “Best Thesis Award 2017-2018”. Her column “Creative Islander” in Aruba Today started as a platform to share her thesis results with the Aruban community, but slowly it evolved into advocacy for research and policy-work on concepts such as sustainability, cultural heritage, cultural education and the synergy between creativity, knowledge and innovation. After graduation, Thaïs moved to The Netherlands to pursue her double master’s degree in Public Policy and Human Development at the University of Maastricht (UM) and the United Nations University – Maastricht Economic and Social Research Institute on Innovation and Technology (UNU-MERIT). She specialized in “Innovation, Institutions and Development” and once again dedicated her thesis to her home country, which she titled The Road Towards an Innovative Aruba. On August 29th 2019 she successfully defended her thesis and graduated with honors.  Thaïs is currently working at the University of Aruba.

(From September 2019-to the present).

Liliane de Geus

Liliane de Geus, MA, MSc is an independent researcher and consultant with a background in Fine Arts and Administration and Cultural Policy, as well as in Tourism Planning and Development. She is group leader of the UNESCO Workgroup Bonaire working among other things on the implementation of the 2003 convention on Intangible Cultural Heritage. She is also actively involved in the work of the Fundashon Historiko Kultural di Boneiru (FuHiKuBo), one of our TCH core partners. Liliane’s experience in education issues is one of her expertises which she contributes to TCH.

(From March 2017-to the present).

Margo Groenewoud

Dr. Margo Groenewoud is assistant professor at the Faculty of Social and Behavioral Science. She specializes in modern Curaçaoan social history among other things church, politics and citizenship, as well as in cultural heritage policies. Her background in digital humanities is an extra contribution to our TCH research. She is member of the Curaçao Monuments Council, and of the executive committee of the Association of Caribbean Historians, and participates in the University of Florida NEH Advanced Institute team for the Caribbean Studies and DH Institute.

(From September 2018-to the present).

Gert Oostindie

Prof. dr. Gert Oostindie is director of KITLV and professor of Colonial and Postcolonial History at Leiden University. He is project leader of TCH and of the also NWO-funded program ‘Confronting Caribbean Challenges’. His principal areas of research are Atlantic slavery and its legacies, decolonization of the Dutch Caribbean, ethnicity and (post)colonial migration, and colonial history and Dutch national identity. He also co-directs a project on the war of decolonization in Indonesia and a project on the colonial and slavery past of the city of Rotterdam.

(From March 2017-to the present).

Angela Roe

Dr. Angela Roe is an anthropologist, lecturer, writer, producer, and filmmaker. She is head of research and assistant professor for the Faculty of Social and Economic Studies at the University of Curaçao. She specializes in race relations, racism, identity, the performativity of blackness, colonial heritage, the African Diaspora, and social and environmental sustainability. Cultural heritage, ethnicity and identification are her main focus in our TCH-project.

(From September 2018 until March 2020).

Valika Smeulders

Dr. Valika Smeulders specializes in heritage, representation, museums, social diversity and the slavery past. She has written on heritage institutions and the presentation of the slavery past in The Netherlands, the Dutch Caribbean, Ghana and South Africa. In our TCH project she researches the Dutch Caribbean diaspora and new definitions of heritage in the Netherlands and she coordinates our Wiki Goes Caribbean related actitivities. Next to this she is also a curator for the exhibition on slavery at the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam in 2020.

(From March 2017-June 2020).

Alex van Stipriaan Luïscius

Prof. dr. Alex van Stipriaan Luïscius is professor of Caribbean History and Culture at Erasmus University Rotterdam and co-project leader of TCH at KITLV. His specializations are history of slavery and Afro-Caribbean culture and art, as well as Caribbean heritages in Dutch society and museums. He wrote several reports on the heritage field in the Dutch Caribbean. He also works in a project which researches the colonial and slavery past of the city of Rotterdam and is a member UNESCO’s International Scientific Committee on the Slave Route Project.

(From March 2017-to the present).

Nieuwsbrief # 5

Newsletter # 4

Newsletter # 3

Newsletter # 2

Newsletter # 1