Festival KITLV 175 years!
On 26 June, KITLV celebrates its birthday and you are invited! We will open our doors and, in cooperation with the University Libraries Leiden, organize a festival in honour of our 175th anniversary.
Latest news
Benoeming | Karwan Fatah-Black benoemd tot UNESCO Chair
10-04-2026
Karwan Fatah-Black is benoemd tot UNESCO Leerstoelhouder Comparative History of Slavery and the Transition to Citizenship aan de Universiteit Leiden (UL). Karwan is senior onderzoeker bij het KITLV en historicus aan de UL. Deze nieuwe leerstoel onderzoekt de overgang van slavernij naar burgerschap in vergelijkend perspectief. UNESCO Leerstoelen bevorderen (internationale) samenwerking op UNESCO thema’s.
Interview | Francio Guadeloupe over de VN resolutie en diversiteit
09-04-2026
Reggy Simson van Radio Keti Koti ging in gesprek met Francio Guadeloupe en Sam Liverpool over diverse onderwerpen: de in eind maart aangenomen VN resolutie die de trans-Atlantische slavenhandel als ‘de ernstigste misdaad tegen de menselijkheid’ bestempelt, diversiteit en slavernij. 123 van de 193 VN-lidstaten, waaronder alle Afrikaanse en Caribische landen, stemden voor de VN resolutie.
Save the date | KITLV festival 175 jaar/years
08-04-2026
[English version available]. Op vrijdag 26 juni 2026 viert het Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal-, Land-, en Volkenkunde (KITLV) haar verjaardag en u bent uitgenodigd! We openen onze deuren en organiseren in samenwerking met de Universitaire Bibliotheken Leiden (UBL) een publieksfestival ter ere van ons 175-jarig bestaan. In het veelzijdige programma komen elementen samen die de Vereniging en het Instituut typeren.
Events
23 April
UUKS seminar | Apocalypse forgotten: Memories and histories of natural disaster in Indonesia | Wayan Jarrah Sastrawan
7 May
Anniversary seminar | Hallyu in Motion: Translanguaging and the Circulation of Korean Language in Indonesia | Nurenzia Yannuar
21 May
Algemene Ledenvergadering Vereniging KITLV | Annual Meeting Members Association
Latest calls
Vereniging KITLV funds
The Vereniging KITLV invites its members to submit an appication to the Activities Fund and Collection & Publication Fund.
Deadline: 15 September 2026
Who we are & what we do
The KITLV is a research institute dedicated to the study of societal challenges, focusing on the histories and afterlives of colonialism in the Caribbean, Southeast Asia, and the Netherlands. Our aim is to produce quality research that furthers justice and envisions alternative futures beyond dominant perspectives.
Our research is informed by intimate familiarity with the cultures, histories, and languages of the places we study. Combining history, anthropology, archaeology, political science, linguistics, and the arts, our interdisciplinary perspective is critical and sensitive to marginalised voices.
Research Lines
Project
Cyber troops and computational propaganda in Southeast Asia: A comparative study of public opinion manipulation
Expensive elections campaigns are a threat to democracies around the world, because they generate corruption and political inequality. Yet, due to methodological obstacles and a western bias in the current literature, we do not really know what makes election campaigns expensive.
Project
From nomadic nets to fixed shores: Navigating resource access and traditional ecological knowledge in post-sedentary Sea Nomads
The islands and coastlines of Southeast Asia are home to Sea Nomads, including Moken/Moklen, Orang Laut, and Sama-Bajau, each with their own distinct yet related cultural identities, languages, and histories. For centuries, these groups have maintained a close relationship with the ocean, often living nomadic or semi-nomadic lives where their houseboat served as both homes and the primary means of sustenance.
Project
International knowledge cooperation History of Slavery, Indonesia, Suriname & South Africa
The Royal Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies (KITLV) has been commissioned by the Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture, and Science to advance international knowledge cooperation regarding the history of slavery in Indonesia, South Africa, and Suriname.
Project
Island(er)s at the Helm: Co-creating sustainable and inclusive solutions for social adaptation to climate challenges in the (Dutch) Caribbean
Driven by the increasing public awareness of the impact of hurricanes and the devastation of coastal areas, Island(er)s at the Helm contributes to equipping (Dutch) Caribbean societies with proficient tools for confronting these challenging climatic phenomena.
Project
TRACE: Tracing evolutionary pathways in grassroots climate governance
Climate change demands urgent action, yet global climate governance is at an impasse, unable to inclusive, just, and nested adaptive strategies. TRACE pusher for a paradigm shift in climate governance. It aims to amplify grassroots forces and spearheading systematic transformations, focusing on Southeast.
Project
Trajectories of TASTE: An analytical framework of culinary change after migration
The TASTE Project, funded by the European Research Council and running from June 2024 to the summer of 2029, examines shifting food preferences and culinary change. Centered on three Indonesian diasporas, the project explores how people have adapted their culinary traditions to new environments in the past and continue to reshape them today. In doing so, we scrutinize how cultural, historical, social, economic, and environmental factors operate, intersect, and occasionally conflict in these transformations.
Project
Unpacking KITLV Special Collections: Colonial histories, object biographies, knowledge practices, and local agency
A project on the coloniality of Asian library and manuscript-formations. With KITLV Special Collections as point of departure, we study the social biographies of manuscripts, and the colonial histories of collecting, to gain insight into the role of violence therein, and to recognize local agency in the makings of so-called Asian Libraries.
Our work
KITLV / BRILL
KITLV Journals
New West Indian Guide (NWIG)
The latest issue of the NWIG (volume 100: issue 1-2) is now available, with articles on the Caribbean in the fields of humanities, social & political science, archaeology, economics, geography and geology.
Hatib Kadir
Our publications
Review of Joshua Barker, State of fear: Policing a postcolonial city
This book review discusses State of Fear by Joshua Barker (2024), which examines how policing and state power in postcolonial Indonesia operate through a mix of formal institutions, informal actors, and community practices in Bandung.
Hatib Kadir
Our publications
Review of Michael Dove, Hearsay is not excluded: A history of natural history
In this review of Hearsay is not excluded by Michael Dove (2024) in the Journal of Political Ecology, Hatib Kadir explores the uneasy boundary between science and people’s everyday knowledge.
Diana Suhardiman
Our publications
Water and hydropower
This chapter in the edited volume Routledge Handbook of Contemporary Laos unpacks the institutional disjuncture in the hydropower decision-making landscape and processes in the Mekong region.
Widya Naseva Tuslian
Our publications
Unsettling ground: Rethinking land tenure security in Indonesia’s legally plural setting
When does the law create a sense of security, and when does it produce the opposite? This article takes that question as a starting point to examine land tenure security in Indonesia’s legally plural context.
Tom Hoogervorst et al.
Blogs
Custom, combat, and ceremony: Java and the Indo-Persian textile trade
Textile trade provides a multidisciplinary avenue to examine flows in material culture, performances of power, and ultimately changes in the perception of the self. This article focuses on pre-Islamic contacts between the Malay World, Java, the Persian Gulf, and the Indian Subcontinent.