175 years KITLV
In 2026, KITLV will celebrate its 175th anniversary! The Members’ Association (Vereniging) KITLV and the Research Institute KITLV are organizing an Anniversary Seminar Series and a Public Festival to mark the occasion.
Latest news
Podcast | 'Een duik in de Indonesische familiegeschiedenis' met Esther Captain
10-01-2026
Emma Wijlaars dook in de geschiedenis van Indonesië en Nederland én van haar grootouders, beide geboren op Java en begin jaren 60 naar Nederland gekomen. Ze vroeg Esther Captain (KITLV) om haar familiegeschiedenis te plaatsen in de bredere historische context van Nederlands-Indië als koloniale samenleving, de Indonesische revolutie en de kille ontvangst in Nederland te plaatsen.
Media | Francio Guadeloupe on Venezuela and the Donroe doctrine
05-01-2026
An opinion article in The People's Tribune, written by Francio Guadeloupe (KITLV) and journalist and novelist Pedro de Weever on Maduro, Venezuela, Trump, and the implications of the new "Donroe doctrine" for the Caribbean and wider South Americas. Guadeloupe and De Weever focus in their article on the fictive island of "San Cristobal".
Interview | Esther Captain over doorwerking koloniale en slavernijverleden
01-01-2026
In het interview 'Hoe luid stilte kan zijn; Hedendaagse sporen van het koloniale en slavernijverleden' met Isa Last in Impact Magazine, een magazine over psychosociale gevolgen van ingrijpende gebeurtenissen, vertelt Esther Captain (KITLV) over de doorwerking van het koloniale en slavernijverleden in het heden.
Events
23 January
PPI seminar | True flood Sumatra; A discussion of the past and the future, beyond the scapegoating of climate change
27 January
SEA seminar | Building transformative climate resilience: Collaboration and strategies of women and older adults in Eastern Indonesia | Sharyn Graham Davies
29 January
UUKS seminar | Echoes of a funeral: Social and spiritual structures through an abbot’s funeral in urban Bangkok | Wenlan Wang
Latest calls
Collection & publication fund
The Members Association / Vereniging KITLV invites its members to contribute to maintaining and expanding its collection.
Deadline: 15 January 2026.
Activities fund
The Members Association / Vereniging KITLV invites its members to actively contribute to realizing the goals of the Association.
Deadline: 15 January 2026.
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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
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
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.
Wengki Ariando et al.
Our publications
Cross-religious enrollment of suku laut students in Bintan Madrasahs
This research examines religious moderation at Madrasah Ibtidaiyah Negeri (MIN) 1 Bintan, focusing on the children of the Sea Tribe from Kampung Panglong, Desa Village, Bintan Regency, Riau Islands Province, who choose to attend this madrasah despite being Catholic and Protestant.
Diana Suhardiman et al.
Our publications
Rethinking environmental governance
This book brings to light the pluralistic views, diverse forces, and multiple realities (re)shaping formal and informal decision-making structures, processes, and power interplay in environmental governance.
KITLV / BRILL
KITLV Journals
New West Indian Guide (NWIG)
The latest issue of the NWIG (volume 99: issue 3-4) is now available, with articles on the Caribbean in the fields of humanities, social & political science, archaeology, economics, geography and geology.
Ward Berenschot et al.
Our publications
Dispossession by archive: Contemporary land grabbing through colonial land deeds in Indonesia
This article examines a new pattern of land grabbing in Indonesia, where coalitions of state and private actors use colonial-era land deeds to expropriate community land.
Diana Suhardiman et al.
Our publications
The temporally cumulative effects of hydropower development in northern Laos
Drawing on a study of the lower reaches of the Nam Ou Basin in the Pak Ou and Nam Bak districts of Luang Prabang province in Laos, this paper explores how the social outcomes of a major hydropower project emerge from and are contingent upon long-term changes in livelihoods that can be dated back to the 1970s.