KITLV/Royal Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies

Latest news

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Call for applications |  KITLV visiting fellowships 2026

16-07-2025

KITLV invites scholars working in the fields of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies to apply for a Visiting Fellowship. Candidates are invited to send in a proposal of the work they wish to carry out while at KITLV. Fellows may work on a publication or research project of their own choice.

Events

18 July

Book talk | Strangers in the family: Gender, patriliny and the Chinese in colonial Indonesia | Guo-Quan Seng

4 September

Book talk | The rule of dons | Rivke Jaffe

2 October

UUKS seminar | Rituals and rice cultivation | I Kadek Surya Jayadi

Latest calls

Vacancy: Postdoctoral researcher Food Studies

The TASTE project is seeking a postdoctoral researcher. Deadline: 25 August 2025

Visiting fellowships 2026

KITLV invites scholars working in the fields of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies to apply for a visiting fellowship.

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Activities fund

The Members Association / Vereniging KITLV invites its members to actively contribute to realizing the goals of the Association.

Collection & publication fund

The Members Association / Vereniging KITLV invites its members to contribute to maintaining and expanding its collection. 

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. 

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Research Lines

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

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.

Our work