Sander van der Horst is a PhD researcher at KITLV and the Leiden University Institute for History (LUIH) and a regular contributor to Journal of the Humanities and Social Sciences of Southeast Asia (BKI). He holds a bachelor’s degree in Political Science from the Freie Universität Berlin (2019) and a master’s in Colonial and Global History from Leiden University (2022). 

Having written his MA thesis on anticolonialism in the interwar Netherlands, Sander’s current PhD research traces the actions and ideas of Indonesian activists and their efforts to build transnational coalitions for peace from the late 1940s to the early 1960s. Drawing on multi-archival research, this project presents a social and intellectual history of Indonesian decolonization by reconstructing the political culture underpinning the common struggle for a decolonized, demilitarized, and denuclearized world. Focusing on Indonesian peace activists' labor and knowledge production highlights the strengths and limits of transnational peace activism during the early Cold War, opening up a critical perspective on the global history of peace activism and liberation movements. 

Previously, Sander has worked on the intersection of decolonial theory, histories of decolonization, and debates on (post-)colonial heritage and memory in Dutch society. His work is frequently published in Dutch newspapers and history books for popular audiences. Before his PhD, he worked as a KITLV intern at the Special Collections of the Leiden University Library (UBL) and as an intern for UMAM Documentation and Research, a Lebanese NGO and archive in Beirut. 

Selected Publications

Horst, Sander van der, ‘Tegenstemmen: andersdenkende en antikoloniale Kamerleden, 1899-1949’, in: Remieg Aerts, Coen Brummer & Gertjan Schutte (eds.) Machtswoorden. Over schrijverschap en politiek in Nederland. Amsterdam: Prometheus, 2024.  

Horst, Sander van der, ‘Sharp pens: The Dutch L\league against imperialism and its journals, 1927-1935’, paper presented at the conference Voices of Resistance in and against Dutch empire, Utrecht University (the Netherlands), 11-13 September 2024. 

Horst, Sander van der, ‘How red doves fly: Indonesian activists and the global Communist Peace Movement, 1949-1963’, paper presented at the 13th EuroSEAS conference, University of Amsterdam (the Netherlands), 25 July 2024. 

Horst, Sander van der, ‘Beyond moral violence: A critical historiography of peace activism in the decolonizing world’, paper presented during the International Summer School Global History in the 2020s, Leiden University (the Netherlands), 29 June-1 July 2023. 

Horst, Sander van der, ‘In opstand tegen de kolonisator. Antikoloniaal activisme in Den Haag in het interbellum, 1913-1939’, in: Esther Captain, Gert Oostindie & Valika Smeulders (eds.) Het koloniale en slavernijverleden van Den Haag, pp. 147-163.Amsterdam: Boom, 2022. 

Horst, Sander van der, ‘1932: Amsterdam en Moskou maken vuist tegen oorlog’, in: Nadia Bouras, Manon van der Heijden, Marjolein ’t Hart, Lex Heerma van Voss and Leo Lucassen (eds.), Nog meer Wereldgeschiedenis van Nederland, pp. 513-518. Amsterdam: AmboAnthos, 2022. 

Horst, Sander van der & Linde Lammers, Melle van Manen & Gert Oostindie (eds.), Images of the Indonesian war of independence, 1945-1949. Leiden: Leiden University Press, 2022. 

Horst, Sander van der, ‘The matter of anticolonial history: Remembering Indonesian resistance to Dutch empire in the age of Black Lives Matter’, paper presented at the 11th EuroSEAS conference, Palacký University (Czechia), 7-10 September 2021. 

Horst, Sander van der, Paloma David, Monica Gouffray, Maarten Tunen & Yolande Jansen (eds.), Colonial spheres, decolonial futures: Political philosophy and postcolonial studies. Amsterdam: Netherlands Institute for Cultural Analysis (NICA), Soapbox Journal, 2020.