KITLV aims to be a world-class research institute for the study of Southeast Asia and the Caribbean, with a focus on Indonesia and the ‘Dutch’ Caribbean, in an interdisciplinary and comparative perspective. Benefitting from the unrivalled collections offered on campus by Leiden University, KITLV researchers explore (dis)continuities between the (pre)colonial and postcolonial period, and articulate their research agendas empirically and theoretically in order to advance wider debates on the meandering paths of globalization. KITLV is an institute of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW).
As our mission statement indicates, KITLV invests in two long-term research themes: State, Violence and Citizenship and Mobility and Belonging. While most research projects fit into either of these themes, a few address both. Below, the research projects within the two themes are presented, with a differentiation between larger, mainly externally funded programs and individual, either internally or externally funded projects.
1. State, Violence and Citizenship
Confronting Caribbean challenges: Hybrid identities and governance in small-scale island jurisdictions
Decolonization and war in Indonesia, 1945-1950
From clients to citizens? Emerging citizenship in democratising Indonesia
Governance, markets and citizens in Indonesia
Indonesia in transition. A history from revolution to nation building, 1943-1958
Palm oil conflicts and access to justice in Indonesia
(Individual projects)
A history of Southeast Asia
Biography Grace Schneiders-Howard
Child marriage in Indonesia
Disasters on display
Diversifying the collections: Inclusive citizenship and public histories of exclusion
Narrative and trauma: Indonesia 1965-1966
Post-New Order memories in Indonesia
Shades of clientelism: A comparative study of Indonesia’s patronage democracy
Sultan Hamid II of Pontianak (1913-1978) and the independence of Indonesia
Understanding insurgencies
When things get personal: Explaining political stability in small states
Writing rights in colonial Indonesia
2. Mobility and Belonging
Confronting Caribbean challenges: Hybrid identities and governance in small-scale island jurisdictions
Recording the future: An audiovisual archive of everyday life in Indonesia in the 21st century
Traveling Caribbean heritageThe colonial and slavery past of Rotterdam
The colonial and slavery past of Rotterdam
(Individual projects)
A history of Southeast Asia
Appropriating Kartini: Colonial, national and transnational memories of an Indonesian icon
Conservative Islam in Indonesia
Departing from Java
Embodied borders: an ethnography of female migrants in Singapore
Evolution of the lexicon: Explorations in lexical stability, semantic shift and borrowing in a Papuan language family
Family matters
Indonesia and Greater India
The language of popular culture: Digitizing Sino-Malay literary heritage
‘Hai tanahku Papua…’ O my country Papua… Isaak Samuel Kijne, 1899-1970: A protestant missionary and teacher in New Guinea
Seeing is believing: Female Islamic leadership and visual rhetoric in Southeast Asia
Sharing Asian futures
Transformation of religions as reflected in Javanese texts
OUR PROJECTS
KITLV/Royal Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies initiates and coordinates innovative research projects on Southeast Asia and the Caribbean. It engages in research that is theoretically informed, compara- tive, and empirically strong. Research on both regions focuses on contemporary developments as well as on historical themes. This page lists the research projects ongoing at KITLV and in collaboration with other departments and institutions.
Completed Projects
Click here to review the research projects that have been completed since 2014, the year KITLV was established as a new research institute.