“History is being erased!” So cried Donald Trump, surely no great student of history, in sudden righteous indignation earlier this week. His mass of supporters have roused themselves from perusing the aisles of Wal-Marts...
On Tuesday, KITLV-researcher Bart Luttikhuis was a guest during the NOS live broadcast of the commemoration ceremony for the National Commemoration 15 August ...
The recent turmoil about the role of radical Islam in elections for a new Governor of Jakarta conceals another dimension of Indonesian politics: the decades long effort of an old elite family to grab the presidency in Indonesia....
Vierjarig onderzoeksprogramma Dekolonisatie, geweld en oorlog in Indonesië, 1945-1950. Site onderzoeksprogramma www.ind45-50.org online. ...
In Bangkok, the mourning of King Bhumibol Adulyadej has become part of the city’s daily life. David Kloos took pictures. When King Bhumibol of Thailand died on 13 October 2016 hundreds of thousands took to the streets ...
With great sadness we inform you that Peter Boomgaard passed away yesterday evening. His situation had been critical since early November 2016. KITLV has lost an eminent scholar, a good colleague and a dear friend....
Young people’s desires to become educated and upwardly mobile are often understood as signs of rising affluence and changing markets for education and work in Southeast Asia. Meanings that young people attribute...
The road to Enlightenment is never easy, but for some people it is easier than for others. Last May I visited Borobudur. This giant eighth century Buddhist shrine and world heritage site is located in Indonesia where now ...
Over 3000 historic photographs and prints with images from the Dutch East Indies, China, Japan, Singapore and Suriname from the KITLV were donated to Wikimedia Commons, the image database of Wikipedia,...
KITLV researcher Wouter Veenendaal has been awarded a Veni grant for young excellent researchers. His research project 'Explaining Political Stability in Small States' examines why small countries...
The fasting month in Indonesia comes with new gadgets and ‘special offers’ advertisements. Chris Chaplin wonders whether or not this affects the pious character of fasting. On the 6th June the majority of Muslims across the world welcomed the start...
Over the past decades, Gert Oostindie has cooperated in making several television documentaries on Cuba. He just returned from Havana after reporting on the state of affairs in Cuba on the eve of Obama's historic visit. Below is a more elaborate...
One-Tété Lohkay and Alida, the legend of the enslaved woman whose breast was cut off, have become folk heroines. What to do asks Jessica Roitman, an historian who wonders if these disfigurements occurred?...
To my surprise I encountered an old Oral History project of mine, the SMGI, featuring in a novel, writes Fridus Steijlen. And it plays its role with excellence. Between 1997 and 2001 I coordinated the oral history project...
Thursday morning January 14, a terrorist attack in downtown Jakarta was on the news. Media contacted KITLV for comments. How did Dutch media react? Observations by Henk Schulte Nordholt and Fridus Steijlen....
New special publication by David Kloos in Visual Anthropology Review: ‘Living in a Makeshift World? Mobility, Temporariness, and Everyday Life in Indonesia.’David wrote this article based on his research ...
…and no, Tom Hoogervorst is not referring to himself here. The late 19th-century Van der Pant expressed his discontent with the language skills of his compatriots. How much still rings true today?...
The governing body of world soccer, FIFA, has suspended the Indonesian Soccer Union (PSSI) for being taken over by Indonesian politics. Nico van Horn says: yeah, like sports and politics never go together....
One of the films screened at a recent conference about Indonesia’s 1965 mass killings was the Australian (Hollywood produced) The year of living dangerously (Peter Weir, 1982). David Kloos saw it for the first time...
While countries that experienced the Holocaust have reached reconciliation, Indonesians are still struggling to acknowledge the mass killings between 1965-1968. Grace Leksana reflects on conferences...
KITLV’s ever expanding “audiovisual archive of everyday life in Indonesia”, has among others produced documentaries. What it hasn’t done is engage with visual art. David Kloos sees opportunities for the future....
Last week more than 500 scholars convened in Vienna for the 8th conference of the European Association for Southeast Asian Studies. Previously held every three years and from now on biannually,...
As 2014 came to an end, I began a four-week tour of Southeast Asia, taking in Jakarta, Manila, Hanoi and Singapore. Together with young local researchers, I interviewed 21 young people aged 18 to 20 about their lives, hopes and ambitions...
President Obama’s announcement about the lifting of the Cuban embargo /bloqueo will have great economic consequences for the entire Caribbean. Cuba’s possible membership in CARICOM might breathe new life ...
“Are you a pessimist or an optimist?” one of the examiners asked at my recent thesis defence. The question caught me by surprise. In my thesis I argue that the colonial state in the Dutch East Indies in the 1920s...
Since 2012 KITLV has been engaged in the project ‘Dutch military operations in Indonesia 1945-1950’. At first it was to be a project of three institutions; NIOD (War Documentation Institute, Amsterdam), NIMH (Institute...
Last month, from 16-30 September 2014, I attended the 9th Trinidad & Tobago Film Festival in Port of Spain, the capital city of Trinidad and Tobago on the northwest coast of the Caribbean island of Trinidad....
Why are small states statistically more likely to have a democratic political system? By addressing this question from a qualitative and comparative methodological angle, in this book Wouter Veenendaal analyses the effects of...
Serious riots were not expected, but ethnic tensions between Creoles and Hindostanis were heating up a few months before Suriname’s independence in 1975. The last detachment of Dutch soldiers was prepared to...
On 15 September, a delegation of the Indonesian National Library - Perpustakaan Nasional Republik Indonesia (PNRI)) - led by Mr. Dedy Junaedi (prime secretary of the PNRI) visited KITLV. The delegation was welcomed by...
On 12 September 2014 H.E. the Ambassador of the Kingdom of the Netherlands Mr. Tjeerd de Zwaan (left) and the director of KITLV-Jakarta, Dr. Roger Tol (middle) signed the agreement confirming the relocation of...