Projects
Colonial collections and restitution
Since November 2019 I am member of the NIOD Expert Centre Restitution. The Expert Centre conducts research into the history and topicality of looted art and restitution.
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Until March 2022 I was involved in the NIOD-ECR project PPROCE: Pilot Project Provenance Research on Objects of the Colonial Era. In this project, which was a collaboration between NIOD, the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam and the National Museum of World Cultures, I conducted provenance research on a large selection of museum objects from colonial Indonesia.
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Currently I am involved in the Colonial Collections Consortium.
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Publications:
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2022. 'The Diamond from Banjarmasin: A Story in Facets', The Rijksmuseum Bulletin 70 (4): 340-55.
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2022. With Jona Mooren and Frank van Vree, 'Clues Research into provenance history and significance of cultural objects and collections acquired in colonial situations', Final report PPROCE.
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2022. More than a dozen provenance reports about objects from the collections of Rijksmuseum and National Museum of World Cultures. Amongst others a report about the Banjarmasin diamond and about a battle flag from Kalimantan in Rijksmuseum.
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2022. With Jona Mooren, ‘Clues of Provenance: Tracing Colonialism and Imperialism through Museum Objects’, IIAS The Newsletter 92 (Summer 2022).
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2021. Presentation at meeting KVVAK (from min. 16.30)
'Javanese man and 4 children in front of Buddhist idol at Borobudur', W.H. Jackson (1895) US Library of Congress, call.nr. LC-W7- 610 [P&P] (CC BY 4.0)
Final report PPROCE
Available in Dutch, English and Bahasa Indonesia
Prisons and convict labour colonial Indonesia
From 2016 to 2019, I was a postdoctoral researcher at the International Instituut of Social History in Amsterdam on a project about labour camps and penal labour in colonial Indonesia.
Publications:
2022. 'Nusakambangan in context: Life and labour conditions in a late-colonial penal plantation in the Netherlands Indies, 1905-1942', Journal of Southeast Asian Studies.
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2019. ‘From Across the Water: Nusakambangan and the Making of a Notorious Prison Island’, International Review of Social History 64, pp.1-21.
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2017. (review) ‘Christian G. De Vito and Alex Lichtenstein, Global Convict Labour’, review in: Tijdschrift voor Sociale en Economische Geschiedenis 14-1, pp. 120-122.
2017. (review) ‘Marc Buggeln: Slave Labor in Nazi Concentration Camps’, review in: International Review of Social History 62-1, pp. 164-167.
Convicts and guards at Nusakambangan. Collectie Stichting Nationaal Museum van Wereldculturen. Coll.nr. TM-10016323. (CC BY-SA 3.0)
Political history of colonial Indonesia
Over the years I have published extensively about late colonial Indonesian political history, in particular about Indonesian anticolonial networks, the history of Indonesian communism, migrant communities in the Netherlands and interwar anti-imperialism in Europe.
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Publications:
Book
2024. Di Balik Bendera Persatuan: Kalangan Nasionalis Indonesia dan Gerakan Antikolonial Dunia 1917-1931 (Tangeran Jakarta: Marjin Kiri).
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​Monograph
2019. Campaigning in Europe for a Free Indonesia: Indonesian Nationalists and the Worldwide Anticolonial Movement, 1917–1931 (Copenhagen: NIAS Press).
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Dissertation
2016. 'Behind the Banner of Unity: Nationalism and Anticolonialism among Indonesian Students in Europe, 1917-1931' (dissertation University of Amsterdam).
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Articles and bookchapters
2020. ‘Herald of a Failed Revolt: Mohammad Hatta in Brussels, 1927’, in: Michele Louro, Carolien Stolte (a.o. eds), The League Against Imperialism, Lives and Afterlives (Leiden: Leiden University Press, 2020) 309-324.
2020. ‘Un rumbo independiente. El nacionalismo indonesio de entreguerras y el comunismo internacional en el escenario euro-holandés’, in: Enric Ucelay-Da Cal, Xosé M. Núñez Seixas, Arnau Gonzàlez i Vilalta (eds.), Patrias diversas, ¿misma lucha?: Alianzas transnacionalistas en el mundo de entreguerras (1912-1939) (Barcelona: Edicions Bellaterra 2020) 151-170.
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2020. (review) ‘Kris Alexanderson, Subversive Seas: Anticolonial Networks across the Twentieth-Century Dutch Empire’, BMGN - Low Countries Historical Review 135, review 66.
2018. ‘1908, Indonesische studenten leggen basis voor internationaal antikolonialisme’, in: Marjolein ’t Hart, Karel Davids e.a. (eds.), Wereldgeschiedenis van Nederland (Amsterdam: Ambo Anthos) 478-483.
2018. ‘Indonesian Nationalism in the Netherlands, 1920s-1930s: Long-Distance Internationalism of Elite Pilgrims in Homogeneous, Empty Time’, in: Gemma Blok, Vincent Kuitenbrouwer, and Claire Weeda (eds.), Imagining Communities: Historical Reflections on the Process of Community Formation (Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press).
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2017. ‘”Volk van Java, de Russische Revolutie houdt ook lessen in voor U”; Indonesisch socialisme, bolsjewisme, en het spook van het anarchisme’, Tijdschrift voor Geschiedenis 130-3, pp. 427-447.
2015. 'The Complex World of the Chung Hwa Hui: International Engagements of Chinese Indonesian Peranakan Students in the Netherlands, 1918–1931', Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde 171-4, pp. 516–54.
2015. 'To Maintain an Independent Course: Inter-war Indonesian Nationalism and International Communism on a Dutch-European Stage', Dutch Crossing: Journal of Low Country Studies 39-3, pp. 204-220.
2013. ‘Indonesian Identities Abroad: International Engagement of Colonial Students in the Netherlands, 1908-1931’, BMGN - Low Countries Historical Review 128-1, pp. 151-172.
2015. ‘Indonesian Islam in Interwar Europe: Muslim Organizations in the Netherlands and Beyond’, in: Bekim Agai, Umar Ryad and Mehdi Sajid (eds.), Muslims in Interwar Europe: A Transcultural Historical Perspective (Leiden: Brill publishers) 125-150.
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2015. (review) 'Bart Luttikhuis: Negotiating Modernity, Europeannes in Late Colonial Indonesia', dissertationreview.org.
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2014. (review) ‘John Ingleson: Workers, Unions and Politics. Indonesia in the 1920s and 1930s’, Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde 170, pp. 583–584.
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2008. ‘De Indische Gids en de liberale, koloniale discussie’, Skript Historisch Tijdschrift 29-4, pp. 63-78.
Meeting of students of Perhimpoenan Indonesia. Between 1924 and 1927. KITLV A624 53604 (CC BY 4.0)
Selection of other projects and publications
2024. '11. Archieven van anti-koloniale bewegingen', in: Nederlands kolonialisme van archief tot geschiedschrijving (Leiden: LUP) pp. 209-216.
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2019. ‘Nederlands leed’ telt niet meer dan het leed van anderen’, overdemuur.org.
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2018. ‘Koloniaal geluk is niet los te zien van koloniaal leed’, NRC Handelsblad. With Thomas Smits and Suze Zijlstra.
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2017. Interview with Karin Amatmoekrim at De Correspondent
2017. Interview about Henk Sneevliet Radio 1
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2017. Podcast Radio Kunci.
2017. Onafhankelijkheid met het mes op de keel, overdemuur.org.
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2014. ‘Change in Indonesia: critical reflections on the Indonesian elections’, OpenDemocracy.net.
