Royal Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies

The Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde – Royal Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies (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 globalisation. KITLV engages with the academic community across the world, as well as with (inter)national governmental organisations, NGOs, the media, and the interested general public. KITLV is an institute of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW).