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 the meandering paths of globalization. KITLV engages with the academic community across the world, as well as with (inter)national governmental organizations, NGOs, the media, and the interested general public. KITLV is an institute of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW).

KITLV invests in two long-term research themes:

1. State, Violence and Citizenship


2. Mobility and Identity

These themes, relevant to the processes of post-colonial state formation and globalisation in South East Asia and the Caribbean at large, are connected by interrelated questions concerning the dynamics of power, meaning and belonging. KITLV aims to translate these themes into agenda-setting projects conducted by research teams consisting of senior scholars, postdoctoral researchers, PhD candidates and visiting fellows.