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Introduction
Klaas Stutje (1986) is a PhD-student at the European Studies department of the University of Amsterdam. He conducts his research on the organisational emergence and ideological composition of nationalism in a colonial context, as yet focusing on Indonesian nationalism, more precisely in the 1920s-1930s. The project is under supervision of prof. dr. J.T. Leerssen.
PhD-research
This research project aims to uncover the connections between various communities from colonised countries, that stayed in Europe during the interbellum period. From around 1900 well-educated members of the indigenous elites came to the centres of their empires, mostly for academic training, sometimes as a political exile and occasionally for political work. These groups from for instance British India, the Netherlands East Indies or French West-Africa were not isolated. They structurally exchanged anti-colonial ideas, democratic experiences and political self-confidence with other groups.
This project will approach these colonial groups as an organisational network to which Europe was a nodal point, with a strong emphasis on personal relations and ideological confrontations. Histories of anti-colonial nationalisms tend to focus on fixed geographical axes between mother country and colony. This research will get beyond this colonial determinism and focuses on the connections between the anti-colonial nationalist groups in Europe . Theoretically, this project reflects on the concept of Europe as the metropolitan centre of dissemination of anti-colonial ideas. Moreover, the ‘rising tide of colour’ will be examined as an independent imagined community between the more marked internationalist worldviews of interbellum Europe, i.e. the international structures provided by the Comintern and the League of Nations.
Research Interests
- Indonesian nationalism
- Anti-colonialism
- International political networks (pan-Islamism, Leftist Internationalism, Black Internationalism, the Wilsonian Moment)
- ‘Young’ movements
- Post-colonialism
- Elitism and subalternism
Publications
Stutje, K., ‘Indonesian identities abroad: Colonial students in the Netherlands defining themselves in a global context, 1908-1931' (forthcoming: under revision for an A-rated journal).
Stutje, K., ‘De Indische Gids en de liberale, koloniale discussie’, in: Skript Historisch Tijdschrift 29.4 (Febr. 2008) pp. 63-78.
Education
Research Master History (with distinction) at the University of Amsterdam.
MA-thesis: ‘The rising tide of colour, Indonesian students and the discovery of their world community’, supervised by dr. Marieke Bloembergen and prof. dr. Susan Legêne.
Bachelor History at the University of Amsterdam.
BA-thesis: ‘Zelfstandigheid en Ontwikkeling, De liberale ideeën in het tijdschrift De Indische Gids en zijn positie in de eind negentiende-eeuwse koloniale discussie’, supervised by dr. W.J.H. Furnée.