Gert Oostindie receives NWO grant for Caribbean research
Dutch-Caribbean research will get a boost. Gert Oostindie, working at the Institute of History and KITLV, has received a grant from NWO, consisting of 750,000 euros, for his research project 'Confronting Caribbean challenges: hybrid identities and governance in small-scale island jurisdictions'.
Dutch Caribbean Islands
The funding comes from the 'Caribbean Research: A Multidisciplinary approach' scheme. The four-year project includes two post-doctoral researchers and one PhD position. The post-doctoral researchers, both active in conceptualizing the research proposal, are Jessica Roitman, researcher at the KITLV and lecturer in Economic and Social History at Leiden University, and Wouter Veenendaal, lecturer at the Institute of Political Science at Leiden University. ' Confronting Caribbean challenges' investigates how political reforms and intensive migrations affect historically grounded identities and political practices in the Dutch Caribbean Islands of St. Maarten, St. Eustatius, Saba and Bonaire. The program integrates an interest in the past (historical development of hybrid identities), the present (governance, migration and citizenship issues) and the future (sustainable tourism capitalizing on natural and historical heritage).
NWO boost
Oostindie's researchproject is part of the NWO program 'Caribbean Research: a Multidisciplinary approach'. This program has been set up at the request of and in cooperation with the Ministry of Education. The study will include among others invasive species, coral, turtles and island identity. The program explicitly seeks a link between defferent scientific disciplines. A total of nineteen researchers will work in nine new researchprojects, in particular on biodiversity, geology and society.