This fellowship is intended for researchers from formerly colonised countries – including heritage practitioners, historians, archaeologists, social scientists, artists, journalists, and cultural activists – with an interest in (lost) collections or objects from those regions that are currently held in the Netherlands. We look forward to welcoming Panggah Ardiyansyah, Ganggah Dissanayaka, and Leandro Matthews Cascon this September.
About the Fellowship
The “Moving Objects, Mobilising Culture” Fellowship is funded by the Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Science through the Colonial Collections Consortium. It enables researchers and heritage practitioners from formerly colonised countries to access and study objects – defined broadly as cultural, historical, ancestral, artistic or otherwise – that are now located in the Netherlands, as well as the archives and documentation associated with them.
Fellows are invited to actively engage with, reflect on, and make use of these collections. They are also encouraged to explore and (re)establish connections with related communities, collections, and sites in countries of origin or elsewhere. The fellowship supports inquiries into the social histories and valuations of these objects – extending beyond issues of restitution – and invites exploration of their significance and trajectories across time and space, outside of institutional or national heritage narratives.
The fellowship is designed to support fellows in developing and pursuing their own independent research agendas during their time in the Netherlands. These may or may not lead to restitution claims and are aimed at fostering innovative, socially relevant research into the social lives of moving objects within broader debates on the history, nature, and future of heritage.
NIAS serves as the host institution, while NIOD and KITLV provide structural support and supervision. Fellows are encouraged to conduct research in depots, archives and collections of museums affiliated with the Colonial Collections Consortium – including the Wereldmuseum, the Rijksmuseum, Museum Bronbeek, and the Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands – as well as in other institutions.
