The Dutch lack of awareness of its colonial past has almost become a cliché. Anticolonial activists clamouring for compensiation and pundits nostalgic for a past where the Netherlands once dared to dream of a permanent seat on the UN Security Council both lament the uneducated state of the public. … [Read more...]

In her book, Pious Girls, Annisa Beta challenges a common notion about young, middle-class Muslim women in Indonesia: that their lives aren’t inherently political. Through extensive research in various urban areas in Jakarta, Bandung, Yogyakarta and Tasikmalaya, Beta demonstrates quite the opposite: … [Read more...]

Dear Reader, Let’s start with an excerpt from a novel I am reading, A Dark Tale From Cottonwood Grove, by Mahfud Ikhwan, translated by Annie Tucker. “He was well-acquainted with death. His mother had died giving birth to him. His grandfather, the person who loved him most in the world, had … [Read more...]