Researchers investigating the colonial past of a Dutch scientific academy have described the project as not only a historical exercise but a means of working toward ¡°a more inclusive, diverse and just organisation¡± in the present.

A research consortium comprising seven scholars from institutions in the Netherlands,?with ties to Indonesia and Suriname, will launch a three-year study of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW) next month,?aiming to " to the current scholarly debate on colonial legacies and their contemporary impact¡±.

Among the areas of study will be the academy¡¯s operations in countries colonised by the Netherlands ¨C including Indonesia, South Africa, the Dutch Caribbean and Suriname ¨C ?as well as its collections and buildings and its impact on science.

Speaking to?Times Higher Education, Alana Helberg-Proctor, senior assistant professor of anthropology at the University of Amsterdam and one of those conducting the research, said ¡°epistemic extractivism¡± will be a key focus of the project, with the researchers exploring questions such as ¡°who gets credit for what work? What did and does a supposed good scientist look like, sound like or present themselves like?¡±

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¡°We¡¯re all working to answer these different questions from an interdisciplinary perspective, and then we¡¯ll come together to synthesise what we¡¯ve found, and how that might inform improving the current situation,¡± Helberg-Proctor said. ¡°We hope to recognise the patterns that continue in the present from those colonial times.¡±

Project lead?Laurens de Rooy, curator and director of the Vrolik museum within the Amsterdam University Medical Centre, said a central aspect of the consortium is ¡°multiperspectivity¡±. One component of the study will focus on how ¡°ideas, objects and natural history collections were taken [from countries colonised by the Netherlands] and brought back to the KNAW and its institutes¡±.

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It will also?focus on colonial notions of science, among them ¡°the idea that scientists could be objective and study other people as if they themselves weren¡¯t there, and how they would take knowledge from those locations, change it and [claim it as] their own without mentioning the perspectives and ideas of the people there¡±.

Further components will ¡°focus more on the current situation, talking to people in KNAW?as well as people in the former or current colonies ¨C scientists, activists and others ¨C to reflect on what we discovered¡±, de Rooy said.

Working alongside Helberg-Proctor and de Rooy will be cultural historian and exhibition maker Sadiah Boonstra; social and cultural historian Caroline Drie?nhuizen; philosopher Monika Kirloskar-Steinbach; research chair coordinator and cultural creator Guus Pengel; and historian of science Robert-Jan Wille.

The findings of the research project must be ¡°easily accessible¡± to the broader public, said Helberg-Proctor, ¡°not just a 300-page report online somewhere¡±. A documentary team will work alongside the academics to produce a series of episodes on their work, while an exhibition will be hosted within the academy building. ¡°The KNAW is quite a closed space, and we hope that through the project we can literally open it up and invite people who may have never been inside but have walked past it every day.¡±

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Without an emphasis on communication, de Rooy said, ¡°you risk that [the result of the project] is just a report and then you¡¯re done with it. But we want to focus on the fact that it¡¯s a process that we¡¯re still in¡±. The consortium and the academy, Helberg-Proctor said, will not only conduct historical research, but ask the central question: ¡°How can all of this help us to become a more inclusive, diverse and just organisation?¡±

emily.dixon@timeshighereducation.com