My research is part of the project 'Colonialism Inside Out: Everyday Experience and Plural Practice in Dutch Institutions in Sri Lanka (c. 1700-1800)', at Leiden University and Radboud University. My subproject focuses on conversion of Sri Lankan people to Dutch Protestantism and the consequences on their everyday life and family law.

More information about Bente de Leede

Resarch

My research is part of the project 'Colonialism Inside Out: Everyday Experience and Plural Practice in Dutch Institutions in Sri Lanka (c. 1700-1800)', at Leiden University and Radboud University. My subproject focuses on conversion of Sri Lankan people to Dutch Protestantism and the consequences on their everyday life and family law. What was the function of the Dutch Protestant Church in Sri Lankan society? Why did people relate to the Church and how did conversion influence their life course?

My project sees the church as norm-maker and addresses the issue of intervention in family affairs of colonial subjects. It will use hitherto untouched conversion, baptism and marriage data from eighteenth-century parish registers (or school thombos), cadastral thombos, minutes of the School Board and minutes of the consistories of the Dutch Reformed Church in Wolvendaal, Colombo. 

Curriculum vitae

During my studies in Leiden, (BA and MA) I have become fascinated by how and why people create colonial policy. For my Master thesis I studied colonial ideology and culture as I researched how Dutch politicians and travellers described people from the Dutch East Indies during 1800-1830, and the influence of Enlightenment, liberalism and local agency on that image. Previously I have studied German colonial societies as well as colonial policy at Bali. I have also done a research internship at the KITLV Research Project ‘Dutch Military Operations in Indonesia, 1945-1950’, about the Dutch use of violence during the decolonization of Indonesia. For this research project I will combine that experience to study everyday colonialism in Dutch colonial Sri Lanka.

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