In the so-called ‘VOC-zaal’ in the Bushuis, a historical reconstruction of the Dutch East India Company past was devised and created in the 1990s. In recent years, there has been growing unease among staff and students about the way in which the colonial past of the Netherlands and Amsterdam is presented/represented at this location. The Faculty Board therefore decided in August 2022 to temporarily close the room, which was used for meetings, symposia and the presentation of degree certificates.
In January 2023, the doors of the room were opened for the public programme Decolonial Dialogues@Humanities. Events and activities were programmed in and around the room until February 2024. The project offered a platform to decolonial research and programmes. Furthermore, in collaboration with staff and students, partner institutions and interested parties, we reflected and worked on concrete proposals regarding the future of the room and the best way to deal with the colonial past of the Bushuis/Oost-Indisch Huis.
The public programme was curated by curators Phaedra Haringsma and Chris de Ploeg. The programme was initiated by Ghanima Kowsoleea (former project manager of VOX-POP) in consultation with an interdisciplinary team of UvA experts chaired by Margriet Schavemaker (professor of Media and Art in Museum Practice and artistic director of the Amsterdam Museum). This team gave feedback and input on the programming during the project and publish an open call to submit ideas and to participate.
The UvA will also establish an interdisciplinary advisory committee in 2024, on the initiative of Central Diversity Officer Machiel Keestra. The recommendations of this committee will include the research into the colonial past of our own institution, whereby the programming and the resulting insights from Decolonial Dialogues@Humanities can serve as input for this research.
Report Decolonial Dialogues
The report Decolonial Dialogues@Humanities: Learnings, Recommendations, Scenarios reflects on the results of this project, makes recommendations and outlines future scenarios for the so-called 'VOC-zaal'. The report contains a number of scenarios for the possible future use and design of the room, and provides a number of broader recommendations. One of the recommendations is to change the name of the room. The board is considering the scenarios and will discuss them further with the representative bodies and the faculty community. On 17 October 2024, a lunch meeting was held with Dean Marieke de Goede and editorial board members of Dekoloniale Dialogen@Humanities about the future of the room, and a namestorm session was held to think about a suitable new name for the space.
Symposium Kartini Room
During the namestorm, five names were proposed, and students and staff could vote until 8 November 2024. 499 of the 963 voters chose Kartini as the name for the room. Raden Adjeng Kartini is regarded as a pioneer for women's emancipation and for solving racial inequality. Her birthday is celebrated in Indonesia as National Women's Day.
As the next step towards the final name change, the faculty organised a symposium on Kartini on 22 April 2025. UvA researchers Yara Voss, Najwa Abdullah, Lamia Damaya, Sanjukta Sunderason and Marrigje Paijmans took part in a round table discussion to discuss Kartini and her cultural heritage. Guno Jones, professor of the Anton de Kom Chair, reflected on the name change, and Hanco Jürgens gave a lecture on the Kartinizaal as a mirror of the postcolonial turn. Corina Apostol, assistant professor of Art History, and Museum Studies students Alexandra Borla and Yunyu Du also spoke about their project When Silence Speaks: A Presentation on the Redevelopment of the Space. Apostol and her students are currently continuing to work on this project.
