​On the 2nd of December 2019, the ImaNaT research team came together one last time to present their research findings, discuss difficulties and possibilities related to doing collaborative research in the Dutch Caribbean, and examine venues for creativity in and as research. The day was kicked off by a thought provoking lecture by Stefano Harney, after which Aminata Cairo and Wayne Modest treated us to their questions and comments. 

Panels of young researchers working in and on the caribbean then went on to break bread about the numerous ways in which work on the islands could be improved upon and take different viewpoints into account. One of the possibilities could be to co-produce films, museum installations and employing other types of creativity. To end the day the initiators of the consortium: Francio Guadeloupe, Monique Volman, Yvon van der Pijl and Wayne Modest allowed us an insight into their learning processes before and throughout the implementation of their Kingdom wide research into the imagination of nationness and belonging in the Kingdom.
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With tantalizing music by Jörgen Gario, and Naomi van Stapele and Howard Komproe as gifted hosts the day was a great success. Thank you to all who came out and made this possible.   

​On the 20th of September Jordi Halfman will defend her thesis "Where Randy?" Education, Nationalism, and Playful Imaginations of Belonging on Sint Maarten. Everyone is welcome to attend this festive event at De Agnietenkapel at 12.00.

 



​Sound is not only something you hear. It is touch.
Sound is best conceived as forbidden touch: touching you whether you want it to or not.
The edited volume “The Sounds of Vacation” by Jocelyne Guilbault and Tim Rommen interrogates the ways in which Caribbean societies (historically English, Spanish, French, and Dutch) have been touched by tourism - in benign and harmful ways

Francio Guadeloupe and Jordi Halfman teamed up on an essay on the sound of the Sonesta Maho Great Bay Beach Resort and Casino on Sint Maarten. The poetic title of this bookchapter is as follows: ​All-Inclusive Resorts in Sint Maarten and Our Common Decolonial State: On Butterflies That Are Caterpillars Still in Chrysalis.

dIn the latest issue of the Dutch Anthropological journal Etnofoor, Jordi Halfman provides a reflection on the previous issue of the issue that discussed Race-ism in relation to her own, recently completed, dissertation. Here is a small preview:

The Imagining the Nation research team is co-hosting a lecture by renowned Caribbean scholar Linden Lewis on the 23rd of January. We hope to see you there! 

On the morning of the 6th of September, one year after hurricane Irma caused havoc across the Caribbean and destroyed large parts of Sint Maarten, Francio Guadeloupe was interviewed in the radio program Spraakmakers. In the interview Guadeloupe looks back at what has happened since September 2017, and then he looks forward: How are the friends and family who are still on the island struggling to build back a better life for themselves and their offspring?

You can listen to the interview (in Dutch) here.

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Who are we? And who will we become? Those were the question Dr. Francio Guadeloupe posed to the visiting 5th grade pupils from the Tamboerijn primary school who visited the University of Amsterdam as part of a whole day excursion, organized by the Move foundation. By engaging in conversations with pupils in Amsterdam, Guadeloupe and PhD researcher Halfman who was also present, are becoming increasingly able to compare the imaginations of nationness in different classrooms across our Kingdom.
 
By telling the story about his meeting with an alien Guadeloupe explained what anthropology is for him. The alien that had abducted him had asked who all these different people were. And how was it possible that all these people were so different from one another? Guadeloupe had answered the alien with a story, a story he also shared with the pupils. 
 
He explained human evolution and migration, starting with our great, great, great, grandmothers and fathers living in trees, moving upright, growing apposable thumbs, and ending with technological inventions that bring us together even more easily today. The teachers and pupils then listened to Dyna, Frenna and Ronnie Flex performing their song ‘Pull Up’, that expresses human diversity in the Dutch Kingdom today.
 
The engaged youngsters moved in their chairs and sang along before bombarding Dr. Guadeloupe with questions. Did he really believe in Aliens? Did he really meet one? What languages could he speak? And how could he speak with the alien? This last important question allowed Guadeloupe to elaborate on his insight that musical expression is a high form of intelligence which allows communication between people who do not speak each other’s languages. So even a human and an alien could share meaning by making music together. The pupils agreed.
 
Engagements such as this provide the (PhD) researchers within the imagining the nation research group with insights into the lived realities and imagined futures of those who will inherit our world. At the same time, the University of Amsterdam, and in particular the Globalizing Cultures program group to which we belong, strongly believes that inspiring and sharing knowledge with the youth of the Kingdom, is an important part of our work.