Episode 2: Friendship across borders?

In 2017, millions of people worldwide joined the Women’s March. The fight for gender equality has a long history. Kartini has an important place in the history of feminism and the fight for women’s rights. In this episode, Dasja dives deeper into Kartini’s experiences as a woman in Dutch colonial Java around 1900. What was it like to be an Indigenous woman in this time and place? What was Kartini fighting for? And was it possible for her to truly be friends with European women if they were on different sides of the colonial divide? While looking for answers, Dasja realises that she is making the same mistake as other historians and feminists have made before her.

Guest Experts:

• Prof. Elise van Nederveen Meerkerk – Professor of Social History at the University of Utrecht.

Bibliography and Additional Resources

Are you interested in reading more about the topics that were discussed in this episode? I would recommend reading the following:

• Kartini’s letters and her relationship to her correspondents:
  • Kartini Raden Adjeng, and Joost Coté. 2014. Kartini : The Complete Writings 1898-1904. Monash Asia Series. Clayton, Victoria: Monash University Publishing. http://site.ebrary.com/id/11057227.
  • Kartini and Joost Coté. 2005. On Feminism and Nationalism : Kartini’s Letters to Stella Zeehandelaar, 1899-1903. Rev. ed. Monash Papers on Southeast Asia; No. 60. Clayton, Vic.: Monash Asia Institute.
  • Hawkins, Michael. 2008. ‘Exploring Colonial Boundaries: An Examination of the Kartini-Zeehandelaar Correspondence’. Asia-Pacific Social Science Review 7 (2). https://www.academia.edu/16733700/Exploring_Colonial_Boundaries_An_Examination_of_the_Kartini_Zeehandelaar_Correspondence.
• On gender and the Dutch colonial society:
  • Locher-Scholten, Elsbeth. 2000. Women and the Colonial State. Essays on Gender and Modernity in the Netherlands Indies 1900-1942. Amsterdam University Press. http://www.jstor.org.proxy.library.uu.nl/stable/j.ctt46n2p0.4.
  • Taylor, Jean Gelman. 2004. The Social World of Batavia: European and Eurasian in Dutch Asia. Univ of Wisconsin Press.
  • Teeuwen, Danielle. 2022. ‘Plantation Women and Children: Recruitment Policies, Wages and Working Conditions of Javanese Contract Labourers in Sumatra, c. 1870-1940’. TSEG – The Low Countries Journal of Social and Economic History 19 (1): 7–36. https://doi.org/10.52024/tseg.8431.
  • Clancy-Smith, Julia., and Frances. Gouda. 1999. Domesticating the Empire : Race, Gender, and Family Life in French and Dutch Colonialism. Charlottesville, Va: University Press of Virginia.
• On feminism in this period:
  • Keating, James. 2020. Distant Sisters: Australasian Women and the International Struggle for the Vote, 1880-1914. Manchester: Manchester University Press. https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&scope=site&db=nlebk&db=nlabk&AN=2634305.
• On feminist thought:
  • Lorde, Audre, and Cheryl Clarke. 2007. Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches. Revised edition. Crossing Press Feminist Series. Berkeley [California]: Crossing Press.
  • Beauvoir, Simone de. 2009. The Second Sex. Translated by Constance Borde and Sheila Malovany-Chevallier. London: Jonathan Cape.

Music and Sound Credits

Ashot-Danielyan-Composer. 2023. “Serious Dark Sorrow”. Accessed May 16, 2024. https://pixabay.com/nl/music/omgeving-serious-dark-sorrow-157909/.

GordieDean. 2022. “Storytelling Podcast Vibe”. Accessed May 16, 2024. https://pixabay.com/nl/music/pulsen-storytelling-podcast-vibe-118024/.

Lexin_Music. 2022a. “Cinematic Time Lapse.” Accessed May 16, 2024. https://pixabay.com/nl/music/hoofdtitel-cinematic-time-lapse-115672/.

Lexin_Music. 2022b. “Europe Travel”. Accessed May 16, 2024. https://pixabay.com/nl/music/mooie-toneelstukken-europe-travel-119948/.

Pixabay. 2022. “Writing with Fountain Pen Nib”. Accessed May 16, 2024. https://pixabay.com/nl/sound-effects/writing-with-fountain-pen-nib-70563/.

Rennie, Tullis. 2017. “Women’s March on London, 21st January 2017.” Accessed May 16, 2024.  https://soundcloud.com/tullisrennie/womens-march-on-london-21st-january-2017.

William_King. 2023a. “Documentary Ambient Guitar”. Accessed May 16, 2024. https://pixabay.com/nl/music/akoestische-groep-documentary-ambient-guitar-145480/.

William_King. 2024b. “Separation”. Accessed May 16, 2024. https://pixabay.com/nl/music/solo-gitaar-separation-185196/.

William_King. 2023b. “Stalemate (Relaxing Acoustic Nylon Guitar)”. Accessed May 16, 2024. https://pixabay.com/nl/music/akoestische-groep-stalemate-relaxing-acoustic-nylon-guitar-149916/.

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