He was Director of the Royal Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies (KITLV) from 2000 until 2021.

In 1989, he obtained a doctorate at Utrecht University[2] for his thesis about the plantations Roosenburg and Mon Bijou in Suriname.

[3] In 1983, Oostindie started working for the Royal Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies (KITLV).

[5][6] Oostindie was appointed professor Anthropology with a specialisation on the Caribbean at the University of Utrecht on 1993 and served until 2006.

[7] Oostindie frequently appears in the mass media as an expert on colonial history and slavery.