CFP: The Spanish Pacific: An Interdisciplinary Conference
General Information
Date
June 10 - 11, 2026
Submission Deadline
October 1, 2025
Fee
55 USD
Specific inquiries
ricardo.padron@setstudies.org
The Society for Early Transpacific Studies (SETS) invites you to participate in its first international conference, which will be held on the campus of the University of the Philippines Diliman in Quezon City, Philippines, from June 10 to 11, 2026.
Founded in April 2024, SETS serves to promote the study of the space of exchange created by the Manila Galleon between the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries, a space that has come to be known as the Spanish Pacific or the Early (or Early Modern) Pacific.
We welcome abstracts (single papers, panels, roundtables) about any aspect of this broad topic, from any disciplinary perspective, and encourage those who plan to submit proposals for panels or roundtables to include scholars working in different disciplines. Submissions need not be confined to the period of the Manila Galleons but may address relevant topics from either before or after the period defined by their operation. We especially encourage work that attempts to define the parameters of this field of study, including its geography, chronology, and methods.
Participants in the conference will be expected to become members of SETS.
Additional considerations
All accepted presenters will receive further instructions regarding registration, scheduling, and travel after the review of submissions is complete.
Please note that all participants in the conference will be required to become members of the Society for Early Transpacific Studies (SETS). Membership details and instructions will be provided upon acceptance.
In general, visas are NOT required for visits of 30 days or less, as long as travelers have a valid return ticket and a passport valid for at least six months from the date of entry. For full details and the list of eligible countries, please visit:
Topics may include, but are not limited to:
The Spanish Pacific - What is it? When is it? How does one study it?
Philippine colonial studies, from the sixteenth through the nineteenth centuries.
The Manila Galleons and/or their crews and cargo.
Transpacific commerce and economic history.
Subaltern subjectivity and/or agency.
Religion, belief, and the sacred.
Piracy and maritime violence.
Cartography and geographical imaginaries.
Experiences of enslaved and bonded people.
Artistic and aesthetic exchanges and material culture.
Transpacific linguistic and literary circulations.
Transpacific printmaking, book printing, and cultures of reading/writing.
Early modern writing about the Pacific and Asia.
Environmental history.
The more-than-human.
Afterlives and legacies of the Spanish Pacific.
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