About the Event
The historiographies of the British occupation of Manila and Cavite often inhabit two types of imaginaries.
This year’s iteration of the Annual Philippine Studies Conference at SOAS is co-chaired by Dr Cristina Juan (SOAS) and Dr Christina Lee (Princeton University) who are also the co-directors of the project that seeks to digitally restore the San Agustín archives lost during the British occupation. This project, entitled “A Digital Repatriation of a Lost archive of the Spanish Pacific: The Library of The Convent of San Pablo (Manila, 1762),” has received funding from both the Arts and Humanities Research Council from the United Kingdom and the National Endowment of the Humanities in the United States. Hence, we felt that it was appropriate to focus this year’s Philippine Studies Conference on the theme of “The British Invasion of Spanish-Ruled Philippines, 1762-1764.” With an emphasis on the analysis and critical use of primary source materials, the conference will explore productive ways of historicizing the occupation of Spanish-ruled Philippines, by centering on issues of agency and resistance, trans-imperial conditions and contexts, and on-the-ground repercussions, especially in relation to Philippine and Spanish material culture, socio-economies, and local and pan-Asian histories. Most importantly, it seeks to engage the public in a conversation about reparative approaches to dealing with the loss of lives and material culture that resulted from the occupation.