In the Wake of Empires: Critical Reflections on 1898 and Its Afterlives

A One-Day Symposium

Wednesday, October 25th, 2023 at 9:30 AM

2023 marks the 125th anniversary of the beginning and end of the so-called Spanish American War. With the signing of the Treaty of Paris on the 10th of December 1898, a twenty-million- dollar financial transaction, and US armed forces poised to assure the terms of the peace, Spain relinquished its sovereignty over its last major overseas possessions in the Pacific and the Caribbean and the fates and the political futures of the islands and the peoples of Puerto Rico, Guam, the Philippines, and Cuba were left to be (and, in the case of the first two, continues to be) decided by the US.

This symposium, organized by CENTRO Research Associate, Matthew Nicdao, invites scholars of Puerto Rico, the Philippines, Guam, and Cuba to critically reflect upon these historical events and discuss the impacts and legacies that both Spanish and US empires have left and continue to leave in their wake. It asks its invited guests and audience to consider how empires and their various (after)lives continue to affect and impact diverse lives, experiences, histories, and cultures as much in these insular and archipelagic spaces as their respective global diasporas. Moreover, the symposium aspires to foment productive dialogue between panelists and audiences members alike to map out shared and/or overlapping histories and experiences under Spanish and US empires as well as consider intra-imperial relations, parallels, and di-/con-vergences between the distinct spaces and peoples constituting this global constellation of colonial and postcolonial islands.

Missed the live stream? Watch the recording here!

Panel Schedule

Panel 1:  Overlooked Histories and New Approaches to the Worlds of 1898 

10:00 AM – 12:00 PM

• Panelists:
  • José Fusté (UCSD-Ethnic Studies)
  • Sony Coráñez Bolton (Amherst – Spanish)
  • David Sartorius (UMaryland – History)
  • Kristin Oberiano (Wesleyan – History)
• Moderator: Matthew Nicdao (CENTRO)

Panel 2: Living with and Under the Shadow of US Empire in the 20th Century

1:30 – 3:30 PM

• Panelists:
  • Ileana Rodríguez Silva (UW-Seattle – History)
  • Adrian de Leon (Simon Fraser U.-History)
  • Keith L. Camacho (UCLA-Asian American Studies)
  • Mónica Jiménez (UT-Austin – African and African Diaspora Studies)
  • Ana Dopico (NYU-Hemispheric Institute/Spanish and Portuguese/Comparative Literature)
• Moderator: Cristel Jusino Díaz (CENTRO)

Panel 3: Imperial Afterlives and Decolonial Futures in the Present

4:00 – 5:30 PM

• Panelists:
  • Neferti Tadiar (Barnard – Women’s, Gender and Sexuality) 
  • Rocío Zambrana (UPR-Río Piedras-Philosophy) 
  • Craig Santos Perez (UH-Manoa-English)
• Moderator: Mary Louise Pratt (NYU)

Main Image: Kawayan De Guia, The Weight of His Story, 2022

This event is produced in collaboration with Sulo: The Philippine Studies Initiative at NYU, with the generous support and sponshorship of the Diaspora Solidarities Lab (DSL), NYU Center for the Humanities, the King Juan Carlos I of Spain Center (KJCC), the Hemispheric Institute, the Asian/Pacific/American Institute at NYU, the Latinx Project at NYU, the New York Southeast Asia Network, and the Asian American / Asian Research Institute (AAARI) at CUNY.