The UP Asian Center will be hosting an on-site book talk on Incomplete Conquests: The Limits of Spanish Empire in the Seventeenth-Century Philippines on 2 July 2026, 2:00 PM, PHT (GMT+8) at the Seminar Room, Asian Center, UP Diliman. The event is free and open to the public. Online registration is encouraged due to limited slots.
ABOUT THE BOOK
In Incomplete Conquests, Stephanie Joy Mawson uncovers the limitations of the Spanish empire in the Philippines, unearthing histories of resistance, flight, evasion, conflict, and warfare from across the breadth of the Philippine archipelago during the seventeenth century. The Spanish colonization of the Philippines that began in 1565 has long been seen as heralding a new era of globalization, drawing together a multiethnic world of merchants, soldiers, sailors, and missionaries. Colonists sent reports back to Madrid boasting of the extraordinary number of souls converted to Christianity and the number of people paying tribute to the Spanish Crown. Such claims constructed an imagined imperial sovereignty and were not accompanied by the effective consolidation of colonial control in many of the regions where conversion and tribute collection were imposed. Incomplete Conquests foregrounds the experiences of indigenous, Chinese, and Moro communities and their responses to colonial agents, weaving together stories that take into account the rich cultural and environmental diversity of this island world.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
STEPHANIE MAWSON, Ph.D.
Lecturer, University of York, UK
Dr. Stephanie Mawson is a Lecturer in Early Modern History at the University of York in the United Kingdom. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge in 2019 and has held early career fellowships at St. John's College in Cambridge and the Instituto de Ciências Sociais in Lisbon. Stephanie's research centres on the world of Island Southeast Asia and its global connections across Pacific and Indian Oceans in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Her research focuses on questions of Indigenous agency, resistance, and sovereignty in the face of European imperial expansion.
ABOUT THE REACTORS
GRACE LIZA Y. CONCEPCION, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, UP Department of History
Dr. Grace Liza Y. Concepcion, Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor at the Department of History, University of the Philippines Diliman. She holds a Ph.D. in History from the University of the Philippines, where she explored colonial dynamics in Laguna during the early Spanish period. She earned her MA in History from Universidad de Navarra, Spain, focusing on primary school teachers in Luzon during the late 19th century, a BA Honors in English from the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa, and a BA Humanities from the University of Asia and the Pacific. She has previously served as the Executive Director of the University Research Office at the University of Asia and the Pacific, where she led initiatives to enhance research output. She also served as Chair of the History Department and Vice Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences of UA&P. Her research has been published in local and international journals. Dr. Concepcion has also contributed to several book chapters and edited volumes, examining topics such as missionary costs and land tenure practices in the Philippines. She has received numerous awards and recognitions, including the Saliksik Kasaysayan Fellowship Grant (2023) and the Mendel Fellowship from Lilly Library, Indiana University (2019).
ARIEL C. LOPEZ, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, Asian Center, UP Diliman
Dr. Ariel C. Lopez is an Associate Professor at the Asian Center of the University of the Philippines Diliman, where he also serves as the Assistant to the Dean for Research, Extension, and Information. He earned his Ph.D. in History from Leiden University, the Netherlands. He specializes in Indonesian Studies, colonial and maritime History, Philippine History, and Southeast Asian History. One of his most recent publication is "Christian Conversions and Dutch Colonialism in Minahasa in the nineteenth century," published in Archipel: Études interdisciplinaires sur le monde insulindien.
ABOUT THE ORGANIZERS
This lecture is organized by the UP Asian Center.
For inquiries, please contact us atThis email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or call 891-8500 loc. 3586.