Returning to the Region: Philippine History and the Contingencies of Southeast Asia DGE Hall’s A History of Southeast Asia (1955) excluded the Philippines from Southeast Asia, placing it instead within the Western hemisphere. Philippine historiography, in turn, has largely displaced the context of Southeast Asia, centering instead on its internal regions. This domestic regionalism stems, in part, from A. McCoy and E. De Jesus’s Philippine Social History (1982), which was a pioneering volume that inspired a reframing of the Philippine past in interdisciplinary and dynamic ways. Yet, the legacy of their publication has strangely reinforced——rather than ruptured——the insularity of Philippine studies. Building upon and paying homage to Philippine Social History’s regional turn inward, this edited volume seeks to effect a regional turn outward, examining the Philippines within the contingencies of Southeast Asia. While recognizing Southeast Asian regionality as a political product as well as a tangible biotic zone——stretching from the Bay of Bengal to the Marianas Trench——this volume will show how ideas of Southeast Asian regional space have existed in ways that complicate the ‘area studies.' Excavating these spaces, this book seeks to return the Philippines to its more fluid, regional context to locate the study of the Philippines not at the edge of Southeast Asia but embedded within it. If you wish to submit a chapter to be considered for inclusion in the book, please send an abstract and short bio to the editors listed below. Nicole CuUnjieng Aboitiz, Ph.D. Faculty of History & Clare Hall University of Cambridge (UK) nec34@cam.ac.uk Anthony D. Medrano, Ph.D. Department of History & Center for the Environment Harvard University (USA) anthony_medrano@fas.harvard.edu
