This online forum focuses on the  diplomatic and economic relations of the Sulu sultanate from around 1700-1900. Situated at the crossroads of international trading routes, Sulu witnessed unprecedented political and economic expansion underpinned by a tenacious sultanate that brought under its realm diverse ethnicities from surrounding regions, including Palawan, Mindanao and Borneo. The Sulu sultans and their chiefs actively promoted international connections to facilitate trade and to achieve their related political goals. They notably carried out diplomatic and treaty-relations with several powers, including both European and East and Southeast Asian ones. This forum intends to take stock of the region's recent historiography and identify historiographical gaps to enrich or revise existing assumptions and orthodoxies. How did the Sulu sultanate negotiate its political and economic interests as reflected in its diplomatic correspondences and treaty relations? How did the leaders and peoples of Sulu adapt to the changing political and economic circumstances of the period? By bringing scholars from Asia and Europe, this forum also aims to initiate a lively academic dialogue that could lead to comparative perspectives and further collaborative international work.

 

Time: 

12 NN -3 PM Central European Time

6 PM - 9 PM Philippine Standard Time

 

Program

Session 1

"Re-imagining Sulu: Diplomacy and Economy in the 1830s"

Birgit Tremml-Werner, Stockholm University

Eleonora Poggio, Linnaeus University

Ariel Lopez, University of the Philippines

 

"The diplomacy of the Sulu Sultana Inchi Jamila (1881-1913)"

Ayshia Kunting, Western Mindanao State University

 

"Indigenous historiography in Mindanao and Sulu. Reflections on sources and scales"

Elsa Clavé, University of Hamburg

 

Q and A

 

Break

 

Session 2

"Sulu and its Chinese connections"

Darwin Absari, University of the Philippines

 

"The idea of sovereignty in Sulu"

Stefan Amirell, Linnaeus University

 

"The limits of loyalties, shifting alliances: the case of Alejo Alvarez and Vicente Alvarez"

Felice Noelle Rodriguez, Universidad de Zamboanga

 

Q and A

 

END

 

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