02/23/2026
It is with great sadness that we report our cherished colleague and friend, Vince Rafael, has passed away.
It is hard to summarize Vince's enormous impact on the fields of Southeast Asian and Southeast Asian diaspora history and the study of empire and colonialism. As a specialist in Filipino history, his scholarship spanned the early modern and modern periods, from the sixteenth century to the Duterte regime. It was ambitious, deeply researched, imaginative, and richly theoretical. Vince was the author and editor of seven books and countless articles and book chapters, many of which shaped fields beyond Southeast Asian history and Southeast Asian diaspora history. I remember vividly how reading his first book, Contracting Colonialism: Translation and Christian Conversion in Tagalog Society Under Early Spanish Rule, as a graduate student taught me to ask better questions about evangelization practices in the Andes, my own area of focus. Vince also trained a substantial number of graduate students at the University of Hawai'i, UC San Diego, and the University of Washington, many of whom have gone on to impressive careers of their own. He participated extensively in academic life in the Philippines as well as the United States. His last public talk was in Manila in December.
Vince lived the life of an intellectual. He approached the world with curiosity and found excitement and satisfaction in the study of the past and the present. He loved to explore ideas with others and did so enthusiastically. He will be greatly missed in our department.
We send our sincerest condolences to Vince's wife, Lila Shahani, and to his friends and family.
