Through a donation by his widow and fellow scholar Lila Ramos Shahani, Rafael’s papers, consisting of manuscripts of his books and other publications, correspondence, parts of his book collection, and other materials related to his teaching and research, are now being entrusted to Cornell University Library’s John M. Echols Collection on Southeast Asia.

The Vicente L. Rafael Papers will be an important addition to the world-renowned Echols Collection, where they will be made available for researchers visiting Cornell University Library as soon as the materials are accessioned and prepared for long-term preservation and use.

At the time of his death, Rafael was a professor of history and Southeast Asian studies and the Colonel Donald W. Wetherill USA Retired Faculty Fellow in Military History at the University of Washington in Seattle. He earned a B.A. in history and philosophy from Ateneo de Manila University in the Philippines, and an M.A. and Ph.D. in history from Cornell University. His dissertation at Cornell became his first monograph, Contracting Colonialism: Translation and Christian Conversion in Tagalog Society Under Early Spanish Rule, first published in 1988 by Ateneo de Manila University Press and Cornell University Press. His final book, The Sovereign Trickster: Death and Laughter in the Age of Duterte, was published by Duke University Press in 2023.

The picture of Vicente Rafael was drawn from Duke University Press’s blog post.