
Conference 2025
From the Indies to Seville
Las Casas and the Renovation of Humanism
17-21 June 2025, Seville, Spain
Keynote speakers
Santa Arias, University of Arizona
Bernard Lavallé, Université de Bordeaux
Monument to Las Casas along Seville’s Guadalquivir river. ©Hispalois / Wikimedia, CCSA4
Conference Registration and Lodging Details
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Conference Duration: June 17–21, 2025​
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Pickup of Conference Materials and Check-In:
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When: June 17, 2 PM.
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Where: Facultad de Teología San Isidro
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Address: Cardenal Bueno Monreal 43, 41013 Sevilla, Spain​​​
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​Check In to Lodgings
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When: June 17, 2025, 4 PM
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Where: ​Seminario Metropolitano de Sevilla
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Address: Adjacent to the Facultad de Teología San Isidro (above)​
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Check Out of Lodgings
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When: Before June 21, 2025, 4 PM​
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NB: Particiants are responsible for securing transport to and from the conference venue.​​
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Conference Registration and Costs*
*All prices are in US dollars and
include full room and board, coffee, and excursions
Space is limited! Registration will be open from February 28, 2025 through April 4.
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Registration fee for all levels includes attendance at panels and keynote presentations, lodging, meals (breakfast, lunch, dinner), and visits.
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Levels of Registration
- Conference Participant: $660
- Global* Conference Participant: $450
- *Affiliated with institutions in Latin America, the Caribbean, Africa, and Asia
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Student Participants: $450
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Companion Price: $450​
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NB: All registrations are single room occupancy only.​
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While facilities at the Facultad de Teología, where main conference activities will take place, are wheelchair accessible, rooms at the Seminario Metropolitano are not wheelchair accessible.​
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Wifi is available in Facultad de Teología; wired ethernet connections in seminary lodgings. Please bring necessary hardware to connect.
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Seminary lodging entrance closes at midnight.
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Make sure to sign up on our home page to receive the latest information!​
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Conference Theme
The newly-established Bartolomé de Las Casas Society (Societas Lascasiana) is pleased to announce the fifth international conference organized under the theme: “From the Indies to Seville: Las Casas and the Renovation of Humanism.”
The first conference, “Bartolomé de Las Casas, O.P.: History, Philosophy, and Theology in the Age of European Expansion,” held in 2016 inaugurated an international and interdisciplinary network of scholars, leading in turn to the publication of a critically acclaimed volume. The second conference (2019) produced an equally impressive work (2023) and a third volume—from the 2023 gathering—is in preparation. In each case, scholars addressed this complex and controversial figure, his epoch, and legacy.
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The fifth conference recognizes Seville’s importance for colonial Latin America as a significant hub for commerce and the circulation of ideas. Importantly, the port city was both Las Casas’s birthplace and the location from which Catholic missionaries departed for the New World. Among them the first Dominicans to go to the Indies in 1510, and those to land in New Spain in 1526—a landmark event soon to celebrate its 500th anniversary. Moreover, Seville played a significant role in the transatlantic circulation of people, goods, and minerals extracted from the Indies, including much of the global supply of silver in the seventeenth-century.
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Our 2025 conference will feature panels related to the life, labor, and legacy of Bartolomé de Las Casas—especially those exploring the theme: “Las Casas and the Renovation of Humanism.” In addition, the presenters will share research using Las Casas’s work as a heuristic lens for the critical interpretation of European expansionism and colonialism, and interrogating his views vis-à-vis the culture and ancestry of Indigenous people from America, Africa, and Asia. Moreover, due to the conference's location, several presentations will address Sevillian dimensions—social, cultural, intellectual, economic, or political—of Las Casas’s career. Other themes of interest include: the Reconquista of Iberia; the invasion of the Indies; Las Casas and instances of Indigenous resistance; Las Casas and lay and religious women, including beatas; Inquisition and treatment of Protestants, crypto-Jews, Conversos and Moriscos; Las Casas’s participation and perspective on mercantile and commercial projects, banking, and finance; Las Casas as archivist, editor, historian, scholastic, humanist, utopist, and activist; the Controversia of Valladolid, past and present; Las Casas’s linguistic, legal, philosophical, and theological education and legacy.
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Thanks to the support of:
San Isidro Escuela de Teología | Providence College
Boston University | RefoRC | Universidad Internacional de Sevilla
Organizers
David T. Orique, O.P., Ph.D. | Rady Roldán-Figueroa, Th.D. | Andrew L. Wilson, Ph.D.
Mario Ruiz Sotelo, Ph.D. | M. Cristina Ríos Espinosa, Ph.D. | Vanina M. Teglia, Ph.D.
Paola A. Uparela Reyes, Ph.D.