Sean Phillips

Research Topic

Pan-Pacific Thought in the British Dominions, c. 1920-1950

By the final decades of the nineteenth century, many across the globe were prophecising that the world's centre of political and economic gravity was shifting eastward, toward the Pacific. In an age of 'Pan-Ideen' (Pan-Asianism, Pan-Islamism et al.) the increasing importance and purported coherence of this vast global space as a particular world region encouraged the emergence of Pan-Pacific thinking also, spawning numerous publications, societies and initiatives bearing the name.

My thesis explores the engagement of Dominion actors (principally Australians, Canadians and New Zealanders) with Pan-Pacific thinking over a series of thematic chapters. Some themes I am exploring include:

• The involvement of Dominion intellectuals with Pacific-orientated organisations such as the Pan-Pacific Union and Institute of Pacific Relations
• The Pacific and developing Dominion Geo-strategy (particularly with the emergence of trans-Pacific aviation)
• Developments in the Idea of the Pacific as economic space
• Pan-Pacific thought and the 'global colour line'
• The 'International Mind' and diplomatic character of the Dominions

I am a Convenor of the Transnational and Global History Seminar (TGHS) at Oxford, a graduate-organised and led seminar series that currently hosts events at Nuffield College. You can find out more about TGHS here: https://global.history.ox.ac.uk/transnational-and-global-history-seminar

I am also Editor-at-Large of the Toynbee Prize Foundation Blog.

You can find me tweeting at: @SeanPhillips91

Supervisor(s): Professor James Belich, Professor John Darwin