The conference - Informal Empire? Commerce and culture outside of Britain's formal empire in the long nineteenth century - takes a global and comparative perspective on informal empire with a special but not exclusive) focus on Latin America. Confirmed participants and more details about the conference are available at http://www.bris.ac.uk/arts/birtha/conferences/informal_empire.html. We see this postgraduate session as an ideal place for discussion of new ideas and approaches. The closing date for proposals is 30 August 2006 - more detail about what a Postgraduate Poster can consist of can be found at http://www.bris.ac.uk/arts/birtha/conferences/informal_empire_pg.html. The conference is supported by the British Academy and the Bristol Institute for Research in the Humanities and the Arts.