If this epilogue were the denouement of a nineteenth-century realist novel, this would be the moment in the plot in which the protagonist becomes painfully aware of the fatal gap between her hopes, aspirations, and elevated self-image—and the sobering reality of actual life. Similarly, when concluding a volume like this one, it is hard not to notice the gap between the editors’ initial ambitions and what they were ultimately able to achieve. In comparison to its prominent place in the volume's title, for example, Africa is under-represented in this volume. Similarly, scholars working in Spanish outnumber those working in Portuguese to a disproportionate degree. In other words, there is still plenty of work to be done.

Yet if this collection of essays makes one thing clear, it is that as a field, Transatlantic Studies allows for a wealth of fascinating topics and approaches—even as key methodological questions remain unresolved. As we noted in our introduction, what has become known as Transatlantic Studies aims to challenge traditional academic notions of area studies. It does so by proposing interdisciplinary and comparative approaches that reconsider the ways in which cultural production on either side of the Atlantic Ocean has been shaped by colonization, political tensions, national cultures, and postcolonial relations among Spain, Portugal, and their former colonies in the Americas and Africa. The essays in this volume concentrate mainly on Hispanophone culture; to a lesser extent, they engage with Lusophone cultural and literary or comparative studies; and with Catalan, Latin American, African, and Iberian Studies. Their very diversity makes clear that the field has not yet given rise to a uniform or even coherent approach—if such uniformity or coherence, as opposed to methodological eclecticism, is in fact desirable. As the first section of this book indicates, the very existence and legitimacy of Transatlantic Studies as such is still under dispute.

Rather than trying to avoid or resolve these fundamental disagreements, which go to the heart of our academic work, this volume has sought to advance the discussion by putting them front and center. We hope that this collection, which may well provide more questions than answers, serves to foster further debate. The field, in our view, need not reach consensus in order to thrive. Debate and polemic are what keeps us on our toes, in our research as much as in the classroom.