This conference is free and open to faculty, students and the general public. There are no fees and no advance registration is required.
Parking is also free.
The main conference will be followed by a dinner hour and a concert of Middle Eastern music from 8-10 pm by the UCSB Middle East Ensemble in the Multicultural Center Theater. The faculty of the University of California and California State University system involved in the study of the Middle East can only be described as superlative. They represent disciplines focusing on the Ancient Near East, Judaism, Islam, Early and Eastern Christianity, medieval and modern history of the Middle East, as well as multiple areas of expertise related to the region found only at the most prominent universities in the world including specialists in Armenian, Byzantine, Sephardic Jewish, South Asian and Southeast Asian Islamic studies, and so forth. These resources, however, are scattered across many campuses and across a variety of disciplines and departments. We have seldom, if ever, been brought together.