The main objective of the 2009 conference is to bring scholars in the field of Middle East and Islamic Studies, broadly defined to include North Africa, South Asia, the Middle East, and Islamic civilizations and communities more generally, to share and collaborate in their research interests (i.e. by working on edited collections, collective grant proposals, or future conference panels and workshops, for instance for MESA), as well as working on ways—electronically and otherwise—to disseminate teaching ideas.

The conference will hold six different and concurrent workshops on a number of different topics.

Proposals are welcome from faculty, advanced graduate students, and independent scholars both within and outside the CSU system.