This conference seeks to establish an open forum for the discussion of diverse perspectives, research agendas, archives, methods and practices for the study of the non-West in the wake of Edward Said's wide ranging critique of Orientalism and the various responses it generated. Tom Trautmann, author of Aryans and British India, will inaugurate the conference with his Keynote address.  The topics to be covered range from Analogy in Dharmashastra Laws to Authority in Iqbal. The focus is on methodological issues facing those wishing to research non-Western languages, literatures and histories in a post-orientalist fashion. It is hoped that conference participants and audiences alike will be able to think through the proper lessons of the critique of Orientalism for imagining a new place for knowledge of the non-West in the contemporary university curriculum.

This conference is made possible by the generosity of the Norman Wait Harris Fund of the Center for International Studies at the University of Chicago. This conference is taking place as a distinct thematic unit in conjunction with the University of Chicago's 2005 South Asia Graduate Student Conference which is funded by the Committee on Southern Asian Studies and Theory and Practice of South Asia.

Manan Ahmed, Jesse Knutson and Bali Sahota are the organizers of this conference. Please direct any questions or comments to them.