On May 10-11, 2012, the Center for Canon and Identity Formation (CIF) will be hosting a conference to discuss the general problem of how to describe, analyse, and understand cultural encounters in Near Eastern history (until c. AD 1000).
 The conference is the fourth of five annual events to be organized by CIF under the University of Copenhagen Programme of Excellence. The first symposium had the title The Earliest Libraries: Library Tradition in the Ancient Near East from the Dawn of History until the Roman Era (Nov. 20-21, 2009), the second Problems of Canonicity and Identity Formation in Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia (May 26-28, 2010), and the third Literature and Identity Formation (May 20-21, 2011).
 Invited speakers include Mogens Trolle Larsen (Assyriology), Willy Clarysse (Papyrology), Jessica Goldberg (Medieval history), Rachel Mairs (Archaeology), Piotr Michaelovski (Assyriology), Cornelius von Pilgrim (Archaeology), Jørgen Bæk Simonsen (Arabic studies), Günter Vittmann (Egyptology), and Irene Winter (Art history).