Welcome to a conference where we will speak comparatively about racial and ethnic systems in various parts of the globe.  We are an international gathering of historians, sociologists, political scientists, literary scholars, students of culture, and ethnic studies specialists.  This conference is part of an ongoing scholarly conversation that has taken place over the last two years.  Several of us presented first drafts of papers at a meeting in Sardinia in March 2001.  Since then we have rewritten our papers and sent those revised versions to one another.  The University of California, Santa Barbara, has invited us to complete our work together, and we are joined by a number of scholars from UCSB and Southern California.

This week's meeting will have three kinds of sessions:  (1) A public lecture by Paul Spickard on the ongoing scholarly conversation and book project. (2) Four working sessions where we will discuss the revised papers that are part of that project.  These revised papers will not be presented orally.  Copies are available.  (3) Paper sessions, where UCSB and other scholars will make oral presentations of scholarly work.