WELCOME TO EUROPEAN ASSOCIATION FOR AMERICAN STUDIES BIENNIAL CONFERENCE (EAAS) 2012

As President of the American Studies Association of Turkey (ASAT), it is a great pleasure for me to welcome you to the 2012 Izmir conference. I am delighted by the great interest in the conference. We already have twenty-four workshops with one hundred and sixty-eight presenters. As in previous years, three well-known scholars will be delivering the keynote addresses, and six parallel lectures will complete the academic program. Additionally, there will be cultural events including sight-seeing tours, a cocktail reception, and a Gala dinner.

The theme of this year’s conference is "The Health of the Nation.” Considering that Asclepius, the God of Medicine, had a healing temple in Pergamon which is very close to Izmir, the venue for this EAAS conference is particularly significant. A snake-entwined staff, the rod of Asclepius, remains a medical symbol today and can be seen in Pergamon where Asclepius healed his patients with Hygeia, one of his six daughters. Furthermore, the ancient library of Pergamum was believed to contain 200,000 volumes, which Mark Anthony gave Cleopatra as a wedding gift. Another ancient city, Ephesus, famed for the Temple of Artemis and the Library of Celsus, is also at a short distance from Izmir. I hope you can make time either before or after the conference to visit these sites. With these ancient cities nearby, we will surely have deities watching over us and muses inspiring us.

I am looking forward to seeing you at EAAS 2012 in Izmir and hope that this will be another productive and unforgettable EAAS conference.

Sincerely,
Dr. Meldan Tanrisal

ASAT President
Associate Professor and Chair
Dept. of American Culture and Literature
Hacettepe University
Ankara, Turkey