One of the most celebrated postmodern public intellectuals whose career spans literature, politics, music, philosophy, and history, Edward Said is University Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University.

Said gives the opening address at New Modernisms II, the Second Annual Conference of the Modernist Studies Association, hosted by the University of Pennsylvania, October 12-15, and cosponsored by Penn's English Department, Kelly Writers House, Penn Humanities Forum, School of Arts and Sciences, and the Office of the Vice Provost.