Alexander and the East: The Indian Encounter and Its Western

The University of Cyprus, and the International Centre for Studies of Arts and Humanities

invites paper proposals for the international conference “Alexander and the East: The Indian

Encounter and Its Western Echoes,” to be held on 22 and 23 May 2026 (or 22/23) in Nicosia,

Cyprus.

This conference seeks to explore the historical and cultural significance of Alexander the Great’s

expedition to India and the enduring impact of that encounter on Western imagination,

identity, and intellectual traditions. By bridging the worlds of Greece and India, Alexander’s

campaign generated narratives of conquest, curiosity, and cultural dialogue that have shaped

Western perceptions of the East for more than two millennia.

We invite scholars to re-examine these encounters, real and imagined, through fresh historical,

literary, philosophical, and artistic perspectives, and to trace their reverberations in later

Western thought and representation.