Grateful Dead is the focus of a four-day conference happening November 5-8 at San Jose State University. "So Many Roads: The World in the Grateful Dead," which takes its name from a box set, will play host to an ambitious schedule of talks and panels.
Among the 21 sessions will be an unveiling of a new academic series of books from University of California Press called Studies in the Grateful Dead and individual presentations of research projects with intriguing names like "He Had Rings On His Fingers, Bells on His Shoes: Grateful Dead Culture As Liminal Space for the Exploration of Gender Boundaries" and "Truckinβ with the Grateful Dead: From Acid Rock to Dream Telepathy."
Conference co-organizer Michael Parrish tells the San Jose Mercury News that the band first performed as the Grateful Dead (rather than The Warlocks) at The San Jose Acid Test in 1965. Funnily enough, the site of that lysergic event is now the home of San Jose City Hall.
Registration to So Many Roads costs $80 per day or $240 for the full four days.