A total of 130 specialists in Miguel de Cervantes's work coming from universities all around the world, will take part in the VIII International Conference of the Association of Cervantistas, which will be held at the Humanitites Library "Emilio Alarcos" in the Campus of El Milán from Monday 11 to Friday 15 JUne. It is organised by the Association of Cervantistas, the University of Oviedo and the Emilio Alarcos Chair.

The opening ceremony will be on Monday, at 10 am. The opening speech, at 10.30 am, will be given by the Professor at the Autonomous University of Barcelona, Francisco Rico, who is the athor of the main critical publication on The Quixote. On the other hand, the closing speech will be given by the Professor at the University of Oxford, Edwin Williamson, on Friday 15, at 18.30 pm, at the Cultural Centre of University Extension, LAUDEO (Historic Building).

It is "an internationally renown conference", as Vicente Domínguez, Vice-Rector for University Extension and Communication, presented it in the press conference and accompanied by Emilio Martínez Mata, President of the Organising Committee, and Josefina Martínez, Director of the Emilio Alarcos Chair. According to Martínez Mata, the fact that 15 researchers at the University of Oviedo participate in the conference "reflects the interest in Cervantes's work and the vitality of the University's researching teams". For his part, Josefina Martínez highlighted that this conference will get "the most conspicuous cervantistas" together and will allow that "in this tumultuous period literature is considered as a means to find the truth among human beings".

As part of the program, on Tuesday, 12 June, at 12.30 pm, they will pay tribute to Alberto Blecua, the first President of the Association of Cervantistas, which will be presided over by the Director of the Royal Spanish Academy, José Manuel Blecua.