Dr. Laura Moss on Congress 2019

From June 1-7, 2019, the Congress of Social Sciences and Humanities brought together 10,612 scholars, students and members of the public to share perspectives, discuss ideas and build connections at Canada’s largest academic conference. Hosted by The University of British Columbia, the theme of Congress 2019, “Circles of Conversation,” sparked important discussions around community, inclusivity, and research in Canada. In the span of one week, more than 6,000 papers were presented by scholars from 73 associations, and over 291 free events were open to attendees and the general public. The English Department’s own Laura Moss served as the Congress 2019 Academic Convenor. She worked with PhD student Sharon Engbrecht to organize and coordinate UBCs academic, cultural, family, and social events. UBC offered a wide range of programming, with 196 open sessions including featured talks, exhibitions, performances and — new this year — the Pedagogy Hub. Many English department faculty and students presented their research and organized specific events, in collaboration with their peers: Tiffany Potter coordinated the Pedagogy Hub; Greg Mackie curated the Queer Archives exhibition in Rare Books library; Patsy Badir staged John Lyly’s play Galatea with Bard on the Beach; Sarika Bose organized a daylong symposium highlighting the research of contract faculty; with a national Improvisation Studies group, Kevin McNeilly created a deep listening event; Chris Lee and Szu Shen organized a day of programming around Asian Canadian and Asian Migration Studies; Liz Hodgson co-organized a workshop on Integrated learning; and Canadian Literature celebrated its 60^th Anniversary.  Further, many English students, faculty, staff, and alumni helped make up the 900 volunteers for Congress 2019. With an emphasis on the creative and performing arts, Congress 2019 foregrounded important scholarship in the humanities and social sciences today. It was a wonderful week.