About 7,000 people, scholars, artists and cultural figures united by intellectual curiosity will converge on the University of Victoria for one week beginning Saturday.
Congress 2013 is this year’s meeting of the national Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences. The annual gathering is regarded as the premier event for Canada’s scholarly community, and UVic is making most of it open to the public.
The biggest conference UVic has ever hosted, it’s one university officials are planning as a showcase for the institution’s 50th anniversary.
“It’s big, seriously big,” said Katy Mateer, a clinical neuro-psychologist, UVic associate vice-president of academic planning and chairwoman of this year’s congress.
It’s so big UVic altered its academic calendar to clear students out to make room. Nearly every classroom and theatre will be put to use.
Mateer said it can be hard for people, including her, to “wrap their heads around” the scale and intent of Congress with its wide variety of disciplines and presentations. More than 70 academic associations will be represented.
“In fact, almost every faculty on campus is engaged,” she said.
The event has also grown. When UVic hosted Congress in 1990, the gathering attracted about 3,000 people.
She said this year’s official theme, “@ the edge” sums up what she hopes will become a good jumping-off point for discussion.
Mateer noted Victoria and Vancouver sit on the westernmost edge of North America and, as a society, we are now on the edge of an age of new digital forms of expression, communication and recording.
She said presenters at Congress 2013 are all examining what is now forming the modern human experience.
“They’ll be talking about the impact of the new digital age on everything,” she said. “Many of the sessions are completely open so when you go in, you will not just be talking to anthologists, not just talking to historians or French literary people.”
While most of Congress 2013 is open to the public, area residents are encouraged to attend three signature events at a venue in the middle campus near McPherson Library that has been dubbed Celebration Square:
• WorldFest @ the Edge, a day of world music, dancing and food, is Sunday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.
• First Peoples Circle Celebration, with native drummers, singers and dancers and authentic indigenous food, features the dedication of a new carved podium for the First Peoples House at UVic on Monday from 4:30 to 5:30 p.m.
• Open-air concert headlined by Cree singer, songwriter, activist and visual artist Buffy Sainte-Marie on Wednesday at 7:30 p.m.
For more information, go to uviccongress2013.ca.
Big thinkers
Speakers at Congress 2013 include:
• Louise Arbour, former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, and former Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada — Over the edge: Deadly conflict in an interconnected world; Saturday
• Margaret McCain, philanthropist and former lieutenant-governor of New Brunswick — Getting it right from the start; Sunday
• Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond, B.C. Representative for Children and Youth — Listening to the marginalized to address inequality; Monday
• Judith Heumann, American disability activist — Breaking barriers: Advancing the rights of disabled people; Wednesday
Congress 2013 by the numbers
• Delegates registered: 6,590 (more than 7,000 expected)
• Academic associations represented: 70
• Presentations/sessions: More than 1,800
• Volunteers: 380
• Estimated economic impact for Victoria (suppliers, hotels, tourism attractions, restaurants, entertainers and transportation companies): $9 million to $12 million
• Guests at UVic residences: 2,368
• Bed nights at UVic residences: 9,188
• Hotel partners offering off-campus accommodation: 15
• Room nights booked at partner hotels: 5,821
Source: University of Victoria
