June 2014

Jessica Clark, with contributions from Emily Rothwell, Christina Vecchiato, and Aleks Wrobel

I still remember the first time I participated in Congress Expo. It was 2008, and I was exhibiting with the University of Ottawa Press. Congress was at the University of British Columbia that year and it was only my second time visiting Vancouver.

Needless to say, I was awed. Rows upon rows of books to peruse. Publishing colleagues from all over the country to meet. Scholars and authors to talk to.

This year, as the coordinator of the Expo I had the pleasure to meet three young publishers from Penguin Random House and Harper Collins who were all attending Congress for the first time.

After everything was over, I wondered how they found their first Congress. Here’s what they told me:

“Congress was such a great opportunity to speak with professors directly. I was surprised by how many academics took the time simply to chat...

Couldn't make it all the way out to St. Catharines this year? Didn't get a chance to catch every Big Thinking speaker while at Congress? Don't fret! We have high quality videos of each lecture available for viewing online. In addition to watching the videos, be sure to read the Congress blog for more Big Thinking highlights including Lise Bissonnette's thought-provoking talk on "servitude and grandeur of the university" (available only in French).

In most recent news, Genome Canada, in collaboration...

The Federation’s June Communiqué was released yesterday. The following are some of the highlights from this month and last.

This year, we hired a fantastic group of writers to contribute to our 2014 Congress blog series. They attended association meetings, community programs, and special events, and provided us with some engaging and insightful chronicles of Congress. With a range of personal interests, the team managed to highlight research from across disciplines. The bloggers shared their experiences attending events like Tim Cook's Big Thinking lecture on the culture of death among Canadian soldiers in WWI, film night...

Well, it may be over for another year, but there’s no doubt that the 2014 Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences held at Brock University in St. Catharines was a huge success! Now that the dust is (slowly) settling, it’s time to look back on the many events that happened. This year's Big Thinking lectures provided insight and entertainment for hundreds of scholars and community members, and can now all be watched online. In addition, the Career Corner series offered valuable advice for professionals in the academic...

Terry Soleas

Start-ups are a harbinger of the ideas that will one day dominate the fields of business. The ones that survive the initial feasibility phases have the potential to change the world, in small and grand ways. Last week we get to see two such start-ups at the Congress of the Social Sciences and Humanities. Two new research tools that have the potential to make the process of scholastics more accessible.

The reign of the start-up continues. These are the stories of Waterloo Innovations and MetricWire.

Waterloo Innovations: A little startup with a lot of heart!

Do you take lots of pictures? Do you wish that the process of organizing document analysis was less labour intensive?

Daniel Heidt, a co-founder of the start-up Waterloo Innovations has big aspirations for his company’s productivity software called Confero. Though Waterloo Innovations is just over a year old the ideas and programming behind...