Text and Photos by Andrew Brough unless otherwise credited.

  Photo by Peter E. Cumming

The University of Victoria is a lush, green campus. More often than not, the local deer would join you on your morning walk to a session.

But it wasn’t just the deer that were up and about in the morning, especially during Congress. There were plenty of people arriving via bus and heading to events. The bus stop in front of the UVic Bookstore was always busy no matter the time of day.

And many of those people headed to the Expo first. That might be because it’s where Registration was located, but it was also a hub of activity and meet-ups all week long.

And in all of the bustling activity, if you got lost and needed help finding your way around, there were plenty of information booths around campus to help get your bearings.

And of course there were happy volunteers to help you find your events all over campus.

The ground themselves are a wonder to explore, full of greenery in the summertime. In the morning, Celebration Square was a peaceful and calm area.

 That is, until the booths began to be set up and people clustered around, excitedly browsing and talking about art, books and causes. Celebration Square was always a fun place to be, and in the evening there were concerts to brighten up the nights.

The campus spaces aren’t the only thing to enjoy if you haven’t been to UVic before. The architecture is absolutely gorgeous, and is worth taking the time to see too.

Each of the buildings reflects the university’s unique history and architecture. . When standing in awe of the buildings, you are reminded of the theme of Congress 2013, “@ the edge”.

The Expo Event Space always had an event happening. There were many presentations given and stories told on this stage, including the SSHRC Storytellers competition, where the Top 25 performed and the five finalists were announced.

The Big Thinking lecture series is a Congress highlight, where leading scholars and public figures share insights and challenge us to rethink our assumptions. Above, author Joy Kogawa delivers her talk entitled, “On the Edge of Always”.

There were also awards given out for achievements in the humanities and social sciences, like the Molson Prize in the Social Sciences awarded by the Canada Council for the Arts and received by Ann Dale, Canada Research Chair in Sustainable Community Development at Royal Roads University.

Congress 2013 had a dynamic feeling, and ended leaving attendees enlightened and inspired to press forward, be it in academic research or in amending and creating new policy. Congress this year was a great success. We hope you’ll join us for Congress 2014 at Brock University in St. Catharines.