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In This Issue

Congress 2014 - Borders Without Boundaries

Congress 2015 - Capital Ideas

Big Thinking at Congress 2014

Congress 2014 blog series

2015 Federal budget

Open access and the ASPP: Consultation

Congress 2014 - Borders Without Boundaries

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! This year's Congress offered an incredible line-up of special programming. To name only a few of the many highlights, there were eight Big Thinking speakers who provided insight and entertainment for hundreds of scholars and community members, the Career Corner series was filled with valuable advice for professionals in the academic field, a special film night was hosted by the National Film Board of Canada, Genome Canada's panel discussion focused on the role of genomics in feeding the future, a number of exciting community activities were organized by Brock University, and the SSHRC Storytellers competition celebrated the impact of research on the lives of Canadians.

This year's media outreach efforts around Congress yielded great results. The fascinating research showcased throughout Congress 2014 garnered extensive media coverage from local, regional and national outlets, including from The Globe and Mail, National Post, Maclean's, Toronto Star, CTV News and a variety of CBC shows across the country.

The Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences wishes to thank all of our sponsors, our partners at Brock University, and the 8,000+ attendees who visited Brock University and supported the research and community initiatives that were showcased over the course of the week.

Congress 2015 - Capital Ideas

Next year's Congress will take place at the University of Ottawa from May 30 to June 5 in Ottawa, Ontario. Registration will begin in January 2015.

Capital Ideas, the University of Ottawa's theme for Congress 2015, will invite us to reflect on the power of ideas: ideas captivate our hearts and minds; ideas connect people and ignite discussions and debates; ideas create knowledge and spark discoveries. Ideas represent an invaluable currency capable of changing our lives and our world. Congress 2015 will be an exciting intellectual hub where ideas will be expressed, shared and implemented!

The theme also relates to the location of this Congress host in the national capital. As the seat of our federal government and of several national agencies, as the home of embassies and of a large number of international organizations, Ottawa boasts a unique environment rooted in the confluence of people and the intersection of ideas from all over the world. This promotes a rich diversity of perspectives and research activities; one significant area of interest is public policy, and it is our hope that Congress 2015 will generate stimulating exchanges on the links between research, policy and society.

Big Thinking at Congress 2014

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).

Congress 2014 blog series

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 hosted by the National Film Board of Canada, a Career Corner workshop on maximizing the benefits as a research assistant, an Equity Panel on the problematic nature of homophobic language, and David Plotz's Big Thinking lecture on digital journalism.

To keep up to date on what's happening in the social sciences and humanities, continue to visit the Federation's blog and check out our in the news section.

2015 Federal budget

The House of Commons Finance Committee recently announced the launch of their pre-budget consultations for the 2015 federal budget. Submissions are due August 6, 2014. The Federation will be preparing a submission, and encourages members and individuals to make their own submissions as well.

Open access and the ASPP: Consultation

The Federation is seeking input on a draft open access policy for the Awards to Scholarly Publications Program (ASPP). A public event was held at the 2014 Congress for the Humanities and Social Sciences on Sunday, May 25. Following this event, the Federation has launched an online consultation. There are two ways to take part in this public consultation, by emailing a PDF document to consultation@ideas-idees.ca that will then be uploaded to this webpage or by adding a comment on our website at

www.ideas-idees.ca/issues/open-access-aspp.

The consultation period will close on September 18, 2014.

June 11, 2014

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About the Federation

The Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences works to promote the value of research and learning in the humanities and social sciences. Created in 1996, its membership comprises over 80 scholarly associations, 79 institutions and six affiliate organizations, representing 85,000 researchers, educators and students across Canada.

Off the Shelf

This section features past activities and initiatives that warrant another mention.

Congress 2014 makes national news. Off to a good start this year, with Congress-related op-eds in The Globe and Mail from Antonia Maioni, President of the Federation and Kevin Kee, Associate Vice-President of Research, Brock University on May 26.