Nathalie Des Rosiers writes…

Academic life has its rhythms: back-to-school in September, grant application deadlines, semester’s end buried under marking exams and assignments, the fatigue of the winter months, the scramble at the end of the school year… and the Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences.

No matter what else the year has brought, Congress always returns with its opportunities for reflection and discovery, for meetings, receptions and visits in a new city. I remember my first time attending Congress: it was at Carleton, more than 20 years ago.

I was presenting first thing in the morning, in a time slot when most delegates weren’t even out of bed and only your friends and the other panellists showed up. I ended up giving my presentation with the door opening every two seconds, as another colleague slipped into the room until finally, by the question period, there were enough people to make me quiver. Two older colleagues who I didn’t know asked for copies of my paper and I left feeling pretty good about everything. Over the years, all three of us have worked together, read each other’s work, critiqued, helped and supported each other. That’s Congress.

I also remember one Congress where I met some colleagues from Victoria that I didn’t see again until a thesis defence ten years later. And I remember the Congress where I heard the famous thinker I’d been reading for years, the one where I attended the incredible presentation that affected me deeply and changed the focal point of my research, the one where the questions on my paper were vehemently negative, the one where my paper met with enthusiasm, the one where I presented for the first time in English… And, of course, I recall the Congresses that are memorable for personal reasons: Kingston, where I was breastfeeding my first baby and my colleague circled the campus with the stroller and crying doll, waiting for my session to end. Memorial, where we celebrated my partner’s 50th birthday in a bar in St. John’s. Brock and my car accident on QEW…

That’s all Congress. I’ve come to realize how Congress has been a part of my academic and personal life, how it has served me as a link to the wider university community. Friends, colleagues, new ideas, book purchases, research plans, publication offers, exchanges of cards, e-mails, phone numbers, papers, addresses and ingenious ideas – that’s Congress. It’s also the discipline to present your research and share it, to advance your reasoning and the reasoning of your colleagues. From a certain perspective, it’s the very essence of belonging to a university community.

In 2009, we are at Carleton again, my children are now grown up, my partner no longer wants to celebrate his birthdays in public, and I will be getting around on the bus. But my colleagues are still here, and we will continue to exchange ideas, to reinvigorate our work, discuss it, polish it… That’s Congress.