Friday, May 30, 2025, marks the launch of a historic moment for George Brown as we welcome colleagues from across Canada and the world for the annual Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences (May 30 - June 6), the nation's largest academic gathering. We are the first college to host this gathering, now in its 94th year. The event theme this year is Reframing Togetherness.
George Brown College is hosting this event in partnership with the Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences. Thousands of our colleagues from Canadian colleges and universities will converge at Waterfront and St. James campuses for a week of knowledge-sharing, networking, and events. Programming includes innovative and interdisciplinary talks, demonstrations, and cultural exchange to spark new ways of thinking.
Congress is truly a conference of conferences, with over 48 scholarly associations from across the country coming to campus for post-secondary dialogues. Hosting Congress also facilitates members of the George Brown College community to participate in numerous scholarly events and to advance their own academic and research activities by engaging and building partnerships with scholars from across the country.
Reframing Togetherness
The Congress 2025 theme of Reframing Togetherness is a direct response to increasing polarization and a call to action for us to actively consider different perspectives and ways of doing things as we confront the effects of climate change, technological advancement, social isolation, and more. We developed this theme from the feedback you provided during a survey shared with employees last summer. We asked what issues facing humanity you wanted to be highlighted, and which thought leaders you wanted to hear from at Congress. You can read the blog post by Congress Academic Convenor Dr. Margrit Talpalaru for more insight into our theme.
Showcasing George Brown College leadership
Together, our community is rising to meet this moment and demonstrate our leadership on several fronts: research and innovation, the scholarship of teaching and learning, sustainability, and accessible and inclusive education, among others. Delivering an impactful event of this scale and scope has been made possible through the collective efforts of individuals and teams across the College an undertaking we can all be proud of.
George Brown thought leaders, faculty, entrepreneurs, researchers, and students will showcase their work and College celebrations will be interwoven into Congress programming, including the Research, Innovation and Entrepreneurship Showcase (May 30), our Pride Month kick-off (June 2), and the Teaching and Learning Exchange (TLX) annual evolvED conference (June 6).
Visitors will experience the breadth of George Brown College's expertise and innovation, as well as our commitment to environmental sustainability, with a significant amount of programming happening at Limberlost Place, a global model of mass-timber construction.
How you can experience Congress
It will be an inspiring week. All employees are welcome to attend our Congress open programming, including the college-wide events mentioned above.
- GBC divisions received College-sponsored Community Passes. Connect with your manager for details.
- Employees, students, and community members who identify as Black or Indigenous can access free Congress Community Passes through a Federation initiative. Register now through the Federation's Congress website.
- Community passes can also be purchased for $30 on the Congress website.
Planning this event has been a monumental effort involving many people across the College. The Congress planning team was led by Academic Convenor Dr. Margrit Talpalaru and Project Director Munisha Basiram, with significant contributions from Accessibility Services, Ancillary Business Services, Facilities, Information Technology and Audio Visual, Marketing and Communications, and Public Safety and Emergency Management.
Congress 2025 will highlight our collective efforts to advance applied learning, research and innovation and diversity, equity, inclusion, and Indigenization. Thank you for your ongoing commitment to achieving our strategic goals and putting our values into action as we host Canada's premier scholarly conference Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences.
