Wade Davis and Richard Pound to Speak at the 2014 Vanier College Social Science Festival

Vanier College is pleased to announce that former NFL player Wade Davis and Richard Pound, Founding Chairman of the World Anti-Doping Agency, will be among the guest speakers participating in Vanier College’s 2014 Social Science Festival. This year the event is taking place at Vanier from Monday October 20th to Friday October 24th under the theme of “Success”.

“I am extremely pleased to see that we are able to carry on the tradition of having such prominent guests coming to speak at Vanier. In the past the College has welcomed speakers such as Justin Trudeau, Thomas Mulcair, Roméo Dallaire, Françoise David and Mark Kingwell, and now, our students, faculty and staff will have an opportunity to hear Richard Pound and Wade Davis talk about the theme of success as well as other career-defining moments in their lives. I am convinced their words will be inspiring to all,” said Mr. Normand W. Bernier, Director General of Vanier College.

15 years of bringing social science researchers and speakers to Vanier The Social Science Festival was started in 2000 and is designed to showcase the work of researchers, activists, community workers and others from local organizations and from abroad. It is also designed to highlight the contributions that the social sciences make to the understanding of our society.

Wade Davis at Vanier Sevak Manjikian of Vanier’s Social Science program said this year’s theme of success is extremely appropriate for an event being held on a college campus. Sevak added that the presence of former National Football League player Wade Davis at this year’s festival is particularly noteworthy given the current situation involving Michael Sam’s attempts to break into the NFL.

**Focus on success **“I think there are a lot of people both at Vanier and in the community at large who will be interested in hearing Wade’s story. I also think that the idea of success carries a host of meanings for different people. The festival will attempt to touch on a number of these visions, including the traditional meaning of success, a more nuanced understanding of success, namely the negative effects seeking success can have on the individual or society as well as new meanings of success,” said Sevak Manjikian.

Wade Davis will be speaking in the Vanier Auditorium on Monday October 20th from 10:00 a.m.-11:30 a.m. Key note speaker Dick Pound will be at the Vanier Auditorium on Wednesday October 22nd from 2:00 p.m.-3:30 p.m.

Historian Desmond Morton looks at success by dubious means Another highlight of the festival will take place on Thursday, October 23, at 1 pm when well-known Canadian historian Desmond Morton will deliver the Ron Charbonneau Memorial Lecture. Professor Morton will discuss WWI and a Canadian General’s novel and dubious means of achieving success during that conflict.

Other guest speakers at this year’s Social Science Festival include journalist Kim Mackrael (Tuesday October 21st from 10:00 a.m.-11:30 a.m.) and Brett House, Senior Fellow for the Centre for International Governance Innovation and former economist for the IMF (Wednesday October 22nd from 11:00-12:30 p.m.).

For more information about the Social Science Festival and a full schedule please visit the following link: http://www.vaniercollege.qc.ca/social-science-festival

Note that all events will be taking place in the Vanier Auditorium located at 821 Saint-Croix Avenue, borough of Saint-Laurent. All events are open to the Vanier community and the general public and are free. Please note that seating will be assigned on a first-come, first –serve basis.