The University of Victoria hosted CUVIC’ 2014 from the 19th to the 22nd of May’ 2014. Titled as ‘Beyond Engagement: Creating Integration, Innovation & Impact’, the conference witnessed engaging keynote presentations, workshops, poster sessions and field trips. The conference provided a platform for discussions relating to connections between the community and university activists, innovators and researchers from around the world. It gave an opportunity to reflect on and join a growing local and global movement for community and university engagement to create a more sustainable, healthy and just world. Participants from across the globe shared stories regarding the new skills where research, teaching, learning and the arts meet creative and interdisciplinary community development.
As a prelude to the conference, the Arts of Engagement Pre-Conference Workshop took place at the University of Victoria on May 20th 2014, in conjunction with the CUVIC’ 2014. This interdisciplinary workshop, sponsored by Community-Based Research Canada, brought together emerging scholars and experienced practitioners in community-university engagement to present, discuss and share the promises and challenges of this approach to scholarship. The workshop drew from experts versed in arts-based, visual and participatory research methods to provide a reflective and interactive space for emerging and established scholars. Nearly
30 emerging scholars had the opportunity to work with the workshop convenors on a project integrating performance art, textile, social media, and video throughout the conference. On the last day of the conference, this culminated in a short video presented at the closing ceremonies of the conference.