I spent this week on the beautiful campus of the University of British Columbia attending the Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences, an annual conference that attracted more than 10,000 academics.

The Conversation Canada attends Congress for a variety of reasons: to promote our unique brand of journalism, to recruit new authors and to attend presentations where important ideas and research are being discussed. We also made our own presentations. My colleague Vinita Srivastava, our Culture/Society/Critical Race Editor, chaired a workshop that featured four authors who have written for us during our first two years.Those panelists were Yasmin Jiwani of Concordia University, Yue Qian of the University of British Columbia, Warren Clarke of Carleton University and Roberta Timothy of York University.

The panelists talked about their experience in writing for a non-academic audience and how it allowed them to reach people who wouldn’t normally have an opportunity to access academic research. But beyond that, they spoke about how The Conversation Canada provides a platform for diverse opinions – something traditional media doesn’t always welcome. It made me proud to hear them talk about the impact of our publication – and especially how Vinita has been a supportive and encouraging editor.

Our audience benefits from their knowledge, so for your weekend reading pleasure, I thought we should reprise articles written by Yasmin, Yue, Warren and Roberta. Please enjoy.

Have a great weekend and we'll be back in your Inbox on Monday.