Sauvé Senior Fellows, Anita Nowak and Brett House gave presentations at the Social Science Festival 2014 SUCCESS, held at Montreal’s Vanier College October 20-24.

Anita spoke on The “Soft” Side of Leadership: Why Empathy is more Powerful than you Think, emphasizing the importance of empathy as a means of achieving success, while Brett’s talk Getting Ready for the 2020 Financial Crisis focused on how sovereign debt has piled up in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis and why it’s likely to get harder and harder to service this debt.

The Faculty of Social Science framed the Festival theme by reminding participants that: “the idea of success carries a host of meanings for different people. The Festival will touch on a number of these visions. They include the traditional meaning of success where goals are achieved in personal and professional life. Complimenting these themes will be speakers who will offer a more nuanced understanding of success. Namely the negative effects seeking success can have on the individual or society. Finally, new meanings of success will be put forward that measure success by way of happiness and empathy.