International Day of Happiness

International Day of Happiness: March 20

Happiness Reflected

Community Creative Project, Vol. 2

Happiness Reflected is back with volume two, a collection of original creative works from our campus community that Days of Action has curated intentionally for Happiness Day.

This collection is available in a variety of formats:

  • View posters of select art pieces at all U of A Libraries
  • Read the chapbook. Immerse yourself in the whole collection, and take time to consider the reflection questions found throughout to help you engage with your own experience of happiness.

Happiness Reflected Podcast: Season 2

This podcast is about reflecting on how to cultivate meaningful happiness in our lives while listening to University of Alberta community members discuss how they explored perspectives of their own happiness in relation to their original poems, stories, visual are and songs they submitted to this project.

We are grateful to the University of Alberta Library and the Sound Studies Institute who partnered with us to make The Happiness Reflected Podcast possible.

Listen to Happiness Reflected at the links below or wherever you find podcasts.

Happiness Reflected: Creative Expressions

Call for submissions

You are invited to contribute to the third annual Happiness Reflected: Creative Expressions by submitting original creative works that reflect their experience of happiness. (Experience seasons one and two of the Happiness Reflected podcast and the chapbook volume 1).

Your submission can be in any textual, visual or audio representation and in any language. It does not need to be new or current work. Up to 20 submissions will be selected and shared back to the U of A Community via several avenues of broadcast and/or publication, as yet to be determined, but possibly including:

  • A print or digital publication for general distribution
  • Posters displayed across all campuses
  • A limited podcast series and/or exhibit/sound installation

We intend to collect creative works to reflect the diversity of thought, voice, and experience of happiness and its tensions. The selection of creative works will shape the project as a whole and will determine the broadcast/publication outcomes.

Eligibility

To be considered for the 2025 Happiness Reflected Collection, your work must meet the following conditions:

  1. Contributor is a member of the University of Alberta Community (student, faculty, staff or alumni).
  2. The creative work is an original piece created by the submitter. 
  3. The contributor holds copyright ownership (nb.: copyright protection in original creative works is immediate and normally held by the creator unless they transfer those rights. So if you created the work, then you likely hold the copyright).
  4. The creative work's content explores subject matter that relates to happiness.
  5. The contributor agrees to assign a Creative Commons License to their creative work for publication/exhibition/distribution purposes.

If you have any questions about eligibility criteria, please email uaaction@ualberta.ca. 

Submission deadline 

We thank everyone for submitting to Happiness Reflected. However, not all submissions will be selected; the selection committee's decisions are final. Deadline for submission is Jan. 12, 2025. The selection committee will contact all contributors by Jan. 19, 2025. 

Further information about the project and selection process can be found in the submission form.

Click here to make your submission


Happiness is not something ready-made. It comes from your own actions.

His Holiness the Dalai Lama