Open Access and ASPP draft policy consultations
It is not too late to submit your feedback on the Federation’s draft policy regarding Open Access in our Awards for Scholarly Publications Program (ASPP). More information on the policy and how you can submit your feedback can be found on the ASPP consultation page.
Why Stephen Harper hates sociology: an opinion
In an interesting opinion piece...
By Karen Diepeveen
The last few years have seen a lot of buzz around Open Access: its benefits, challenges, opportunities and obstacles. The granting councils have begun exploring Open Access for journals. For the Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences, one of the biggest questions has emerged around Open Access and monographs.
The Federation’s Awards to Scholarly Publications Program has existed for many years. As the Open Access discussion has progressed, the ASPP has been linked to more and more questions about what – if any – Open Access policy should exist.
And so, in October 2013, the Federation embarked on a multi-year project to develop an Open Access policy for the ASPP. The initial...
hitchBOT completes its journey
hitchBOT the hitchhiking robot, created by communication professors David Smith (McMaster) and Frauke Zeller (Ryerson), has completed its journey from Halifax to Victoria. We took the opportunity to speak to the professors about the influence of the humanities and social sciences in the hitchBOT project. Blog post and full interview can be found...
Nour Aoude
Something strange has been happening across Canada. A small, chatty robot has been making its way from Halifax to Victoria by waiting on the side of the road to hitch rides. On August 16, hitchBOT tweeted out to its followers that it was on the ferry to Victoria, marking the end of its journey.
A day earlier, the Federation had the chance to speak to the creative minds behind hitchBOT. These are David Smith, Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication Studies and Multimedia at McMaster University, and...
This week in SSH News, Ontario and Québec are both looking towards a more specialized, targeted funding model for institutions of public secondary education. In Ontario, the government unveiled a plan detailing a new funding strategy for universities and colleges, which will force each institution to pick areas of focus and accept that it cannot have it all. The Globe and Mail writes that “[t]he deals are a crucial step in the province’s plan to tailor the postsecondary system more closely to the economy, and save public money by avoiding duplication.”
In Québec, Minister of Education, Recreation and Sport, Yves Bolduc,...
Nancy J. Turner CM, OBC, PhD, FRSC, FLS
Distinguished Professor and Hakai Professor of Ethnoecology
School of Environmental Studies
University of Victoria
The two-volume book, Ancient Pathways, Ancestral Knowledge: Ethnobotany and Ecological Wisdom of Indigenous Peoples of Northwestern North America, published by McGill-Queens University Press, represents, for me, a culmination of many years of research and thought about the complex, long-term, ever-changing relationships among humans, plants, and environments here in...
This week in SSH News, children’s stories and fables are the subject of research. At the University of Toronto, psychologist Kang Lee put three well-known tales that involve a main character lying to the test when he asked, do they actually teach children not to lie? The moral of his research, perhaps most useful to parents, teachers, and anyone trying to teach children a lesson about honesty, is that it actually depends on how the consequences of lying are presented.
Meanwhile, researchers in Australia have developed a...
By Nour Aoude
Recent changes to immigration law in Canada drew criticism from legal and human rights groups, reminding us that immigration policy is an ongoing and heated conversation in which we all have a stake. In order to engage in this conversation as effectively as possible, it is important to benefit from the opinion of expert researchers on Canadian immigration.
What are the unique strengths of Canada’s immigration policy? How do we stack up against the US and other immigrant-attracting countries? Is our system beginning...
