February 2015

Nour Aoude, Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences

Congress is a community of learning and exchanging ideas. Even if you are not an association member, you are invited to take part in Congress and benefit from the diverse opportunities for personal and professional enrichment on offer:

Big Thinking lecture series Hear leading scholars and public figures from around the globe present forward-thinking research, ideas and solutions to the critical questions and issues of our time. ...

Julia Sánchez, President-CEO, Canadian Council for International Co-operation (CCIC)

February 20^th is World Day of Social Justice, as recognized by the United Nations since 2007. The day is a call to observe social justice by supporting “efforts of the international community in poverty eradication, the promotion of full employment and decent work, gender equity and access to social well-being and justice for all”.  

Three events make 2015 a pivotal year for global social justice: first, there is the 20^th...

Jason Haslam, President, Association of Canadian College and University Teachers of English (ACCUTE)

It has become a common complaint, across the board, that statistics relating to Canadian higher education are sorely lacking or, when they do exist, are misleading–ACCUTE past-president Stephen Slemon has written about this matter on this very blog. Whether it’s in terms of faculty hiring (and of what sorts), student outcome, or relative growth in funding and expenditures between capital projects, administration, and teaching, we’re operating with few details, and often with far fewer facts to work with than our American cousins have at their disposal. Of course, we can still learn from some of those American data points, but we do have to keep the multiple different...

Jean-Marc Mangin, Executive Director, Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences

In a recent BBN interview, Kevin O`Leary offered unsubstantiated commentary about liberal arts degrees, and History degrees in particular. He stated: “…stop going for liberal arts degrees because it is useless”; “come out with a History degree, you are going to zero…”; “you can’t get employed [with a History degree], … it is impossible”; “you want to learn to make a movie, you will starve to death” and implied that, if somehow you managed to avoid death, a liberal arts degree gives you a one-way ticket to ending up on the street “…with a blanket over you, reading poetry”. With his well known bombastic style and ideological devotion to “the market”, many listeners take his commentary with a grain of salt.

Nour Aoude, Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences

The backdrop to Congress 2015 is none other than the nation's capital, Ottawa. Whether you are returning or visiting for the first time, I encourage you to take the opportunity to discover what Ottawa has to offer. For me, this begins with world-class galleries, museums, theatres, food, outdoor recreation and nightlife. But Ottawa's real treasure is its people—among the most educated in Canada, Ottawans combine the sophistication of the big city with the laid-back familiarity of a small community. They know their city's hidden cultural treasures, and are happy to show you around. So throw aside outdated descriptors like stodgy, pretentious, and boring, and check out a few more apt words to describe Ottawa in the great video below, made by our friends at Ottawa Tourism...

Here is our list of the most interesting news articles about the humanities, social sciences and higher education from the past week:

Humanities and Social Sciences

Innovation Alone Won’t Fix Social Problems
February 2, 2021 | The Chronicle of Higher Education

A philosophy degree earns more than an accounting degree
January 30, 2021 | Yahoo! Finance

The imminent decline of English departments...