Perspectives (Volume 2, number 1) (fwd)

[Richard Plant]

Hello all:

Here is the latest "Perspectives" issue from HSSFC.

Richard Plant
Dept of Drama, Queen's University
and
Graduate Centre for Study of Drama,
University of Toronto

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Subject: Perspectives (Volume 2, number 1)

An electronic newsletter on research and science policy.  A pilot project of
the Humanities and Social Sciences Federation of Canada.

PERSPECTIVES will appear at regular intervals throughout the year and will
be posted on the Federation web site:
http://www.hssfc.ca/Pub/PublicationsEng.html.  Please address your comments
and suggestions to Jacqueline Wright, Executive Assistant, at:
jawright at hssfc.ca.

PERSPECTIVES (Volume 2, Number 1)

Editor: Wayne Kondro

Table of contents:
1)      Summary
2)      Introduction
3)      International Humanities Forum
4)      International Colloquia
5)      Breakfasts on the Campus
6)      Annual Gatherings
7)      The Book Fair
8)      Making the Case for Scholarship

INAUGURAL CONGRESS OF THE SOCIAL SCIENCES & HUMANITIES FOCUSES ON OUTREACH
Special Events Include Gathering of International Humanities Agencies

SUMMARY
A projected 7,000 humanists and social scientists will descend on host
University of Ottawa May 27- June 6 to attend the inaugural Congress of the
Social Sciences & Humanities.

Like its predecessor, the Learned Societies Conference, the event will
continue to feature two-to- three day scholarly conferences by some 98
academic societies and serve as a major impetus to the development of
interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary research.

But in its revamped format, the Congress, organized by the Humanities &
Social Sciences Federation of Canada represents a major foray into new
terrain with a series of special events designed to reinforce the links
between scholarship and society, while also showcasing Canadian research on
an international stage.

The events include a rejuvenated Book Fair and three international
colloquia: on Health; on Migration/Immigration; and on The Public Good.

Over the 11-day course of the Congress, the HSSFC will also spin off a
derivative of its popular 'Breakfast on the Hill' series by conducting three
'Breakfasts on the Campus', including a session with federal Finance
minister Paul Martin.

An added international dimension will see the Congress held in conjunction
with the fourth annual gathering of the International Grouping of Heads of
Humanities Academies and Funding Agencies.

INAUGURAL CONGRESS OF THE SOCIAL SCIENCES & HUMANITIES FOCUSES ON OUTREACH
Special Events Include Gathering of International Humanities Agencies

It's almost become an annual, albeit tiresome, rite.

It seems that at least once a year, some faceless Opposition Member of
Parliament starts squawking from the sidelines about seemingly-dubious
research protocols which ostensibly demonstrate a waste of taxpayer's dollars.

Invariably lost in the ensuing political brouhaha is the contribution which
scholarship makes to the quality of Canadian life and the development of
public policy.

Well, weep no more for the plight of humanists and social scientists, says
Humanities & Social Sciences Federation of Canada president and University
of Ottawa historian Dr. Chad Gaffield. "We are no longer victims."

The case for scholarship is easily made and its relevance clearly
demonstrable in a "knowledge-based society confronted with major social
issues and cultural choices," Gaffield adds.

But the challenge, of course, is to find new mechanisms by which to transfer
knowledge from the campus to society and decision-makers.

Stepping up to the challenge next week will be a projected 7,000 humanists
and social scientists descending on host University of Ottawa May 27-June 6
to attend the inaugural Congress of the Social Sciences & Humanities.

Like its predecessor, the Learned Societies Conference, the event will
continue to feature two-to- three day scholarly conferences by some 98
academic societies and serve as a major impetus to the development of
interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary research.

But in its revamped format, the HSSFC-organized Congress will also represent
a major foray into new terrain with a series of special events designed to
reinforce the links between scholarship and society, while also showcasing
Canadian research on an international stage.

The events include a rejuvenated Book Fair and three international
colloquia: on Health; on Migration/Immigration; and on The Public Good.

Over the 11-day course of the Congress, the Federation will also spin off a
derivative of its popular 'Breakfast on the Hill' series by conducting three
'Breakfasts on the Campus', including a session with federal Finance
minister Paul Martin.

An added international dimension will see the Congress held in conjunction
with the fourth annual gathering of the International Grouping of Heads of
Humanities Academies and Funding Agencies.

THE INTERNATIONAL HUMANITIES FORUM
A sort of last outpost of British imperialism, the Grouping has
traditionally been an informal "closed shop" gathering of representatives of
the British Academy, the Humanities Society of New Zealand, the Australian
Academy for the Humanities, and the Royal Society of Canada, says HSSFC
vice- president (external communications) Dr. Len Findlay.

But in "good Canadian democratizing" fashion, the traditionally anglophone
summit has been transformed into a more representative and semi-public
forum, the activities of which will include an exploration of whether
there's a need to establish an international association of humanities
agencies in the increasingly globalized world of research, Findlay says.

To that end, the Forum's public sessions will include an address by
University of Wisconsin- Milwaukee Center for Twentieth-Century Studies
director Kathleen Woodward on "The Humanities and Internationalization:
Creating Networks."

Findlay notes there's considerable support from countries like Canada and
New Zealand, which feature strong linguistic and aboriginal cultures, to
broaden international exchange of information beyond anglophone lines.

"One of the challenges of humanities scholarship is to both recognize
differences in its proliferation, both domestically and internationally, but
also not to give up on forms of organization, coalition and collectivity, so
that we can show some solidarity across national boundaries in ways that
indicate that humanities disciplines are not just simply decor, a sort of
fringe of lace on the engine of economic progress."

In the Forum's private sessions, the Grouping will assess the current state
of support for humanities from nation to nation and receive an update from
The Getty Foundation on their plans to launch and fund a "global history and
assessment of the humanities."

It will also explore the role the humanities can play to "civilize and
moderate the pretensions of the discourse of globalization," particularly as
regards the social and cultural impact of technology, adds Findlay, director
of the University of Saskatchewan Humanities Research Unit.

But simply by being held in conjunction with the Congress, the Forum will
also showcase the research of Canadian humanists and social scientists
before their international peers, while demonstrating the increasingly
global context of Canadian scholarship.

INTERNATIONAL COLLOQUIA
The Congress' bid to broaden outreach to the community-at-large is nowhere
more evident than in the three interdisciplinary colloquia being held on
Health; Migration/Immigration; and The Public Good.

Sponsored by the HSSFC, the colloquia were designed to promote public
awareness about humanities and social sciences research, as well as help
develop new linkages between the campus and other professional or cultural
groups, governments and private sector organizations.

The May 29-30 International Colloquium on Health, for example, attempts to
directly involve several constituencies in the research program and the
debate, says Association of Canadian College & University Teachers of
English president Dr. Marjorie Stone.

Those include "health care professionals and activists, government agencies,
representatives of cultural minorities and women's groups, and organizations
concerned with particular diseases or disabilities."

Stone adds the Colloquium will also reach out to the political community
through mechanisms like a lecture by Dalhousie professor of medical
humanities and American College of Physicians chairman emeritus Dr. Jock
Murray, who'll deliver an address entitled 'Incapacity in National Leaders:
The Politics of Medical Diagnosis."

Among the subject areas in which papers have been solicited as part of the
bid to examine how cultural and philosophic systems --as well as social,
political and economic conditions-- impact on health, are: aboriginal
healing techniques; reproductive technologies; midwifery; holocaust trauma;
and addiction.

Canadian Society for the Study of Education president Yvonne Hebert says the
May 30-31 International Colloquium on Migration/Immigration will focus on
the increasing role which cities play in determining migration and
immigration patterns. In turn, those patterns, have a "significant effect"
on municipal institutions and social services.

Other topics include the impact of the North American Free Trade Agreement
on the "notions of citizenship and identity as workers are able to flow much
more freely across borders," Hebert adds.

Organized by the Canadian Political Science Association, the May 30-June 1
International Colloquium on The Public Good, Justice & Citizenship will
assess the notion of 'the public good' through the filter of four different
disciplines: history; political science; philosophy and sociology.

BREAKFASTS ON THE CAMPUS
The political notion of 'the public good' will be front and centre during
one of the HSSFC's Breakfasts on the Campus when federal Finance minister
Paul Martin articulates his understanding of the concept on June 2.

Modelled on the Federation's popular Breakfast on the Hill series, in which
experts are invited to speak to politicians about critical social issues,
each Breakfast is customarily capped with a question- and-answer session.
That provides the Congress with an opportunity "to have Martin for
breakfast," quips Congress director Paul Ledwell.

Also featured in the Breakfasts series is a May 29 session by Case Western
Reserve University vice- president (information services) Dr. Raymond Neff
entitled 'What Technology Offers to Education: Some Evidence that Computers
Do Improve Learning', as well as a May 28 session (co-ordinated in
conjunction with the International Humanities Forum) featuring broadcaster
Ann Medina addressing the subject: 'Valuing Culture: From William James to
Video Games, from kilobytes to Kierkegaard'.

ANNUAL GATHERINGS
Some 98 academic associations and societies will be holding their annual
meetings in conjunction with the Congress.

As such, the event maintains Canada's status as the only nation in the world
in which all humanities and social sciences disciplines are brought together
simultaneously for their annual professional meetings.

Gaffield argues the tradition has helped prepare humanists and social
scientists for current research challenges. "The central questions facing
researchers today are, by definition, ones that are of interest to, and key
to, more than one discipline and often several disciplines. A lot of the
most exciting research is being done in which different disciplinary
perspectives can be brought to bear on a single question."

In keeping with the Congress' outreach objective, several participating
societies are also sponsoring and conducting plenary sessions, lectures,
roundtables and other events directly related to the three themes of the
international colloquia. For example, upwards of four dozen different
health-related sessions will be sponsored by various societies over the
course of the Congress.

Other intriguing sessions include a June 3 panel on the Supreme Court of
Canada Reference on Quebec Independence sponsored by the Canadian
Association of Law Teachers, as well as a series of May 30-31 panels grouped
under the heading: 'Canada at the Crossroads'. Sponsored by the Canadian
Historical Association, they include sessions on pressing constitutional
issues, as well as one on the social responsibilities of the federal government.

THE BOOK FAIR
As with the Learneds, the traditional Publisher's Exhibit has been
overhauled to serve as more of a showcase for Canadian scholarship.

Over 100 Canadian and foreign publishers will exhibit at the Fair. But the
exhibition has been broadened to include a series of special events, such as
book launches; readings; and roundtable discussions. Also on the agenda is
the awarding of HSSFC's annual Scholarly Book Prizes.

Among the roundtables organized in conjunction with the Book Fair are one on
William Leiss' 'Mad Cows and Mother's Milk: The Perils of Poor Risk
Communication', and another on James Walker's '"Race", Rights and the Law in
the Supreme Court of Canada'. Among the readings is one by
Governor-General's Literary Award for Fiction winner Rohinton Mistry.

MAKING THE CASE FOR SCHOLARSHIP
Virtually all of the special events associated with the Congress aim to
demonstrate the value of humanities and social sciences research, organizers
say.

Within that context, the International Humanities Forum will explore the
means by which humanities societies across the world make the case for the
manner in which the humanities help "create economic agency and social
cohesion," Findlay says.

In exchanging information about those "best practices" and innovative
mechanisms to promote knowledge transfer, the Forum will also help to
bolster "morale and self-confidence" with the Canadian humanities community,
Findlay adds.

"We need to be more self-confident. We need to be able to marshall the
arguments that demonstrate the economic and society utility of humanities
knowledge. But there are an awful lot of shrinking violets and wallflowers
at this party. There are people who feel deeply, at the mention of the word
'utility', that that is equivalent to compromise or to the application of a
measure which will always find them deficient."

Hebert notes events like the colloquia should also help offset public
perceptions that humanities and social sciences scholarship is somehow less
valuable than that of the biomedical and natural sciences.

"The perception out there is that it's only the natural sciences and
engineering and medicine that do anything of importance. And if a scientist
says 'A,B,C', then it must be so, whereas in the social sciences and
humanities, the research does not have the same social impact."

As a consequence, the community must learn to demonstrate the importance of
its work to the public, Hebert adds. "Part of that means that we as
researchers need to be able to learn to talk to the public. And part of that
is having writers who can make those bridges and bring the importance to the
general public."

Stone argues that with the increasing multidisciplinarity of research, it's
becoming more and more evident that all disciplines have valuable
contributions to make, as is evident in the diverse range of research to be
presented during the health colloquium.

But Gaffield stresses the required links will have to extend well beyond the
campus if the humanities and social sciences are to develop and make the
case for additional funding: "We haven't done enough in terms of taking the
research questions and research activities on the campus and exploring the
extent to which they relate to debate, discussion, policy, outside. This is
certainly not to say that all research on campus does. Hardly. However,
there are links and where they can be made appropriately, it seems to me
they should be made."


Editor:
Wayne Kondro is a freelance writer based in Ottawa.  The former Editor of
the "Science Bulletin", an independent newsletter on national S&T policy, he
is currently a regular contributor to such publications as "Science" and
"The Lancet".

Humanities and Social Sciences Federation of Canada
Federation canadienne des sciences humaines et sociales
151 Slater Street, Suite 415, Ottawa, Ontario K1P 5H3
Tel:  (613) 238-6112; Fax:  (613) 238-6114
Email/Courrier electronique:  fedcan at hssfc.ca