Elections (fwd)

[Louise Forsyth]

Dear colleagues,

This is a note to add further comment on the "Election Statement" released
by the Humanities and Social Sciences Federation,

I agree completely with Richard and others who have expressed their concern
about the language used and about the stress placed in the "Election
Statement" on Science and Technology. I particularly appreciated Ric's
perceptive analysis of the discourse to which our representatives are
adhering. I also appreciated David Whiteley's interesting analysis of the
process and, particularly, his distinction between ideological time and
civil time. David is right on.

Insofar as the present political moment is concerned, I believe that it is
important to ask political candidates to take note of the importance of
university research and teaching in the humanities and particularly, in our
case, in drama and theatre. This can best be done in collaboration with
other communities who share our values and concerns. It is unfortunate that
the Steering Committee of Canadian Consortium for Research, which prepared
the Election Statement, has so little understanding, pays so little
attention or has so little real esteem for what we humanists do. They are
undoubtedly playing in the Statement on their perception of what politicians
and the public value. We should be able to count on them to change that
perception, not reinforce it. The same problem exists, and in a place which
I consider much more serious, in SSHRC's recently published new 5-year
'Strategy'.

We should express our concerns to the Consortium (and to SSHRC) in order to
raise their consciousness of our very existence and practices.

At the same time, I do not believe that such expression of concern should be
based on any explicit or implied suggestion that we are prepared to withdraw
from HSSFC. In this day of massive ideological assault on our values and of
withdrawal of financial and other kinds of support for us in the university
community, the theatre community and elsewhere in the arts community (see
Gary Chambers strong message) we must have alliances. The worst thing we
could do would be to pull back into our own small little corners or towers
and hope that the winds of oppression and destruction will blow over. They
will not. They grow stronger and increasingly persuasive as the citizenry
apathetically accepts its state of powerlessness.

I believe that we must work in what David Whitely has termed "civil time",
which is the longer time frame. We need to be much more actively and
regularly involved in the affairs of HSSFC and be sure that our voices are
heard on all issues. I think that this is the only way to change the
attitudes of colleagues, university administrators, politicans and the
public about what we do.

The HSSFC is a good organisation (drawing almost exclusively on volunteer
work from members) which is already working to protect the vital interests
of our members. Without the HSSFC there would probably not have been funds
from SSHRC to fund TRIC for the next 3 years. Programs of the HSSFC include:
Aid to Scholarly Publication (which has subsidised nearly 4,000 scholarly
books in the humanities and social sciences since 1942), funding and
organisation for annual Learned Societies meetings, national network and
caucus on women's issues, policy liaison with SSHRC, political lobbying.
There is no guarantee at all that any of these would be protected if the
HSSFC disappeared. There is no other collective voice to speak for the
humanities community in Canada.

I take the liberty here of reproducing the Mission and Mandate of HSSFC. I
don't think that there is anything here that suggests bias in favor of the
ideological mindset of Science and Technology:

        "The Humanities and Social Sciences Federation of Canada promotes
teaching, research, and scholarship in the humanities and social sciences
and a better understanding of the importance of such work for Canada and the
world. It values the advancement and dissemination of knowledge; it favours
a work environment that promotes unimpeded research and teaching; it holds
the conviction that knowledge, freedom, and democracy cannot thrive without
one another. The Federation will:

a.      advocate the concerns of the humanities and social science communities;

b.      assist in the formulation of research policies in the humanities and
social sciences;

c.      foster teaching and learning in the humanities and social sciences
at all levels of education;

d.      facilitate the work of individual scholars and groups of scholars;

e.      act as a federation of learned societies;

f.      promote co-operation within the Canadian scholarly community as well
as with the international scholarly community

g.      encourage and promote research, and the publication and
dissemination of scholarship in the humanities and social sciences;

h.      promote a better understanding of the humanities and social sciences
by the general public, governments, and external organizations."

I believe very strongly that HSSFC is an organisation we could use very
effectively in the long term to enhance public appreciation of theatre, the
arts, humanities teaching and research, and the values which are inherent to
them.

If you have read this far, thanks for your interest. Let's talk about how we
can protect things that matter to us.

Louise H. Forsyth, PhD
Professor of Women's & Gender Studies and French (on leave 1996-97)
University of Saskatchewan
130 Sandy Place
Saskatoon, SK   S7K 4M4

Telephone:      306-931-0904    Facsimile:      306-966-4559
E-mail: louise.forsyth at usask.ca