The 2014 class of Rhodes scholars has been announced and the list of 83 includes 11 Canadian students. The social sciences are fairly well represented among the Canadian scholars’ fields of study, with areas of interest ranging from public health to international security, social entrepreneurship, philosophy, and First Nations and public policy.
An article in the New York Times this week discussed an increasing struggle faced by humanities studies around the world as programs in the discipline continue to bear the brunt of funding cuts and “political attacks” questioning their relevance and value. Still, humanities program enrollment numbers across the globe have generally kept fairly stable, although Japan, Australia, South Korea, Italy, and France have seen numbers decline by about 25%.
The video recording of Ron Deibert’s Big Thinking lecture from November is now available to watch online for free. “After Snowden: what now for an open and free internet?” provides an eye-opening look into the current state of cybersecurity in Canada and around the world, and asks what it all means for our digital futures. The next Big Thinking lecture takes place on Tuesday, December 10th with Céline Le Bourdais of McGill University – a video of her lecture L’union libre : une alternative ou un substitut au mariage? will also be made available in the coming weeks.