Milena Stanoeva
Canadian Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences
CFHSS president Graham Carr with 2012 winners of the Canada Prizes
If you couldn’t make it to the Canada Prize award ceremony in Montreal two weeks ago, or if you just want to relive the magic, don’t despair. We are releasing a series of short videos featuring the winning authors, starting with Veronica Strong-Boag, winner of the Canada Prize in the Social Sciences – English, who talks about her work on the history of social welfare for children and youth. You can watch the video here.
David Naylor, president of the University of Toronto, spoke to The Globe and Mail this week about the factors that produce creative innovators. He argues that the humanities and social sciences are essential to developing the creativity and critical thinking skills that lead to technological innovation.
Business schools are also realizing the importance of a broad education in the humanities and social sciences for their majors and expanding opportunities for business students to take courses in those fields. This is a response to recruiters’ concerns that business students’ education is too narrowly focused on technical skills and that they lack the broader creative, communication and critical thinking skills developed through a humanities and social sciences education.
An ongoing Simon Fraser University study is contradicting stereotypes about texters as illiterate. French professor Christian Guilbault has analyzed over 7,500 text messages. His findings indicate that, contrary to wide-spread fears, texting is not ruining the English language or leading to rampant illiteracy among the nation’s youth.