New Members Appointed to Canada’s SSHRC

Canadian Science Minister Kirsty Duncan

Canada’s Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, or SSHRC, has announced the membership of its 18-member governing council.

SSHRC is the federal government’s research funding agency; it promotes and supports post-secondary–based research and research training in the humanities and social sciences. SSHRC invests over $350 million annually, supporting more than 8,000 graduate students and nearly 14,000 researchers.

Its council meets regularly to set policy and program priorities, allocate budgets, and to advise Parliament and the minister of Science on research policy in these areas.

Two of the newly named council members are re-appointments: John Baker, president and CEO of D2L, and educational consultant Neil Cooke.

The new members are:

• Catherine Beaudry, professor at Polytechnique Montréal, and Canada Research Chair in Creation, Development and the Commercialization of Innovation
• Frédéric Bouchard, professor and dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Université de Montréal
• Martha Crago, vice-principal (research and innovation) at McGill University
• Robin Craig, senior manager, Institute of Aboriginal Peoples’ Health, Canadian Institutes of Health Research
• Donald Desserud, professor, University of Prince Edward Island
• Cinthia Duclos, assistant professor, Université Laval
• Karen R. Grant, senior scholar, University of Manitoba
• Åsa Kachan, CEO and chief librarian, Halifax Public Libraries
• Normand Labrie, associate dean, programs, University of Toronto’s Ontario Institute for Studies in Education
• Claudia Malacrida, professor and department chair, University of Lethbridge
• Taylor Owen, assistant professor, University of British Columbia
• Carmen Robertson, professor, University of Regina
• Anoush Terjanian, program director of the U.S.-based Social Science Research Council

The terms of these appointments are staggered between two and three years’ duration.

The balance of the council includes the council chair and SSHRC vice president, Jack Mintz, President’s Fellow at the University of Calgary’s School of Public Policy; Ted Hewitt, SSHRC president; and Tracy Summerville, associate professor of political science at the University of Northern British Columbia.

Two years ago the Government of Canada adopted a new open, transparent and merit-based selection approach to Governor in Council appointments and to focus on gender parity. Kirsty Duncan, the Minister of Science and Minister of Sport and Persons with Disabilities, cited that diversity in announcing the appointments. “This impressive list of diverse candidates,” she was quoted, “will help the council further its support for the social scientists and scholars who are pushing the boundaries of knowledge and helping us better understand the world around us.”