What our collective effort brought into focus this year

Dear colleagues,

As we close 2025 remembering some key accomplishments, I also want to share a few upcoming highlights.

Early in the new year, we will launch a new Strategic Plan alongside a reimagined vision for our flagship event, Congress. Together, these initiatives will evolve the Federation towards a more outward-facing role – strengthening advocacy, expanding capacity-building, and creating new, more dynamic ways to convene our community.

This work responds to shifts across the postsecondary and research ecosystem, where institutions are navigating constrained funding, and the humanities and social sciences (HSS) are being asked, more than ever, to demonstrate our sustainability and our value. At the same time, federal focus on research talent and global collaboration underscores the importance of embedding HSS expertise in national priorities and decision-making.

This moment invites us to step forward, boldly and together, as a thriving Canadian future depends on the HSS to address the big questions it faces.

As we meet this inflection point, we will work to ensure our voice remains strong, that HSS knowledge directly informs public understanding, and that our community is equipped to meet emerging challenges with confidence and to contribute to the solutions society needs.

We will build on this approach at the Big Thinking Summit: Inflection Point, taking place in Edmonton on June 9 to 11, 2026. At the same time, we are laying the groundwork for the next evolution of Congress, with more to share about the new model in the coming months

Our strength is collective. I look forward to continuing to shape the future through our shared efforts during this transformative year ahead.

Best wishes for the new year,

Karine Morin
President and CEO

We brought HSS expertise directly to decision makers

From high-level meetings with ministers' offices to community-driven consultations, our work ensured that the HSS community’s priorities were heard and reflected in national conversations. 

Here’s where our voices carried: 

• We met with representatives from the offices of Innovation, Science and Economic Development; Canadian Heritage; and Artificial Intelligence and Digital Innovation offices to advocate for strengthened research infrastructure, full implementation of Budget 2024 commitments, sustained support for French-language scholarship, and the need to embed the HSS into emerging areas of innovation critical to Canada’s future prosperity. 
• We advanced pre-Budget community priorities alongside partners, including the Coalition for Canadian Research, and explored what Budget 2025 means for our community and how we can ensure HSS success remains front and centre. 
• We contributed HSS expertise to Canada’s AI future, convening community experts to consult with the federal AI Strategy Task Force, demonstrating how Canada can support the expertise needed to ensure human-centred AI. 
• We advocated for open access for all publication types, urging more support for French- and Indigenous-language publications, and encouraged a shift to a Diamond Open Access in Canada by building on existing national initiatives. 

Carrying your voices through the Big Thinking Podcast

In its third year on air, the Big Thinking Podcast explored some of the most urgent and thought-provoking issues facing Canadian society. From rising extremism in Québec and the evolving role of AI in politics to wildfires and corporate allyship during Pride, we unpacked complex challenges with curious, fresh perspectives. Catch up on the conversations. 

• Understanding the roots of extremism in Québec (episode in French) - Frédérick Nadeau, Cégep Édouard-Montpetit

• Digital politics in the age of AI – Fenwick McKelvey, Concordia University 

• Wildfires: Charting the path forward – Shannon Wagner and Mike Flannigan, Thompson Rivers University

• The new art of running for office (episode in French) - Thierry Giasson, Université Laval 

• Pride and profit: The politics of corporate allyship – Daniel Conway, University of the Witwatersrand  

• Connected generation: Youth facing the ethical dilemmas of the digital age (episode in French) – Megan Cotnam-Kappel, University of Ottawa

• Harnessing interdisciplinarity to tackle behavioural addiction (episode in French) - Magaly Brodeur, Université de Sherbrooke

• What does Canada gain when postsecondary connects? - Pari Johnston, Colleges and Institutes Canada, and Karine Morin, Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences

Your initiatives drove equity, diversity, inclusion, and decolonization across postsecondary

The EDID Initiatives Fund supported 16 remarkable member-driven projects this year that will address structural barriers to participation and leadership and improve access for equity-deserving groups across the humanities and social sciences. 

HSS scholarly books took centre stage

The Canada Prizes: Unwritten histories, unfolding futures ceremony at Congress 2025 championed six exceptional authors whose works shed light on often-overlooked issues and challenge us to imagine a more inclusive Canada. Revisit the panel.

• Tricky Grounds: Indigenous Women's Experiences In Canadian University Administration - Candace Brunette-Debassige, Laurentian University
• Population Control: Theorizing Institutional Violence - Jen Rinaldi, Ontario Tech University and Kate Rossiter, Wilfrid Laurier University
• Mille après mille : Célébrité et migrations dans le Nord-Est américain - Pierre Lavoie, Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières
• D'Arthur Buies à Gabrielle Roy : une histoire littéraire du reportage au Québec (1870 - 1945) - Charlotte Biron, Université du Québec à Montréal
• Vieillissement et crise du logement - Gentrification, précarité et résistance - Julien Simard, Université de Montréal

The Scholarly Book Awards celebrated excellence in Canadian scholarship, highlighting the depth and diversity of HSS work animating Canada’s intellectual life.

Through the Scholarly Book Awards, the Federation supported 144 works, with funding distributed across 18 presses, totaling over $1 million in publication, translation, and open access grants.

A milestone year for convening

In 2025, Congress marked a historic first. Our first college host, George Brown College, called on scholars, leaders, policymakers, and the public to reframe what it means to coexist with other humans, the environment, and technology.  

A look back at Congress 2025:

Visit the Congress 2025 archive page for more content and insights.

This year also launched Big Thinking Summits, creating new spaces for cross-sector dialogue on the challenges across postsecondary and society. The inaugural Big Thinking Summit: Reframing Togetherness, held during Congress 2025, brought together leaders from institutions across Canada to strengthen connections and advance cross-sector approaches to shared priorities. 

This work continued with the Big Thinking Summit: Future-Ready Graduate Education in Canada, hosted at McMaster University in October 2025, in partnership with the Canadian Association for Graduate Studies, and the Canadian Collaborative for Society, Innovation and Policy, which convened students and graduate education leaders to define priorities and strategies for a National Strategy for Graduate Education. Learn more.