Let’s meet this Inflection Point together
For nearly a century, and for 30 years as a unified national organization, the Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences has worked to sustain the HSS in Canada. This Strategic Plan marks not simply a continuation of that work, but its next chapter.
Our disciplines and community face continual pressures across both our postsecondary ecosystem and Canadian society. Yet, within this lies the opportunity for a critical inflection point.
How we will answer that call
The strategy invigorates the national infrastructure and coordination required to bring HSS knowledge into Canadian life with conviction. At its core is a renewed understanding of the role our disciplines must play, and of the Federation’s responsibility to foster respectful dialogue across the country.
Inflection Point is also an invitation to collectively choose to meet this moment with purpose. An inclusive, democratic, and prosperous Canadian future requires us to show up boldly where we are needed—a responsibility carried by scholars, leaders, institutions, and collaborators alike. The Federation’s role in the years ahead is to provide the leadership and coordination that make this collective work possible.
"More than ever, our disciplines are being asked to do more of what they do best: to make sense of change, interpret complexity, and bring evidence-based and human-centred understanding to the questions we, as Canadians, are facing together."
Dr. Barrington Walker, Chair, Board of Directors of the Federation
Karine Morin, President and CEO of the Federation
Our vision and mission
Our vision
An inclusive, democratic, and prosperous society advanced by humanities and social sciences knowledge of peoples, cultures, institutions, and social change.
Our mission
To promote humanities and social sciences scholarship and leadership through advocacy, capacity building, and knowledge exchange.
Over the period from 2026 to 2030, we will focus our collective efforts in three directions
Strategic direction 1: Amplify impact through advocacy and public engagement
Position the Federation as an authoritative champion of the HSS, ensuring key audiences recognize and support the vital contributions of these disciplines.
- Extend strategic influence in national policy circles: Position the HSS as essential contributors to national policy discussions and decision-making.
- Engage with institutional and provincial advocacy networks: Collaborate with existing regional and institutional advocacy actors across Canada to advance the interests of HSS scholars and students.
- Develop agile policy intelligence and response: Establish a rapid-response system to monitor, analyze, and address emerging policy opportunities and threats affecting HSS disciplines.
- Build evidence toolkits: Create data-informed policy briefs and impact stories that members can deploy for recruitment and to advocate for funding support from government, the private sector, and postsecondary institutions.
Strategic direction 2: Strengthen community through capacity building
Foster a connected, skilled, and resilient HSS community by creating meaningful opportunities for knowledge sharing, professional development, and peer support.
- Nurture leadership capabilities for HSS leaders in institutions: Build capacity among current and future institutional leaders through structured and targeted professional development opportunities.
- Empower scholarly association leadership: Equip scholarly association leaders with the tools, knowledge and information needed to navigate the challenges their associations are currently facing effectively.
- Strengthen member initiatives: Fund and amplify members' initiatives that promote francophone participation; enhance accessibility, equity, diversity, and inclusion; and advance decolonization.
- Support emerging scholars: Expand networking, mentorship, and professional development opportunities, along with career resources specifically for graduate students, postdocs, and early-career researchers, with targeted support for equity-denied communities.
- Foster excellence in French-language scholarship and research: Help reduce barriers facing French-language scholars engaged in research and, as part of the Federation's programs, ensure equitable participation and recognition of French scholars.
Strategic direction 3: Reimagine new ways of convening
Redesign Federation programming to create more inclusive, impactful, and sustainable opportunities for knowledge sharing and community engagement.
- Reimagine Congress: Create a more open, accessible, bilingual, and sustainable event, within a broader suite of convening activities.
- Launch pilots as a suite of Federation-convened activities: Pilot new events that create academically rigorous and accessible opportunities for scholarly convening and that explore regional, thematic, interdisciplinary, and/or cross-sectoral considerations.
- Leverage virtual engagement opportunities: Build robust, intentional virtual programming that enhances member connection and learning, and complements in-person gatherings.
- Engage the public: Further integrate public facing events into Congress and other convening activities, with a focus on amplifying HSS scholarship in both English and French that is relevant, accessible to public audiences, socially impactful, and exemplifies the value of HSS disciplines.
- Design inclusive convening: Hold events that are accessible, bilingual, and diverse through universal design, financial support, and culturally responsive programming.
These directions are informed by two cross-cutting commitments
Strategy enabler 1: Advance equity, diversity, inclusion, and decolonization
Embed principles of equity, diversity, inclusion, and decolonization across all Federation activities to guide decisions.
- Meaningful participation: Ensure Federation governance, programming, and funding reflect and support diversity across the HSS community.
- Barrier removal: Identify and mitigate obstacles (e.g., linguistic, geographic, financial, technological) through early planning, accommodation, and support for under-resourced and historically excluded communities.
- Diverse and decolonial knowledges: Strengthen space for knowledge systems from Indigenous, racialized, disabled, and other equity-denied communities by promoting diverse methodologies and languages, and supporting approaches that honour Indigenous sovereignty.
Strategy enabler 2: Enhance operational excellence
Cultivate internal systems and capabilities that enable effective delivery of strategic priorities while ensuring accountability and continuous improvement.
- Accountability and strategic resource allocation: Establish data collection, analysis processes, and reporting mechanisms to track progress and ensure staff expertise and financial resources have the greatest impact on strategic priorities.
- Robust organizational policies and practices: Continue to proactively evaluate and improve policies and practices that support the identification and removal of systemic barriers to participation in Federation activities.
- Modern digital infrastructure: Use integrated, bilingual digital platforms, databases, and virtual tools to facilitate coordination and engagement among association and institutional members.
- Impactful communication: Elevate the Federation’s communications strategy to amplify Federation transparency and visibility and showcase member expertise and achievements for existing and new audiences.
Step forward with us
This strategy positions the Federation as a shared HSS infrastructure, providing a framework for united action that recognizes the challenge and the power of a coordinated national response.
What comes next is up to all of us.
Get involved
- Download the Plan and share it with your network
- Subscribe for updates and opportunities to take part.
- Join us at the Big Thinking Summit: Inflection Point (June 9-11, 2026 | Edmonton)
- Follow the Federation on social media @federationhss and join the conversation using #InflectionPoint
- Contact us with your ideas and impact stories
- Learn more about Reimagining Congress