News from the social sciences and humanities: OECD, Bantings and Fifty Shades of Grey

Blog
13 septembre 2012

Milena Stanoeva Canadian Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences

The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) released its annual Education at a Glance report this week. While Canada places high in terms of national spending per tertiary student per year, as well as women’s rate of tertiary education attainment, the findings were less positive when it comes to the unemployment rate of people under 30 (13.5%). Margin Notes’ Léo Charbonneau has a detailed summary of the OECD’s findings on Canada.

Industry Canada released this year’s list of Banting Postdoctoral Fellowship recipients today. The 70 Fellowships are awarded evenly by SSHRC, CIHR and NSERC to top post-doctoral researchers from around the world. Congratulations to this year’s fellowship recipients!

The American Academy of Arts & Sciences Commission on the Humanities and Social Sciences is preparing a report for the U.S. Congress for 2013 and holding forums across the country focusing on different aspects of the humanities and social sciences. Stanford University hosted the second forum last week, which featured former Secretaries of State Condoleezza Rice and George Schultz, among the 22 participants.

Stephen Hume wrote an op-ed for the Vancouver Sun arguing that students studying in the humanities and social sciences are well-prepared to face periods of national economic and employment uncertainty, because their degrees train them to be adaptable in a shifting environment.

Fifty Shades of Grey, the much maligned BDSM-inspired best-seller by E. L. James, is infiltrating academia. Not only are researchers interested in analyzing the success of the book and what it says about its readers, but some have taken to penning their own erotic books with stories set among ivory towers, reports Times Higher Education.

Status of Women Canada has launched a call for proposals to invite funding applications for projects that promote equality for women and girls, and reduce gender-based violence in Canada. For more information, and to apply, click here.

Photo courtesy of ellebnere on Flickr.