For Immediate Release
October 23, 2007
Federation welcomes new President Elect
OTTAWA -- Nathalie Des Rosiers, former president of the Law Commission of Canada and Dean of the Civil Law Section of the Faculty of Law of the University of Ottawa, is the new president-elect of the Canadian Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences, Canada’s voice for researchers, students and practitioners in the humanities and social sciences.
She assumes the position on November 26, 2007 and will formally begin her two-year term as president at the end of November 2008.
In making the announcement, President Noreen Golfman said, “I, and my colleagues, enthusiastically welcome Nathalie Des Rosiers as the new president-elect of the Federation. Her experience as a legal scholar, academic administrator and proponent of law reform will strengthen the Federation’s role in the Canadian polity. I look forward to the leadership she will provide in promoting research in the humanities and social sciences.”
Through her work with the Law Commission of Canada, and as president of the Canadian Law Teachers Association, Ms. Des Rosiers has worked with the Federation to develop partnerships to better support and increase the visibility of research in the humanities and social sciences.
“Humanities and social sciences are vital to the public good and to our understanding of the world,” said Ms. Des Rosiers. “They should inform all critical public policy issues facing Canadians. Indeed, humanities and social sciences are what makes us understand what and who we are as human beings. I look forward to working to ensure that research and teaching in the humanities and social sciences continue to be well supported and recognized.”
Ms. Des Rosiers is past president of the Canadian Council of Law Deans and the Association des juristes d'expression française de l'Ontario (AJEFO). She was a member of the Environmental Appeal Board, from 1988 to 2000 and a member of the Ontario Law Reform Commission from 1993 to 1996. Ms. Des Rosiers has received many prestigious awards including the Médaille de l’Université Paris X in 2007 and the medal of the Law Society of Upper Canada in 1999.
The Canadian Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences represents 66 scholarly associations, 69 universities and colleges, and over 50,000 researchers, practitioners and students. The Federation champions the interests of the social sciences and the humanities and promotes teaching, research, and scholarship and a better understanding of the importance of such work for Canada and the world. It is the permanent secretariat of the annual Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences, which draws together more than 6,000 delegates from across Canada and abroad. The Federation also manages the Aid to Scholarly Publications Program which provides subsidies for the publication of approximately 180 scholarly books each year.
For further information, please contact:
Caitlin Kealey, Communications Officer
(613) 238-6112 ext. 353
www.fedcan.ca
