Shout out for SSHRCs: Waterloo ranked #1 again for grants in social sciences and humanities

Friday, October 20, 2017

The University of Waterloo is the top “comprehensive” institution for Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) grants once again, according to the latest Maclean’s rankings, after a single year in second place.

“This makes Waterloo #1 in Canada for seven of the past eight years,” says Tim Kenyon, Associate Dean, Research. While this success is a deserved point of pride for the Faculty of Arts, whose researchers and staff play a significant part in the University’s outstanding track record for winning humanities and social sciences funding, SSHRC-supported research excellence is found in all six faculties across campus, including in the university’s professional schools.

When compared against all universities in the Maclean’s exercise, including far larger institutions that have heavily-funded medical schools, Waterloo still ranks fourth for the number of SSHRC grants per 100 full-time faculty, and sixth for average grant size, behind only McGill, Dalhousie, McMaster, Université de Montréal, and the University of British Columbia.

A list of SSHRC-supported research in Arts is posted on our Research webpages. Examples of current projects include:

  • Policing innovation: an investigation of specialized responses to youth crime (Jennifer Schulenberg, Sociology & Legal Studies)
  • Multilevel governance and climate change adaptation policy in Canada (Daniel Henstra, Political Science)
  • Integrating Knowledges: Truth and Reconciliation Project (Sorouja Moll, Drama & Speech Communication)
  • Digital abstinence: the art, politics, and philosophy of unplugging (Marcel O’Gorman, English Language & Literature)

“The University of Waterloo has been nationally preeminent for SSHRC research awards for the better part of a decade,” says Kenyon, who will become Brock University’s new Vice-President, Research in 2018. “This is an achievement by our SSHRC-funded scholars that is worthy of University-wide celebration.”