Stan Shapson, York’s vice-president research & innovation, has been reappointed by the Federal Cabinet to serve on the Social Sciences & Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) council. Shapson will serve a second three-year term on the 22-member council. Shapson currently chairs the Research Support Committee, one of six committees of the SSHRC.
Right: Stan Shapson
SSHRC is a federal agency that promotes and supports university-based research and training in the social sciences and humanities. Created by an act of Parliament in 1977, SSHRC is governed by a 22-member council that reports to Parliament through the minister of industry. Six council committees chart the direction of SSHRC and ensure that grants and fellowship programs meet the needs of Canadians. SSHRC Council promotes and assists research and scholarship in the social sciences and humanities. It meets regularly to set policy and program priorities, allocate budgets and to advise the minister of industry and Parliament on research policy in these areas.
SSHRC-funded research fuels innovative thinking about real life issues, including the economy, education, health care, the environment, immigration, globalization, language, ethics, peace, security, human rights, law, poverty, mass communication, politics, literature, addiction, pop culture, sexuality, religion, Aboriginal rights, the past and the future.
Shapson is one Canada’s foremost authorities in research in the use of technology in the field of learning. He has published widely and served as lead researcher for several large-scale national and provincial research projects. He led the launch of the Advanced Broadband Enabled Learning (ABEL) program, a CANARIE-funded broadband initiative, which facilitates professional development in the use of broadband networks as teaching tools. Through videoconferencing and online discussions with experts in the use of broadband technologies in the classroom, the ABEL project will use CANARIE’s CA*net 4 research network to develop a model for an innovative, collaborative means of online professional development for teachers. ABEL is hosted at York University.
Shapson has chaired provincial working groups on Information Technology and co-chaired federal committees on technology and professional development. In addition to being the Chair of SSHRC’s Research Support Committee, Shapson is also a member of the executive of the Ontario Council on University Research (OCUR).