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Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences

The Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences (FHSS) is a non-governmental organization representing 79 universities and colleges, 79 learned societies and 6 affiliates. It promotes teaching, research and scholarship in the humanities and the social sciences and a better understanding of the importance of such work for Canada and the world.

The FHSS was created by the 1996 merger of the Canadian Federation for the Humanities and the Social Science Federation of Canada, whose organizational antecedents were established in the early 1940s.

The federation lobbies governments and granting agencies on behalf of researchers and administers programs that advance the cause of research. It also manages the Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences, the largest annual academic gathering in Canada, and administers the Awards to Scholarly Publications Programme, which subsidizes the publication of scholarly books in the humanities and the social sciences.

The FHSS is governed by an elected board of directors and a general assembly formed of representatives from its member associations and institutions. The permanent secretariat of the federation, which carries out its daily operations, is located in Ottawa and has a small professional staff.