Dr. Noreen Golfman, associate dean of Graduate Studies and professor of English at Memorial, has assumed the presidency of the Canadian Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences. In her new role, she says she wants to help the research community focus on the impact of its work and on effectively disseminating its findings.

“There are many directions I want to work on over the next two years,” said Dr. Golfman, who began her term during the organization’s recent annual general meeting in Ottawa.

“The humanities and social sciences, in both research and teaching, are the key instrument of our critical and creative thought about ourselves and our societies. In a time of rapid change, our social health depends on the continuing strength of this work in our schools and universities,” she explained. “I’d like to steer a conversation about the social impact of our research and teaching and its overall benefit for Canada as a whole.”

Dr. Golfman, who has been involved with the federation since 1998, is also a former president of the Association of Canadian College and University Teachers of English and was a member of the Executive Committee of the Film Studies Association of Canada. Active in Canadian cultural issues and experienced with the media, Dr. Golfman is the founding director and chair of the St. John's International Women’s Film Festival, vice-chair of the Newfoundland and Labrador Film Development Corporation and chairs Friends of Canadian Broadcasting.  Her current research, “Commercializing the North,” involves an examination of industry films on the commercial development of the Canadian north.

The Federation represents the largest segment of Canada’s research and post-secondary education community, including 66 scholarly associations, 71 universities and colleges, and over 50,000 researchers, practitioners and graduate students. A  primary role is to communicate the value of research and scholarship in the human sciences. 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.