CRCs named in history, public policy

February 27, 2009

The University of Saskatchewan has received $1 million to fund two new Canada Research Chairs, one in history and the other in public policy.

In the Department of History, associate professor Erika Dyck will explore the historical, medical and political attitudes towards mental health care here and in Alberta during the 20th century in her work as the new Canada Research Chair in the History of Medicine. Dyck, who holds as PhD from McMaster University and an MA from the U of S, will attempt to illustrate how the provinces’ competing viewpoints influenced broader health reforms.

Daniel Béland, professor in the Johnson-Shoyama School of Public Policy and the new Canada Research Chair in Public Policy, will be exploring the relationships between ideas, politics and policy change with the aim of developing the social science literature on ideas, politics, power and public policy. Béland holds a PhD in political sociology from the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales in Paris. He joined the U of S in 2008 after six years teaching sociology at the University of Calgary.

The two new chairs were part of a major federal announcement Feb. 23 of $120.4 million to fund 134 new or renewed CRCs at 37 Canadian universities.