Chad Gaffield
SSHRC President and Council Member
Chad Gaffield, one of Canada’s foremost historians, was appointed president of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) on September 18, 2006. Gaffield came to SSHRC from the University of Ottawa, where he held a University Research Chair and was the founding director of the Institute of Canadian Studies. During his 20-year University of Ottawa career, he also served as vice-dean of graduate studies and on the executive committee of the board of governors. He is a former president of the Canadian Historical Association and the Canadian Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences.
An expert on 19th- and 20th-century Canada, Gaffield has analyzed the ways demographic, economic and cultural changes influence, and are influenced by, institutional and political history. He is most well known for his reinterpretation of major historical events in the making of modern Canada as expressions of micro-historical transformations—changes occurring in the lives of everyday people. He has also led major research initiatives, including the Canadian Century Research Infrastructure project, which involves universities and partner organizations from St. John’s, Nfld. to Victoria, B.C.
Gaffield has won many awards for his teaching, research and innovative theories and methods related to computer-based, interdisciplinary and multi-institutional collaboration. A Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, he received the society’s J.B. Tyrrell Historical Medal in 2004 for his outstanding contribution to the study of Canada. In 2007, the Canadian Association of University Teachers presented him with its Distinguished Academic Award in recognition of excellence in teaching, research and service to the community. The University of Ottawa named him Researcher of Year in 1995 and Professor of the Year in 2002, only the second time that a professor has been chosen for both awards. Gaffield has also been honoured with the Queen’s Golden Jubilee Medal in 2003, received an honorary doctorate from Thompson Rivers University in 2007, and was the recipient of the 2008 Prix de la francophonie de l'Ontario.
Chad Gaffield received his BA and MA from McGill University, and his PhD from the University of Toronto.