The Standing Committee on Humanities and Social Sciences (SC-HASS) held its 2020 business meeting virtually over two sessions on 30 July 2020, with a total of 28 participants.
Topics discussed at the meeting included:
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The ongoing COVID-19 situation and its effect on both SC-HASS and the wider Antarctic community. SC-HASS is currently leading a major project advising SCAR on the current and future impacts of the pandemic on Antarctic research.
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The structure and composition of the Chief Officers and Steering Committee.
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Updates on the SC-HASS Action Groups. These include Intrinsic Value in Antarctica (AVIGA), Meeting and Managing Antarctic Environments (EN-AQ), Resilience and the Future of Science-Based Decision-Making (PolSciNex), and Public Engagement with Antarctic Science (PEAS). There was also discussion of potential future Action groups focused on tourism, literature and cultural studies, and heritage.
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The next SC-HASS conference is planned for November 2021 in Kobe, Japan, in conjunction with the Polar Law Symposium. Given the current world situation SC-HASS will bear in mind the desirability of online participation for those unable to travel. A more formal process for conference venue selection will come into effect from the 2023 conference onwards.
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To honour the legacy of Cornelia Lüdecke, founder of the History Action Group from which SC-HASS has grown, a Lüdecke Bursary will be established to support an early-career researcher’s participation in the SC-HASS conferences. The precise details of funding and administration will be finalized at a later date.