About the Canada Prizes

Canada Prizes

About the Canada Prizes

The Canada Prizes are awarded annually to the best scholarly books in the humanities and social sciences that have received funding from the Awards to Scholarly Publications Program (ASPP). The winning books make an exceptional contribution to scholarship, are engagingly written, and enrich the social, cultural and intellectual life of Canada.

Celebrating the best Canadian scholarly books—not simply within a single academic discipline, but across all the disciplines of the humanities and social sciences—the Canada Prizes are truly unique. The winners and finalists of the prizes provoke and inform national conversations on important topics and draw attention to the important contribution of scholarship to Canadian society.

Every year, four prizes of $2,500 are awarded:

  • Canada Prize in the Humanities
  • Canada Prize in the Social Sciences
  • Prix du Canada en sciences humaines
  • Prix du Canada en sciences sociales

Established in 1990, the Canada Prizes were originally known as the Raymond Klibansky Prize, for the best English book in the humanities; the Prix Raymond-Klibansky, for the best French book in the humanities; the Harold Adams Innis Prize, for the best English book in the social sciences; and the Prix Jean-Charles-Falardeau, for the best French book in the social sciences. In 2011, the Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences adopted the name the Canada Prizes.

The Canada Prizes are closely tied to the Awards to Scholarly Publications Program (ASPP). All eligible books have received funding from this program. The ASPP was established in 1941 by a group of Canadian scholars who wanted to support the dissemination of Canadian research in the humanities and social sciences. These scholars, among them noted public intellectuals Harold Adams Innis and Northrop Frye, felt strongly that the unique scholarship being produced in Canada needed to be shared. Since that time, the ASPP has funded more than 6,000 works, contributing directly to the creation of a distinctly Canadian body of knowledge in the humanities and social sciences. The winners of the Canada Prizes represent the very best of these books.

Click here for a list of past winners.