The Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences was established on July 1, 1989 after separating from the Faculty of Science
Restructuring of the Faculty of Arts and Science began around 1986, when a committee was setup to consider the current structure of the faculty and potential future directions
Proposal for two faculties, The Smith Report, was drafted in 1987, and a referendum of the Faculty of Arts and Science that same year showed favour for the split, though not by a very large margin
The proposed implementation of a 20 credit Major B.A and B.Sc. for 1987/88 included: Biology, Classics, Comparative Religion, Economics, French, 'Mathematics, Statistics, and Computing Science,' Geology, German, Philosophy, and Physics
The faculty contains one of the oldest English departments in Canada, dating from 1865 when James de Mille was appointed the first Professor of Rhetoric
The faculty's first two Bachelor of Arts degrees were awarded to Joseph Henry Chase and Robert Shaw in 1866
Frank Harvey has been Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences from 2016 to present
Jure Gantar
Jure Gantar has been the acting Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences from 2018 to present, during Frank Harvey's time as the Distinguished Fulbright Research Chair at Yale University
Key People
Cynthia Neville
Cynthia Neville won the Dalhousie Student Union's first award for teaching excellence in 2006 for Arts
Eliza Ritchie was a professor of philosophy in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences who later became the first woman on the University's Board of Governors
James (Jim) Aitchison was the first president of the Dalhousie Faculty Association in 1951, and served as head or chairman of the Department of Political Science until 1973
John Godfrey was a history professor at Dalhousie who worked with Dr. David Crook on developing a method of teaching History 100 to non-history majors. He later became the President and Vice-Chancellor of King’s College from 1977-1987
(Print copy also available Leblanc, Stéphane. Places for Learning: Rethinking the Dalhousie Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences Building. Halifax, N.S: DalTech, 1999. Print)
Waite, P.B. (1994). The Lives of Dalhousie University: Volume One - 1818-1925 Lord Dalhousie's College. Montreal: McGill-Queens University Press. (LE 3 D32 W3 1994 v.1)
Waite, P.B. (1994). The Lives of Dalhousie University: Volume Two - 1925 - 1980. The Old College Transformed. Montreal: McGill-Queens University Press. (LE 3 D32 W3 1994 v.2)
