The purpose of social sciences is to understand the needs and problems of society and find durable solutions to provide solid recommendations to the policymakers so that proper policies could be formed for the betterment of society and nation.
It could be possible when we have a neutral approach and social scientists, scholars, and researchers play a positive role in overcoming the challenges being faced by the country.
These views were expressed by the Director, Institute for Immigration Research and the Director, Center for Social Science Research, George Mason University, Fairfax, USA, Professor Dr James Witte during an online address at the inaugural session of the project “Building Community Resilience through Applied and Social Science Research” on Friday.
The KU, International Islamic University, Women University Swabi, Mehran University of Engineering and Technology, Jamshoro, Sir Syed University of Engineering and Technology, Iqra University, Khadim Ali Shah Bukhari Institute of Technology, and US George Mason University are part of the project.
The inaugural session was held at the KU Department of Public Administration. Professor Dr James Witte shared that we have conceptualized the objectives of capacity building, strengthened academic networks, and sharing best practices through the development of a consortium of multiple universities across Pakistan.
He expressed that we have been lucky to connect to partner universities that are possibly even more enthusiastic than us in the execution of this extensive training program.
“The simple idea behind the project is to empower and enable researchers with shared knowledge and activity-based learning through a series of training sessions on various research-related topics from experts from both Pakistan and USA.
We have designed the training sessions to address an array of research-related topics covering topics including data collection methods, SPSS, zatero, GIS mapping, and VIVO.”
Another speaker, Meritorious Professor DrAbuzarWajidi mentioned that we cannot ignore the usefulness of social sciences in the present times as it offers solutions to public problems.
He observed that we can easily address our socio-economic problems through research and suggested that the trend of research should be increased across the country to achieve fruitful results.
While briefing about the project, one of the Principal Investigator Dr Mustafa Haider, who is also an assistant professor at the Department of Public Administration, shared that this project is being launched under the US-Pakistan Universities Partnership Grants Program 2020-2022 and funded by the US Mission in Pakistan and administered by the United States Educational Foundation in Pakistan.
