Professor Richard M WALKER, Dean of College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences and Chan Hon Pun Professor of Behavioural and Policy Sciences at CityU, delivered a talk titled “How Humanities and Social Sciences Tackle Unprecedented Disruption” at CityU’s BOLD forum, sharing how humanities and social sciences combat social, political and natural disturbances, like those we have been facing since last year.
Prof Walker made clear from the beginning that humanities and social sciences matters in the course of understanding the world, society and the communities we live in. “To understand the world, we need to understand people. We need to understand the relationship between people and institutions, in order to understand how processes in the world operate,” he stated. Involving systematic studies in various disciplines like communications, history, linguistics, literature, politics, sociology, and psychology, these two broader areas of knowledge explain how people interact with each other. This understanding is crucial as it helps make better decisions now, and in the future.
He further illustrated his views with examples of research studies related to the COVID-19 pandemic, which has been massively disrupting social norms and changing people’s behaviours. While recognising the efforts made by scientists and medical experts, he reiterated that academics in the humanities and social sciences are also playing a key role in the battle of fighting the virus. CLASS faculty members, for example, have contributed by providing insights into various issues, ranging from how different healthcare systems response to the outbreak, ways to communicate the urgency and severity of the COVID-19 pandemic to the public and avoid misinformation, policy implications of the different presentations of pandemic data, people’s mental health when they are facing stress caused by the disease, to problems and solutions in clinical communications, impacts of social networking sites and instant messaging, rumours and fake news, and many others.
“By looking into how to resolve complex human-based problems and making recommendations on how societies can be better, the research conducted in the College can have a positive impact on society,” Prof Walker said.
As shown in the COVID-19 crisis, most issues in today’s increasingly complex world are multifaceted. Prof Walker believes the multi-disciplinary training offered in the field of humanities and social sciences is crucial in facing the challenges ahead. “[It] prepares young generations with inquisitive minds, with critical thinking and the ability to appreciate multiple perspectives,” he said. To conclude, he encouraged the audience to seize the opportunities arising from the unprecedented disruptions, and assured an exciting journey in the study of humanities and social sciences.
CityU launched the BOLD@CityU initiative intending to raise secondary school students’ aspirations in planning their pathways to the future through increasing their interests, understanding and involvement in university education. The University hopes the next generation will be BOLD–Be Original, Leading Discovery–in their learning, innovation and discovery.
Watch the full talk by Prof Walker here and be inspired.
