This October WIPSS enters its twenty-first year, and we are happy to open up with a seminar by Prof. Deborah Norland, of Luther College, Iowa, on the role of English language in the politics and culture of the Navajo Indians.
WIPSS seminars have always had three main aims:
1. to provide researchers in any branch of the social studies with a forum in which they can obtain feedback for their ideas or findings in an informal setting marked by lively discussion – on papers they are writing or have recently written, and on their current research
2. to act as an interface between the University community and civil society in Malta. Provided it is understood that this seminar series has academic aims and methods, the public is cordially welcome to all our seminars. 3. Amidst the welcome expansion of the seminar culture at University of Malta, WIPSS convenors see our niche as being to encourage inter-disciplinary dialogue between academics and students in the social studies broadly conceived – along a spectrum from film studies, to museums as sites of culture and cultural contestation, to literary theory, to educational and psychological theory, to archaeology, history, international relations, sociology and anthropology. To this end, we welcome both individually written papers, and inter-disciplinary symposia. Academics across disciplines share many social theories. The conveners try to arrange an annual theme of widespread theoretical or political interest – eg., in 2014/15, Post-colonial Theory in Current Research; in 2015/6, The Current Conflict in the Middle East. But presentations are not confined to the annual theme, and are deliberately wide-ranging. WIPSS particularly looks for exciting new departures in social theory or social research.