First Snow And First Seminar Presentation By ISER's New Director

It's October 21, 2016.  Anchorage is getting its first snow.

The average first snowfall, according to weather.com is October 15, so this isn't particularly late.  But it's warm out (30˚F - -1˚C) and they're calling for sun later today.  So it probably won't last.  But it's beautiful while it's here.

I'm headed over to a talk at the Institute for Social and Economic Research (ISER) at noon, so I need to boogie.  It should be interesting - it's the new director's first seminar presentation.  Here are the details.  I know most people can't get there on such short notice, but at the bottom it tells you how to listen online.

Here's the announcement.

Knowledge Accumulation in the Social Sciences 

Ralph Townsend, ISER Director and Professor of Economics

This is the first seminar presentation by ISER’s new director, Ralph Townsend. He will be discussing knowledge accumulation in the social sciences, and why thinking about that topic is important for ISER and other research organizations that study social problems. He describes his topic this way:

The epistemology of social sciences affects the ability of the social sciences to contribute to the resolution of “wicked” social problems. However useful epistemology based on falsification may be for the hard sciences, its limitations for the social sciences are clear. The enduring problem of replication of social science results is indicative of the problems.
 
Understanding the sociology of social science disciplines and the philosophy of knowledge accumulation in social sciences is relevant to the day-to-day work of organizations like ISER and also suggests unique research opportunities that extend into methodology.

 

When: Friday, October 21, 12 to 1
Where: ISER Conference Room,
Third Floor, 1901 Bragaw Street, Suite 301

 

1901 Bragaw Street is on Bragaw between Northern Lights and Debarr.
Parking is free.
Call 907-786-7710 if you need directions.

 

Note: Those who can’t attend in person can stream the talk live at:
http://stream.iseralaska.org