Chairperson Punjab Higher Education Commission (PHEC) Prof. Dr. Mohammad Nizamuddin on Friday called for promoting research-based education at the higher education level with a special focus on social sciences. "Inter-university collaboration is vital for strengthening social sciences in Pakistan," he said, adding that we should give equal importance to humanities and social sciences as we give importance to science education.
He was addressing the three day 1st international conference on Humanities with the theme of Locating the Transcultural Humanities in Pakistan and South Asia organized by Faculty of Humanities Forman Christian College University (FCCU) in collaboration with Punjab Higher Education Commission (PHEC).
The First Key note speaker of the conference was Robert J.C Young from New York University who delivered his key note speech on "Fanon Transformed? The New Writings". The other key note international speakers who delivered there key note address in three day conference were Prof. Bill Ashcroft and Professor Amritjit Singh.
"We need to focus on research in disciplines of social science if we really want our community to progress. With the passage of time, teaching methodologies have changed with more use of technology so we have to train our faculty to keep pace with the changing needs," said Nizam.
He also said that we should focus on developing faculties of Arts and Humanities because they produced writers and thinkers. He also said that there are very few journals on social sciences in Pakistan. He said PHEC is ready to finance such type of conferences on social sciences. He urged the teachers to conduct interactive sessions with their students in classrooms and focus on the character-building of students.
Dr. Waseem Anwar convener of the conference said that Humanities in the current political scenario cannot be understated. It must be highlighted in Pakistan as a way of not only initiating thoughtful dialogue but of resisting politely the undue post colonial battle of binaries.
He also said Humanities Conference 2017, therefore is a means to open space for the youth to contribute to the overall spirit of academic discourse by understanding the importance of liberal arts education and critical thinking in Pakistan and South Asia.
Dean of Humanities FCCU and co convener of the conference Dr. Nukhbah Taj Langah said that the aim of the conference is to look at the possibilities of reorienting the production of knowledge by interrogating the relevance of such a project for Pakistan, South Asia and other post colonial regions of the world which wills to move beyond the battle of barriers, becoming thus more globalised and transcultural.
She also said that conference is also an effort to build networks between Punjab and rest of Pakistan's provinces in order to strengthen and encourage departments within the humanities at national level.