News Weather Band Content Clear Skies Ahead

Justin Sharpe

  • By AMS Staff
  • Mar 17, 2023

— Justin Sharpe, research scientist at the Cooperative Institute for Severe and High-Impact Weather Research and Operations at the University of Oklahoma in Norman, on what could be helpful for those considering a career in the social sciences. For more, listen to the Clear Skies Ahead podcast, with new episodes released every month.

“For me, working within the social sciences, you do need to know that social science is a broad field, as are the physical sciences and it too, has its specialisms. You need to understand your positionality as you come here as a scientist. A positivist will say that ‘We know about X. We want to know about Y. How do we find out about those things? Here's a survey.’ A social constructivist or a weak constructivist will say ‘Well actually, we all socially construct knowledge. But how do we construct that knowledge?’ And so, we need to know more and that's why we need to go out in the field and ask questions. Learning how to ask the questions, making sure that your questions aren’t closed, making sure that you’re not biasing questions, taking those social science courses that are not just statistics-based—although statistics is also important—is really important, I think, to understanding my world, which is also about understanding the world. And have an open mind.”

Justin Sharpe, research scientist at the Cooperative Institute for Severe and High-Impact Weather Research and Operations at the University of Oklahoma in Norman, on what could be helpful for those considering a career in the social sciences. For more, listen to the Clear Skies Ahead podcast, with new episodes released every month.

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