The Norwich psychology department will be hosting lunches on Wednesday afternoon this year. The lunches cover various topics in psychology presented by psychology professors.
Professor Peter Burmeister, lecturer in psychology, said, “Psychology is about everything, there is really nothing that doesn’t fit in with the realm of psychology.”
Burmeister is in charge of setting up these lunches as well as finding the topics covered.
He said, “These psychology lunches involve various members and faculty of the School of Social Sciences.” This includes psychology, criminal justice, historians, or anyone with a relevant topic.
These meetings cover a whole range of topics from professors around campus. With the topics being so wide and being presented by professors from various fields of expertise these lunches can be very beneficial to many of the students on campus, he said.
A recent topic was Brains, Not Bullet- Developing Cross Cultural Competence in Army Special Operations Force, presented by Professor Aimee Vieira.
This topic discusses the role of psychology with not only the Army Special forces but with the Army in general. This will show how psychology comes into play when learning the enemy and how to use psychology to predict the enemy’s movements and how it is being used in today’s military.
With regards to this topic and psychology in general, Burmeister said, “This primarily being a military school, I think that psychology is something that should be taught at a very high level for all people contemplating having a serious role in the military.”
Burmeister says professors present their current research at the lunches, often topics that haven’t been researched before.
He says, “What I’m looking for from each presenter is something they are really excited about or something they’re passionate about and has to do with their specialty.”
Burmeister said, “I would love to see more students at these lunches,” adding, “My hope is to expose people to these ideas and these topics. I hope to get more people interested in psychology.”
The lunches take place every Wednesday in Webb 107 from 12 to 1 o’clock for this semester. In the spring the lunches will be presented by seniors and will involve the topics of their final projects.
For more information, there are posters around campus and information on my.norwich.edu.