A sociologist from the State University of New York at Binghamton will talk on "Whither the Social Sciences?" when he concludes the campus's Profiling the Social Sciences lecture series at 7 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 14. The event will be held at the University Club, located on Old Davis Road. The series, begun during the 1998-99 academic year has included such topics as economic change, children's courtroom testimony and the founding of New England. Immanuel Wallerstein, who is known for being perhaps the foremost proponent of interdisciplinary history and social science in the world today, is the director of the Fernand Braudel Center for the Study of Economics, Historical Systems and Civilizations at SUNY Binghamton. He was the president of the International Sociological Association from 1994-98 and chair of the international Gulbenkian Commission for the Restructuring of the Social Sciences, 1993-95. "Beginning in the 1970s, he revolutionized the study of historical social change by proposing a global model of analysis focused on the historical emergence of the capitalist world economy," says John Hall, a UC Davis sociology professor and director of the Center for History, Society and Culture (CHSC). "More recently, working with a specially appointed commission, he has argued strongly for breaking down the conventional barriers between academic disciplines." Wallerstein is the author of the recently published "The End of the World as We Know It: Social Science for the 21st Century," as well as other, earlier books. The lecture series is co-sponsored by the Chancellor's Forum on the Future, the Division of Social Sciences, the Institute of Governmental Affairs, and the Center for History, Society and Culture. The lecture and a reception afterwards are free and open to the public.