Newsletter Paulo Freire Program
Year 1, Number 1, June 2004
Contents:
- The first PFP research committee meeting
- Students exchange
- Scholarships for Brazilian BA students at VUA
- Exchange of teachers
- Research Network
- Joint Publications
- Joint Research
- Institutional Exchange
Marjo de Theije, Carlos Steil, Cecília Mariz, Márcia Contins, Clara Mafra, Cor van Stralen
- The first PFP research committee meeting
14 and 15 of April 2004 the first meeting of the Paulo Freire Research committee took place. In this newsletter important results of the meeting are published. The meeting was organized by the UERJ local committee, consisting of Dr. Cecília Loreto Mariz (PFP coordinator UERJ), Dr. Andréa Damacena Martins (first PFP PhD!), Dr. Márcia Contins, and Dr. Clara Jost Mafra. The partner universities were represented by Dr. Cor van Stralen (PFP coordinator UFMG), Dr. Carlos Steil (PFP coordinator UFRGS) and Dr. Marjo de Theije (PFP coordinator VUA). Unfortunately no representative from UFPE had been able to come to Rio de Janeiro.
Cor van Stralen and Clara Mafra
- Students exchange
In the BA programs so far 10 students have shown interest in spending one or two semesters at a PFP university. The plans for 2004 are: From UFMG to VUA: 2 students, a semester each; From VUA to UFPE: 3 students, 2 for a year, 1 for a semester.
For 2005 3 students have already shown interest (closing of admission for VUA is September 1st): From UFRGS to VUA: 1 student, From VUA to UERJ: 2 students, each for a semester.
Numbers of exchange between Brazilian partners are not known. It is easy to take courses in other universities, as long as it concerns elective courses, and this may go unnoticed to the PFP coordinators.
- Scholarships for Brazilian BA students at VUA
To stimulate the BA exchange, VUA put two small grants to the disposal of Brazilian BA students, 2000 Euro a semester each. Candidates have to apply with a written motivation. VUA decides who receives the grant.
The early admission to both BA and MA are necessary because it takes several months to arrange visa and staying permits for students who don't have a European passport in the Netherlands. Brazilian universities do not offer this service to Dutch students.
The committee will stimulate PhD candi-dates to write projects and apply for scholarships of:
CAPES
CNPq
WOTRO/NWO
Ford Foundation
NUFFIC
ALBAN
- Exchange of teachers
Teachers’ exchange can take various forms, with stays ranging from a few weeks to a semester. At the moment at VUA complete courses take 8 weeks, while at Brazilian universities all courses are one semester, or 15 weeks. However, shorter courses are thinkable, as long as the number of credits is splittable by 15 (hours of class).
A concern of the Brazilian coordinators is money. They are afraid that a Brazilian teachers salary is not enough to live in the Netherlands. This was also discussed in October, and then it was suggested that the deal would be that the host university provides housing for the visiting teacher. VUA and UFMG offer this service already.
In Brazil it is possible to find funding for visiting professors through CAPES. The scholarship of CAPES for visiting teachers is around $US 1000, but in order to receive this the teacher has to lecture a complete course at the graduate level and one at the undergraduate level. In the Netherlands do not such scholarships exist. VUA will have to provide for funding in other ways.
To regulate the exchange of teachers we discussed it is necessary that the teacher who wants to teach at one of the partner universities provides a work plan to the host university (compare the documentation CAPES demands of visiting professors) in which is clear what teaching activities and research activities will be conducted during the exchange period. Of course this all will be developed in close contact between the receiving and the sending departments.
Márcia Contins, Cor van Stralen, Clara Mafra,
Marjo de Theije, Carlos Steil, Cecilia Mariz
- Research Network
There are many possible ways to work together in research and some already are involved in joint projects, especially the researchers in the field of anthropology and sociology of religion. Recently a book was published by UFRGS editora that was co-organised by Cecília Mariz and Carlos Steil, and included also papers of researchers of VUA and UFPE. We need to involve more people in this kind of collaborations.
Eight research themes are defined that seem to be important for all participating universities.
1.Religious Movements (Carlos Steil, UFRS,
mailto:casteil.uol.com.br)
2.Internet culture (Lenie Brouwer, VUA, mailto:)
3.Social Movements (Cor van Stralen, UFMG,
mailto:)
4.Security (Cor van Stralen, UFMG and Cláudio C. Beato
mailto: and )
5.Social Stratification (Carlos Ribeiro, UERJ,
mailto:)
6.Migration, transnationalism and the construction of notions of belonging (Marjo de Theije, VUA, Clara Mafra, UERJ
mailto: and )
7.Multiculturalism and ethnicity (Márcia Contins, UERJ,
mailto:)
8.Communication, Gender and Health
(Parry Scott, UFPE,
mailto:)
Each theme has a coordinator who will try to find researchers to participate in the network at the PFP partner universities.
The theme groups will organise activities on a regular base, with the objective to publish in English.The PFP coordination team will build a structure that guarantees a meeting of one of the theme groups two times a year
The PFP coordination team provides for a list of researchers of their respective universities interested in the PFP. The list includes short “research-biographies”.
VUA takes the responsibility for a PFP website, where the above lists will be published, as well as other relevant information.
The theme groups have with the explicit goal to organise workshops on a regular base, with English language publications as the outcome. As a format of these workshops we think of a maximum of 15 participants, 2 days, intensive discussion of the papers and preparation of the publication of the papers. This structure guarantees a high quality but also takes considerable preparation time.
- Joint Publications
The Paulo Freire Program should be a platform for exchange on selected research themes and publication of this exchange and of research results should be the objectives of PFP research activities. Given the international character of PFP, these publications should be in English.
Some participants argued that the results should also be published in Portuguese, because in Brazilian social sciences it is not very common yet to publish in English. Furthermore, the data of our research are often of interest to a non-academic public also, that has no access to English language publications. Others defended that this is an international project, the results of which logically are published in English. Besides, social sciences seem to be the last academic field in Brazil that still publishes mainly in Portuguese. For the Dutch participants English counts more than Portuguese in Dutch academic rankings, so preference is for publishing in English. Besides, most Dutch researchers do not have command of Portuguese.
- Joint Research
To develop new research might be an outcome of the activities of the research theme groups, but is not the first objective of the Paulo Freire Program. Nevertheless, this element might become important if we want to gain institutional recognition.
Institutional Exchange
All activities to be developed will have financial repercussions. For now VUA is investing to put the PFP to work, and UERJ and the other Brazilian partners have contributed to the meetings also. However, it would be much more interesting if we could gain recognition by the national academic bodies (CNPq, CAPES, NWO, Nuffic). Such recognition would make it easier to have access to funding, or we would even have the change to make a big project and receive money for that. At European level the Alfa program might be an opportunity also.
Agenda:
2004, June:
Recife, during RBA, Meeting PFP representatives.
2004, September:
Amsterdam, Meeting PFP representatives; 1st PFP seminar
2005, April
Amsterdam, second PFP seminar (on security)
Direct link to website PFP:
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