Meeting in Chile will renew the Chair Bernardo O'Higgins

On October 3, Martin Grossmann, director of the IEA, and Maria Helena Rolim Capelato, professor at USP’s Faculty of Philosophy, Languages and Literature, and Human Sciences (FFLCH), will meet Sergio Escobar Bravo, rector of the Universidad de La Frontera (UFRO) in Temuco, Chile. The purpose of the encounter is to renew the agreement between USP and UFRO that gave rise to the Chair Bernardo O'Higgins, based in the IEA, for another five-year period. At the meeting, a new work plan for the next five years will be set.

Founded in 2008, the chair aims to provide the Brazilian public with more information on Chile, particularly its culture. The proposal is that the exchange between the two countries gets intensified by the coexistence between Chilean and Brazilian researchers from the two universities in São Paulo.

The chair was coordinated by biochemist Hernan Chaimovich, professor at USP’s Institute of Chemistry and former deputy director of the IEA, until 2009, when Andrés Eduardo Aguirre Antúnez, professor at USP’s Institute of Psychology, took over the coordination, in which he remained until March this year. The position is now in charge of Capelato, who will head the chair in the 2013-2017 period.

Master and PhD in Social History from USP, Capelato is a full professor of the History department at FFLCH. She has been president of the National Association of Researchers and Professors of History of the Americas (ANPHLAC). Her research focuses on American History, especially on Comparative History (‘Varguismo’ and ‘Peronism’), History of Latin American Intellectuals and Culture and Politics in Latin America.

Chairs

The IEA has a tradition of hosting chairs, which are agreements with national, foreign or transnational institutions that allow the allocation of resources for the study of issues related to the themes of the work groups and programs of the institute.

Besides the Chair Bernardo O'Higgins, there is another currently active professorship going on at the IEA: the UNESCO Chair in Education for Peace, Human Rights, Democracy and Tolerance, coordinated by sociologist Sérgio Adorno, director of FFLCH and coordinator of USP’S Center for the Study of Violence (NEV). The agreement between the IEA and the Colegio de Mexico is currently under negotiations for renewal, which should take place in early 2014 with the visit of IEA's director to the Mexican institution.

Further chairs that the IEA has already hosted: Chair Claude Lévi-Strauss, Chair of Ecology Carl Friedrich Philipp von Martius, Chair Mário Schenberg, Chair Lucas Nogueira Carcez, Chair Jaime Cortesão, Chair Nicolau Copérnico and Chair Simón Bolívar.