UMass Dartmouth renews agreement with Portugal’s Camões Institute. Here’s what’s included

DARTMOUTH – UMass Dartmouth and Portugal’s Camões Institute renewed their cooperation agreement on April 24, extending their partnership to promote the teaching and growth of Portuguese language and culture for three more years.

The protocol was signed by UMass Dartmouth Chancellor Mark Fuller and Consul of Portugal in New Bedford Tiago Sousa, who represented Camões Institute, the lead Portuguese government unit responsible for the promotion of the Portuguese language and culture abroad.

“We are delighted about the ongoing partnership,” Chancellor Fuller told O Jornal a few moments after signing the document. “We have such a cultural heritage related to Portugal in the region, and we think that UMass Dartmouth really creates a way for us to value that partnership from an educational perspective. So, we’re delighted with this project.”

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The protocol will fund six Ph.D. students, who will assist in the teaching of undergraduate and graduate Portuguese language courses as they pursue their doctorate degrees. The Institute has committed $50,000 per year to fund three of the students, while UMass Dartmouth will fund the other three.

The selected teaching fellows are also expected to be involved in supporting activities and projects related to Portuguese language and culture organized by the Center for Portuguese Studies and Culture and the Ferreira-Mendes Portuguese-American Archives at UMass Dartmouth.

The Camões Institute also commits to supporting academic and cultural activities at UMass Dartmouth related to Portuguese culture and the growth of a library collection designed to serve the needs of the master’s and PhD programs in Portuguese at the university.

“The relationship between UMass Dartmouth and the Camões Institute has been critical in our mission to uphold academic collaboration, cultural exchange, economic development and diplomatic relations with Portuguese-speaking countries,” said Chancellor Fuller prior to signing the document.

UMass Dartmouth Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs Ramprasad Balasubramanian and João Caixinha, the coordinator for the Portuguese Language Programs and Education Affairs in the United States of America/Camões Institute, were on hand to witness the protocol signing ceremony held at the Balsam Hall Welcome Center. They were joined by several Portuguese Department faculty members and students pursuing a PhD in Luso-Afro-Brazilian Studies and Theory at the university.

In his remarks, Consul Sousa said it was an honor to renew this partnership, which has “been giving so many fruits through the years.”

“UMass Dartmouth has an unreplaceable role here to support the teaching of Portuguese language,” he said. “We’re proud to continue our partnership.”

The two institutions have collaborated since 1981 and first signed a protocol for the placement of PhD students in 2009.

“For about 15 years, we’ve had this absolutely crucial support,” said Dr. Anna M. Klobucka, the Graduate Program Director for the Department of Portuguese. “The beneficiaries of these fellowships are graduate students, primarily in the PhD program, sometimes also in the MA, who each teach beginning and intermediate classes at the university.”

She said the protocol has not only had a positive impact in this region, but also in other parts of the country and in the world as well.

“It’s a multiple benefit because they [students] have support for their studies at the post-graduate level and they will go on to be university and high school teachers in the region and beyond,” she said. “We have graduates teaching at Harvard, in the United Kingdom, in very good academic positions. We also have many around here in high schools and middle schools. So, there’s just incalculable benefits to the university, community-at-large and beyond through this agreement.”

Caixinha this renewal will extend the protocol from Sept. 1, 2024 to Aug. 31, 2027.

“This protocol is extremely important from the Camões Institute’s point of view,” he told O Jornal. “It supports very important people in our educational community, and there are Portuguese teachers who are already working in primary and secondary schools.”

He then echoed Dr. Klobucka’s words.

“We have very successful cases,” he stressed. “They are not only working here in Massachusetts, but also in California and in New York. There are others who have left this area and gone to work in Europe, at universities in England and France. So, this means that the master’s and doctorate’s programs here at the university are an asset and have borne very positive fruits. It’s also worth noting this is the university with which Camões collaborates the most in financial terms, because it really does have a lot of attributes.”

This article originally appeared on The Herald News: UMass Dartmouth renews agreement with Portugal’s Camões Institute