Team Herald
PANJIM: In a recent meeting the Executive Council of Goa University (GU) approved the proposal to establish a chair named after Joaquim Heliodora da Cunha Rivara in Portuguese Studies and Indo-Portuguese Comparative Studies.
The Council has also resolved to sign a Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) with the appropriate entity/authority to regulate and administer the operative aspects of the chair.
GU Registrar Vijayendra Kamat confirmed the development and said, “Prof Dr Ana Paula Laborinho, Chairperson of Camões Instituto Da Cooperaçâo e da Lingua Portuguesa, Portugal had proposed to establish this chair at GU. The objective was to promote Portuguese studies in Goa and the country as a whole. This can be done by offering conditions to develop research projects at MPhil and PhD level in the fields of teaching – learning of Portuguese as Foreign Language in the Indian context and Indo-Portuguese comparative studies mainly in linguistics, translation and literature.”
The chair also aims at strengthening the intellectual dialogue between India and Portugal and strives to make GU a hub of Indo-Portuguese and Lusophone studies in Asia. “To implement and develop the Chair, Camoes, IP, has come forward to grant GU 10,000 Euros annually,” Kamat added.
Cunha Rivara was a Portuguese physician and professor and served as secretary general of the Portuguese Governor General in Goa. During his stint in Goa, he championed the cause of Konkani.
