Roberval Teixeira e Silva, director of the Research Centre for Luso-Asian Studies at the University of Macau (UM), who is also an assistant professor from the Department of Portuguese, Faculty of Arts and Humanities (FAH), has been appointed institutional coordinator of the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Chair of Language Policies for Multilingualism at the university.
‘Our team reflects the multicultural and intercultural perspectives of the chair: We have junior and experienced researchers from China, Brazil and Portugal, acting as teachers and postgraduate students,’ says Dr Teixeira e Silva. ‘This is the opportunity to bring closer the chair institutions based in Asia and, even more especially, those from the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa ), with a focus on China/Macao and Brazil contexts and relations. There are a lot of academic and cultural exchanges to be done between all of us. UM has earned an outstanding international standing in the academic world. With the chair, we can promote an even greater network of connections and approximations for all of us. Interdisciplinarity and interinstitutionality are key actions for the development of science and, thus, for the development of the communities to which it should be devoted.’
The projects proposed by the UM team will deal with a set of contemporary issues in language, culture, and society, including language policy, migration and mobility, globalisation and super-diversity, multilingualism and multiculturalism, intercultural interactions, and the acquisition of languages. In the coming months, UM will create opportunities to forge closer relationships with partners, promote the academic achievements of the university, organise international and interinstitutional academic events, find ways to share the outcomes of academic discussions with the general community in an accessible language, as well as motivate undergraduate and postgraduate students to develop research projects in multilingualism and language policies.
