What are 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.

Ongoing chairs:

Alfredo Bosi Chair of Basic Education

Olavo Setubal Chair of Art, Culture, and Science

UNESCO Chair on Ocean Sustainability

Sérgio Henrique Ferreira Chair

Oscar Sala Chair

Otavio Frias Filho Chair

Franco-Brazilian Chairs Program in the State of São Paulo

Further chairs that the IEA has already hosted: Claude Lévi-Strauss Chair, Carl Friedrich Philipp von Martius Chair of Ecology, Mário Schenberg Chair, Lucas Nogueira Carcez Chair, Jaime Cortesão Chair, Nicolau Copérnico Chair, Simón Bolívar Chair, the UNESCO Chair in Education for Peace, Human Rights, Democracy and Tolerance, and Bernardo O'Higgins Chair.

Chair

Chairs are the common name for agreements signed by the Institute of Advanced Studies at the University of São Paulo to allocate financial resources in behalf of specific areas of learning. The chairs make it possible to establish a support base for visiting scholars in initiatives co-signed by national, foreign or transnational institutions, whose goals cut across the attributions of ongoing areas, groups and programs.

Definition of "chair"

Translated from Wikipedia’s definition of cátedra:

"A chair today is mainly seen as a permanent contractual position for teaching and researching a specific scientific discipline at a university and for the coordination of said teaching and research.

The notion, however, derives from the chair as a piece of furniture. Specifically, the chair that was placed on a platform, upon which a medieval university professor would lecture or which might seat some other person in high office, a bishop, for instance, who had full authority in a fixed location (the cathedral) to expound on determinative matters, the greatest example being the Catholic Pope when speaking ex cathedra."

Chairs and freedom

Translated from Wikipedia’s definition of liberdade de cátedra:

"Academic freedom is a principle that ensures freedom to learn, teach, research and express thought, art and knowledge.

Its purpose is to ensure pluralism of ideas and concepts in education, especially at university, as well as educational and scientific autonomy. Academic freedom allows teachers to express their own beliefs and viewpoints regarding the subject being taught whenever there are several scientifically validated perspectives, and steers clear of the imposition of a single methodological or pedagogical criterion."

Limits

Academic freedom is not meant to uphold ideological manifestations that violate the students’ freedom of conscience and that have no bearing on the subject being taught. In other words, the range of academic freedom is not congruent to that of freedom of expression.

Legislation

In Brazil, the Federal Constitution of 1988 guarantees academic freedom in Article 206, partly transcribed below:

Article 206. Education shall be provided on the basis of the following principles:

[…]

II – freedom to learn, teach, research and express thought, art and knowledge;

III – pluralism of pedagogic ideas and conceptions[1];

The third article of Law no. 9,394 of December 20, 1996 – the Law of Educational Directives and Foundations, “Lei de Diretrizes e Bases da Educação” – reasserts the freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution.

[1] Official translation by Brazil’s Chamber of Deputies [Translator’s note].