On September 29, 2009, the University of São Paulo (USP), represented by its vice-rector, Franco Maria Lajolo and Sandra Margarida Nitrini, director of the Faculty of Philosophy, Letters and Human Sciences (FFLCH) at the time; and the Embassy of Ireland in Brazil, represented by Ambassador Michael Hoey, signed the agreement for the creation of the William B. Yeats Chair in Irish Studies, in order to promote future cooperation between the Embassy of Ireland and the University of São Paulo. The ceremony was held in the Hall of Acts, in the Rectory building.
The Chair is coordinated by Professor Laura P. Z. Izarra and Professor Honoris Causa by the National University of Ireland/Maynooth, Munira H. Mutran, is its Honorary Director.
Michael Hoey, Ambassador of Ireland, Franco Maria Lajolo, vice-rector of USP and Sandra Margarida Nitrini, former director of FFLCH. (Photo credit: Ernani Coimbra).
The W.B. Yeats Chair aims to organize events related to the investigation, promotion and dissemination of Irish studies in undergraduate and postgraduate courses, such as conferences, seminars, congresses and round tables, in addition to promoting exchanges between visiting professors from Ireland and Brazil in the field of Irish literature and culture.
For Sandra Margarida Nitrini, the creation of the Chair "is the high point of the 29-year trajectory of the Irish Studies Program, which began at the University in 1980".
The Irish ambassador, Michael Hoey, pointed out that São Paulo, in particular USP, has been the center of Irish studies in the country and that the name given to the new University Chair could not be more appropriate. "This is one of the great, if not the greatest, poets in Ireland," he said.
Vice-Chancellor Franco Maria Lajolo, in turn, stressed that internationalization is one of the University's main challenges and that agreements such as the one signed with the Irish Embassy "come to strengthen collaboration between countries and exchange".
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