Secretaria de Relações Internacionais | Office of International Relations

The Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina (UFSC) has been invited to join the Academic Council of the Guarani Language Chair of the Association of Montevideo Group Universities (AUGM), currently headquartered at the Universidad Nacional de Itapúa (UNI), in Paraguay.

This participation marks a significant step in regional efforts to promote linguistic diversity, academic cooperation, and the recognition of Indigenous languages ​​across South America. The institutional coordinator of the Chair at UFSC is Prof. Gilvan Müller de Oliveira, who is also the chair holder of the UNESCO Chair on Language Policies for Multilingualism and serves as Language Policy Coordinator at SINTER/UFSC.

Established in November 2020, the AUGM Guarani Language Chair is one of three chairs within the network, alongside the AUGM Chair of Human Rights and the AUGM Jorge Bovetto Chair. Founded in 1991, AUGM is a network of public, autonomous and self-governing universities in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay. These institutions share a public mission, similar academic structures, and comparable levels of service, enabling the development of sustainable collaborative initiatives.

The Guarani Language Chair serves as a space for convergence, bringing together universities, researchers, local communities, civil society, and public administrators to strengthen the study, recognition, and transmission of the Guarani language. Its mission aligns with the promotion of quality education, culture and interdisciplinarity, based on a collaboratively developed work plan. The Chair currently includes 24 universities from the six member countries, as well as Paraguay’s Language Policy Secretariat.

Guarani is spoken by approximately 7.5 million people and holds official language status in Paraguay, Bolivia, the Argentine province of Corrientes, and the Brazilian municipality of Tacuru-MS. In Brazil, more than 60,000 people speak Guarani. It is also recognized as a historical language of Mercosur and one of the working languages ​​of PARLASUR, headquartered in Montevideo.

UFSC’s involvement in the Academic Council of the AUGM Guarani Language Chair underscores the university’s strategic role in advancing initiatives that value the languages ​​shared by MERCOSUR countries and promote multilingualism in Latin America. It also contributes to the university’s broader goals of strengthening South-South and regional internationalization, as outlined in its institutional internationalization plan.

Text (in Portuguese): Leonardo Alves

Originally published at: https://geomultling.ufsc.br/a-ufsc-no-conselho-academico-da-catedra-guarani-da-augm