Brazil Days at NMSTU
- Published: Thursday, 18 November 2021 13:43
NMSTU students have an opportunity to learn about the Brazilian culture and art straight from the horse’s mouth as part of the Brazil Days at NMSTU.
This project has been implemented by NMSTU together with the Embassy of Brazil in Moscow. From 13th to 16th November, NMSTU welcomed a delegation represented by first secretary for public diplomacy, culture, education and media Alvaro Augusto Guedes Galvani, attaché for public diplomacy, culture, education and media Gabriele Costa Guadagnin and executive director of the Brazilian Foundry Association ABIFA Roberto Deus.
“This is a major occasion, not only for the university but also for the city, the region and the country. It was a long way to get to where we are now, and we are already starting to see tangible results. Here, at the university, we were able to view Brazilian culture from another perspective. Besides, I am extremely happy to have executive director of the Brazilian Foundry Association Roberto Deus here with us today. It is truly opening up new areas for our joint research activities,” said rector Mikhail Chukin.
The Brazil Days programme included a number of educational and cultural events. On 15th November, the Institute for the Humanities housed a unique photo exhibition by Gaby Gable. The exhibition is titled What the Sun Wants to Tell Us When It Suddenly Creates Shade. It let students not only enrich their aesthetic taste but also discuss the idea behind every photo shot with the author.
The virtual exhibition is available at https://magtu.ru/brazil/days-brazil.html.
Other activities that took place at NMSTU included a presentation of the documentary Street River, which tells about a grand art project initiated by a Brazilian artist on the Amazon, and a translator competition Brazil Poetry.
“I got a fantastic feeling from dealing with your students. What I see as the key element in cooperation between countries is finding a common ground, spiritual ties. And I can say for sure we have found them here,” comments attaché Gabriele Costa Guadagnin. “I would like to give separate thanks to the translator competition participants. Everyone did well, so it was extremely difficult to decide on the winner. One was expected to not only translate from one language into another. One was actually expected to try to convey the author’s idea, feelings and state of mind. And it is extremely difficult to do. But your students were successful!”
Around 30 students of the humanities took part in the competition. The winners were invited to visit the Brazil Embassy in Moscow.
“We shall set up a tour around the Embassy for the winners. We will show them around our department, have them meet our colleagues and look at the possibility to engage students in the projects implemented by the Embassy,” added Gabriele Costa Guadagnin.
As part of the Brazil Days at NMSTU, the University signed a cooperation agreement with the Brazilian Foundry Association ABIFA for cooperation in engineering, research and education. The parties discussed possible cooperation in terms of conferences, research projects, student and staff exchanges, as well as mutual support when implementing new programmes and technologies.
The next step in the cooperation between NMSTU and the Brazil Embassy includes the University’s participation in the Lectorate programme funded by the Brazilian Ministry of Education. Under the programme, Brazilian lecturers will visit the University to teach Portuguese and the Portuguese culture, give lectures and participate in joint research projects. The first visit of a Brazilian professor to Magnitogorsk is scheduled for February 2022.
Another cooperation agreement is expected to be signed soon between NMSTU and the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. The plan is to carry out joint projects in education and research, as well as academic exchanges.
