TSU – CAMÕES CENTER
In October 2012, Ivane Javakhishvil Tbilisi State University (TSU) and the Camões –Institute for Cooperation and Language (IC) signed a Protocol agreement to open a Portuguese Language Center at TSU. The Centre wishes to provide TSU’s employees and students, as well as the general public, with the opportunity of deepening their knowledge regarding Portuguese speaking countries, their culture, literature and language. In September 2013, the Centre opened its doors with over 300 students willing to enroll in the Portuguese Language Classes.
The Center offers a comprehensive library, where a wide range of books and audiovisual resources on Portuguese language, literature and culture are provided to its visitors, supplied by the IC. The library intends to also be the venue and pretext for workshops on literature and culture, poetry and short story readings, a book club, as well as debate and conversation group meetings.
One of the main responsibilities of the TSU Camões Center is to organize courses on Portuguese Language and Culture (for details, please see Courses).
Each academic year, the Center also organizes official cultural activities to promote the language, literature and culture of Portuguese speaking countries, sponsored by the IC, such as cinema festivals, theater plays, concerts, book fairs, symposium, etc. These are usually open to the general public and to be developed together with the Embassy of Portugal in Ankara, as well as with other pertinent local entities.
Finally, the TSU Camões Center wishes to foster opportunities for students to do exchange programs and study abroad. We currently offer the BEST STUDENT AWARD to Portuguese language learners at TSU, with a scholarship for a Summer Course in Portugal (for details, please see Activities). Furthermore, we are working with the Department of Foreign Affairs at TSU to create Erasmus+ programs in Portugal and Brazil.
DIRECTOR OF THE CENTER
Since November 2017 the Director of the TSU Camões – Portuguese Language Center in Tbilisi is Sofia Cruz.
In October 2012, Ivane Javakhishvil Tbilisi State University (TSU) and the Camões –Institute for Cooperation and Language (IC) signed a Protocol agreement to open a Portuguese Language Center at TSU. The Centre wishes to provide TSU’s employees and students, as well as the general public, with the opportunity of deepening their knowledge regarding Portuguese speaking countries, their culture, literature and language. In September 2013, the Centre opened its doors with over 300 students willing to enroll in the Portuguese Language Classes.
The Center offers a comprehensive library, where a wide range of books and audiovisual resources on Portuguese language, literature and culture are provided to its visitors, supplied by the IC. The library intends to also be the venue and pretext for workshops on literature and culture, poetry and short story readings, a book club, as well as debate and conversation group meetings.
One of the main responsibilities of the TSU Camões Center is to organize courses on Portuguese Language and Culture (for details, please see Courses).
Each academic year, the Center also organizes official cultural activities to promote the language, literature and culture of Portuguese speaking countries, sponsored by the IC, such as cinema festivals, theater plays, concerts, book fairs, symposium, etc. These are usually open to the general public and to be developed together with the Embassy of Portugal in Ankara, as well as with other pertinent local entities.
Finally, the TSU Camões Center wishes to foster opportunities for students to do exchange programs and study abroad. We currently offer the BEST STUDENT AWARD to Portuguese language learners at TSU, with a scholarship for a Summer Course in Portugal (for details, please see Activities). Furthermore, we are working with the Department of Foreign Affairs at TSU to create Erasmus+ programs in Portugal and Brazil.
DIRECTOR OF THE CENTER
Since November 2017 the Director of the TSU Camões – Portuguese Language Center in Tbilisi is Sofia Cruz.
Sofia Cruz was born in Porto (Portugal) in 1971, where she lived and took her Degree in Language and Literature - Portuguese and English Studies in the Faculty of Arts and Humanities (University of Porto). She worked as a Portuguese and English teacher in different class levels in private and public schools and institutions. In 2013, she began to work as a teacher of Portuguese as a second/foreign language in Windhoek (Namibia) for Camões I.P. and finished her Master’s Degree in Portuguese as a Second Language at Universidade Aberta (UAb) in 2015. In 2016 she moved to Johannesburg (South Africa) where she worked as a Portuguese teacher until the end of 2017. She is currently doing the PhD in Portuguese Studies at UAb - Specialization in Portuguese Literature and Culture. Her interests are literature, language policies and history in general and Iberian and African studies in particular.
Director of the Center in 2016-2017 - Isabel Gaspar
Isabel Gaspar (1969) was born and raised in Lisbon, Portugal. She did her undergraduate studies in Modern Languages and Literature - Portuguese Studies (Degree and Education) at the Faculty of Arts, Lisbon University (FLUL /Portugal, Pre-Bologna). She worked as a teacher of Portuguese mother tongue in Portugal and, in the framework of CICL / Portugals cooperation, she worked as a second language teacher in Sao Tome and Principe and Timor-Leste (namely in teacher training at Polytechnic Institute of Sao Tome and Principe and at National University East Timor); and as a foreign language teacher in Tunisia (at La Manouba University and at Cartago University). In these last country, she accumulated with the organization of cultural events at the Portuguese Embassy in Tunis.
Her academic interests include the areas of non-maternal language teaching and contemporary Portuguese literature. She has special interest in neurology studies related to language and learning and plastic arts in general.
Her academic interests include the areas of non-maternal language teaching and contemporary Portuguese literature. She has special interest in neurology studies related to language and learning and plastic arts in general.
Director of the Center in 2013-2016 - Vera Peixoto
Vera Peixoto grew up in Porto, Portugal, where she did her undergraduate studies in English and German and completed her MA in Iberian Studies, at the Faculty of Humanities, Porto University.
She lived and studied in Germany (Hannover and Osnabruek) for 2 years and worked in the Netherlands for 5, as a representative of the Camões Institute at Utrecht University. Her academic interests include Renaissance and Early Modern Period literature, Life Writing and Hagiography, Cinema, Post-Colonial and Gender Studies.
She is currently doing her PhD on 20th Century Portuguese Literature at Utrecht University.
She lived and studied in Germany (Hannover and Osnabruek) for 2 years and worked in the Netherlands for 5, as a representative of the Camões Institute at Utrecht University. Her academic interests include Renaissance and Early Modern Period literature, Life Writing and Hagiography, Cinema, Post-Colonial and Gender Studies.
She is currently doing her PhD on 20th Century Portuguese Literature at Utrecht University.
TRIVIA
The Portuguese language is at least 800 years old
On the 27th June 2014, the 800 year-anniversary of the Portuguese language is symbolically celebrated, as it is the date of its oldest written document: the testament of the third king of Portugal, D. Afonso II (1214).
Portuguese is the 6th most spoken language in the world & the official language in 9 countries
With more than 250 million speakers, Portuguese is not only the 6th most spoken language in the world, but also the 3rd most spoken European language – after English and Spanish –, the 5th most used language on the Internet and the most spoken language in the southern hemisphere. Spreading through four continents, Portuguese is an official language in Europe (Portugal), America (Brazil), Africa (Mozambique, Angola, S. Tomé & Príncipe, Cape Verde and Guinea Bissau) and Asia (East Timor and Macau). A Portuguese-speaker is called a Lusophone.
Georgia is an associate observer of the Portuguese Speaking Community
The Community of Portuguese Speaking Countries (CPLP) was created in 1996, with Portugal, Brazil, Mozambique, Angola, S. Tomé & Príncipe, Cape Verde, Guinea Bissau and East Timor. Georgia gained the Associate Observer status of the Portuguese Speaking Countries Community (CPLP) in 2014, in order to strengthen cultural ties and foster joint enterprises.