Welcome to the webpage of Lancaster’s Camões Institute Chair for Multilingualism and Diversity, or Cátedra Camões para o Multilinguismo e a Diversidade in Portuguese
Here, you will find information about the Lancaster Cátedra, our objectives and our partners, Portugal’s Camões Institute. We regularly publish news items and organise events, which can be found on this website.
The Cátedra was officially launched in June 2023. It is directed by Professor Patrick Rebuschat, a specialist in bilingualism and additional language learning (L2, L3, L4, Ln...).
The term “Cátedra” translates as Chair or Professorship in academic contexts. It is essentially a financial endowment to support a range of activities at a given university.
We are working on audio clips so that you can hear what these words sound like in Portuguese.
In the meantime, this is how we would transcribe the European Portuguese pronunciation of the words "cátedra" and "Camões" using the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA), a system of phonetic notation used in linguistics.
Cátedra: [ˈkatɨdɾɐ]
Camões: [kaˈmõj̃ʃ]
For general enquiries, please contact catedra-camoes@lancaster.ac.uk.
The Lancaster Cátedra focuses on multilingualism, i.e. our ability to learn and use multiple languages across the lifespan.
Our mission is to promote research on multilingualism and to raise awareness of the benefits of speaking more than one language. Diversity includes, but naturally is not limited to, linguistic diversity.
The Camões Institute is the branch of the Portuguese Ministry of Foreign Affairs which is responsible for the promotion of Portuguese language and culture overseas. Click below to learn more about our partners.
The Camões Institute is named after Luís Vaz de Camões, Portugal’s national poet. He is most well-known for the epic poem Os Lusíadas (The Lusiads, 1572), which celebrates the discovery of a sea route to India by Vasco da Gama. In 2024, Portugal celebrates the 500th anniversary of the birth of Camões.
Did you know that Lancaster has long-standing ties to Portugal? Today, nearly 190 Portuguese citizens and students are valued members of the Lancaster University community, one of the largest Portuguese student bodies in the UK.
In 1386, England and Portugal signed the Treaty of Windsor, thus establishing the oldest diplomatic alliance in the world still in existence. The treaty was sealed by the marriage of King John I of Portugal to Philippa of Lancaster, daughter of John of Gaunt, 1st Duke of Lancaster. Philippa, or Filipa de Lencastre as she is known in Portugal, became an important and well-known figure in Portuguese history.
In 1986, the President of Portugal, Mário Soares, received an Honorary Doctorate from Lancaster University. The occasion served to celebrate the 600th anniversary of the Treaty of Windsor between England and Portugal, but also to celebrate President Soares' important role as a champion of democracy in Portugal.
The Consortium is a strategic partnership involving six universities (Lancaster, Lisbon, Minho, NOVA, Porto, Tübingen) and Portugal's Camões Institute. A Memorandum of Understanding was signed in Lisbon in December 2017.
Our guests included scientists, artists, writers, policy makers, academic leaders, and also members of the Portuguese government. Pictured here in 2018 is then Minister of Education Tiago Brandão Rodrigues during his visit to Lancaster.
Lancaster and NOVA University Lisbon established a strategic partnership in June 2018, when a Memorandum of Understanding was signed. The partnership's core themes are sustainability, digital transformations, and global health.
In June 2023, we celebrated the launch of Lancaster's Camões Institute Cátedra for Multilingualism and Diversity. Our mission is to promote research on multilingualism and to disseminate findings among academic and non-academic audiences.
More News
