Strengthening Amazonian research partnerships in Belém
Professor Pirjo Kristiina Virtanen’s EDGES exchange visit to UFPA in Belém, Brazil, strengthened collaboration on Indigenous languages, biocultural heritage, and multispecies justice.
In mid-June, Professor Pirjo Kristiina Virtanen (University of Helsinki) visited the Federal University of Pará (UFPA) in Belém, Brazil, as part of the EDGES programme. During the visit, she reconnected with researchers, doctoral students, and collaborators, deepening the ongoing partnership between the University of Helsinki and UFPA.
The exchange visit included two public lectures, Deep Time of Forest Urbanities and Indigenous Biocultural Heritage and Apurinã Song Revitalisation, Traditional Knowledge and Multispecies Justice, as well as a doctoral school class on the role of language in shaping emotions and memory among Indigenous communities in the Amazon. The lectures were well attended and followed by lively discussions.
Professor Virtanen also visited the Museu Paraense Emílio Goeldi, where she met leading colleagues working on Amazonian Indigenous languages and societies. Together with Valdimiro Apurinã and Sidi Facundes, she visited the museum’s ethnography, archaeology, and language collections. The visit helped to advance future research plans.
During her stay, Professor Virtanen also met with UFPA’s Vice-Rector for International Relations, Professor Lise Tupiassu, to discuss ways of advancing collaboration between the University of Helsinki and UFPA.
The visit reinforced long-term partnerships and advanced research on Indigenous onto-epistemologies, languages, and multispecies justice in Amazonian contexts.
