Starting today (25), the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ) hosts the institution’s largest academic event, focused on teaching, research and extension. The forecast is that more than 6 thousand surveys will be presented to the public in person and online.
According to the organizers, the 13th Academic Integration Week (SIAc 2024) idealizes the collective construction of knowledge, the defense of public education and the appreciation of science, technology, innovation and culture for the country’s development.
The activities run from November 25th to 29th, and take place simultaneously on the campuses of Cidade Universitária, Praia Vermelha, Largo de São Francisco, Faculdade Nacional de Direito (FND), in the Center, in addition to the municipalities of Duque de Caxias and Macaé.
For this year’s event, presentations and discussions of academic works from different areas are planned: scientific, artistic, technological, cultural initiation, teaching initiation and extension. With a broader scope, the idea is to exchange experiences between undergraduate, postgraduate and high school students; professors, technicians, post-doctoral researchers; researchers and students from other universities and basic education schools and the general public.
The official opening of SIAc took place at the UFRJ Technological Park, in Cidade Universitária, and had the theme “Climate Change and the Global South”. Experts discussed solutions to face the crisis, focusing on the most vulnerable communities. And they brought reflections on the role of teaching, research and extension institutions in proposing concrete changes.
“Heat is a neglected disaster. Especially in the tropical part of the Global South, we have the wrong impression that heat doesn’t kill. We’re used to it, we say it’s good to go to the beach. In fact, heat kills. In our study, analyzing 20 years of data from the Unified Health System (SUS) in 14 metropolitan regions, almost 50 thousand people died directly or indirectly because of heat waves. And there are no systemic protocols for adapting to this type of disaster in the country,” said Renata Libonati, professor at the UFRJ Institute of Geosciences.
Historian Lise Sedrez, professor at the UFRJ History Institute, reinforced the role that researchers from different areas of knowledge can play in dealing with the climate crisis.
“It is important that we see our relationship with nature as a historical process. The occupation of space, the way we organize ourselves as a city, transport, connection with water, with the territory, with forests, are built over the years, in a long-lasting process. Historians can help in this aspect: bringing different images and sources to understand our relationships with nature, and how they build us as a society”, said Lise Sedrez, professor at the History Institute at UFRJ.
