Professor Patricia Kauark Leite, from the Department of Philosophy at Fafich, took over today as director of the Institute for Advanced Transdisciplinary Studies (Ieat) at UFMG. The first woman to head the Institute, she succeeds Professor Estevam Las Casas, from the School of Engineering, who has held the position since 2014.

Created in 1999 and institutionalized in 2005, the Ieat promotes an environment conducive to carrying out transdisciplinary studies at UFMG, always bearing in mind the state of the art of knowledge. This happens through chairs conducted by internationally renowned researchers, residences of UFMG professors and various events. The Institute exchanges information and experiences in national and international forums.

The inauguration ceremony took place on the morning of this Friday, the 11th, in the Rectory’s Session Room, led by Dean Sandra Goulart Almeida. “The Ieat plays an increasingly important role at UFMG, as transdisciplinarity is at the core of our institution”, said the dean. “The Institute increases and improves our capacity for reflection and contributes to modernize UFMG’s activities.” Sandra celebrated the choice of the first woman to head Ieat.

After thanking “all those who idealized, designed and paved the way that brought Ieat to what it is today”, Patricia Kauark highlighted that the Institute “provides an inspiring and stimulating atmosphere of conceptual experimentation, aiming at improving academic excellence, at the confluence and articulation of different areas of research and ‘academic cultures’ of the University”.

When listing her management plans – expanding programs, finding alternative forms of funding and increasing the Institute’s reach at UFMG, among others –, the professor highlighted what she called the “challenge of transepistemicity”. “UFMG should be an example of transdisciplinarity, but also of openness to new epistemologies, new knowledge that only enrich scientific research. As a kind of experimental laboratory, the Ieat is, by nature, the place from which UFMG can envision what it wants to become and its impact on social development”, said Patricia.

Estevam Las Casas made a brief assessment of his more than eight years of management, mentioning the partnerships with the various instances and units of UFMG. “With the fundamental contribution of the team of servers and the Director and Scientific councils, we seek to deepen the insertion of the Ieat in the discussions of issues related to disciplinary barriers and the creation of alternative spaces for teaching, research and extension”, he said.

Career marked by transversality

Patricia Maria Kauark Leite is an associate professor at UFMG and a researcher at CNPq. She holds a degree in Physics (degree and bachelor’s degree) from UFMG, a Master’s in Philosophy from the same university and a PhD in Epistemology from the Ecole Polytechnique, in Paris. She was a visiting researcher at Stanford University (USA), Martin-Luther-Universitat (Germany), University of Lisbon (Portugal) and Universitá di Catania (Italy).

Patricia works mainly in the fields of philosophy of science, transcendental philosophy and philosophy of quantum mechanics. She received the 2012 Louis Liard Prize, awarded by the French Academy of Moral and Political Sciences, for her book Théorie quantique et philosophie transcendentantale: dialogues possibles (Hermann, 2012). She is the regional coordinator of the International Project Kant in South America (Kantinsa).

With an academic performance marked by transversality, Patricia Kauark explains that quantum mechanics breaks with classical paradigms regarding what is expected from scientific theory, and her studies are dedicated to understanding “the impact of this change on our own philosophical understanding of what science is”.

“Because transversality is crucial in my research, directing the Ieat can be considered the crowning achievement of my career, and I am very excited”, she says. “It is a very important mission, as it implies the constant search for innovation and excellence that integrate different fields of knowledge. And the university must walk with conviction towards the future, which is undoubtedly transdisciplinary. The imbrication of areas of knowledge is the way out of the impasses and problems faced by society.”

The new director points out that she intends to continue the “successful project” of the Ieat, which has already passed, she recalls, through the phases of experimentation, institutionalization, consolidation and internationalization. Patricia announces that her efforts will be aimed at identifying the transdisciplinary research that is carried out at UFMG and still unknown to the community, giving visibility to studies of this nature so that researchers and groups can approach each other, encourage interinstitutional collaboration projects and seek resources for more international chairs . “It is important that foreign researchers stay longer at the University”, says the director, who also wants to invest in training of Ieat’s technical staff – for example, through internships at foreign institutes – and the expansion of its physical space.

Binder paper

When recalling important achievements of his administration, Estevam Las Casas highlights the growth in the number of resident professors – made possible by the replacement in the classroom by postgraduate students –, the intensification of the role of the Ieat as a unifier of research groups, the coming , until the pandemic, by many researchers through the Cátedra Fundep/Ieat and Cátedra Calas-Ieat programs.

Las Casas also emphasizes Ieat’s participation in a network of discussions on the ways in which universities contribute to basic education, the promotion at UFMG of the Intercontinental Academia – event of the University Based Institutes on Advanced Studies (Ubias) network – with the participation of winners of the Nobel Prize and lectures open to the academic community at an affordable cost – and the promotion of debates on topics such as freedom of expression, fake news, pre-salt and genome manipulation.

“The Ieat has gained a stronger presence in the academic community, but it still needs to become better known in the areas of exact sciences and technology”, says the professor at the School of Engineering, who also mentions the cross-training initiative in graduate school, in which students are guided in disciplines of two programs, as a way to break down departmental barriers.

Articulation and internationalization

Created in 1999 and institutionalized in 2005, the Institute for Advanced Transdisciplinary Studies at UFMG is a body that aims to promote an environment conducive to carrying out transdisciplinary studies at the frontiers of knowledge. To fulfill its mission, the Ieat promotes the articulation between researchers from different areas of knowledge. The Chairs favor the internationalization of transdisciplinary knowledge by encouraging partnerships between internationally renowned researchers and UFMG research groups. The Resident Professors program provides University professors with conditions to develop advanced research projects, with an outstanding transdisciplinary character.

The Research Groups program supports research groups that work in at least two different major areas of knowledge. The Ieat is also responsible for the Revista da UFMG, which addresses specific topics from an interdisciplinary perspective and disseminates research results and various theoretical and artistic productions. In partnership with Editora UFMG, the Institute produces the Ieat Collection, with books by resident professors, full professors and other researchers.

Ieat participates in the Ubias network (University-Based Institutes for Advanced Study), which currently brings together more than 50 institutes of advanced studies around the world and promotes a suitable environment for the exchange of experiences between researchers from different areas, cultures and backgrounds, creating space for innovative research. It is a partner of the Maria Sibylla Merian Center for Advanced Latin American Studies (Calas), founded by a consortium of Latin American and German universities to promote research in the social and human sciences in Latin America, applying historical, scientific and systematic approaches and employing dialogue transdisciplinary and transregional. The result of a partnership between Calas and UFMG, under the responsibility of the Ieat, the Calas-Ieat Chairs program supports researchers working in the development of studies related to Latin America. At the national level, the Institute is affiliated to the Brazilian Forum of Advanced Studies (Fobreav), which brings together institutes and centers of advanced studies from 20 Brazilian universities.

Before Estevam Las Casas, Ieat was directed by Paulo Sérgio Beirão, from the Institute of Biological Sciences (1999-2000), Ivan Domingues, from Fafich (2000-2003), Alfredo Gontijo de Oliveira, from the Institute of Exact Sciences (2003- 2005), Carlos Antônio Leite Brandão, from the School of Architecture (2005-2009), and Maurício Alves Loureiro, from the School of Music (2009-2014).

(Itamar Rigueira Jr. – Cedecom)