CIDICER rescues research in Social Sciences and Humanities

Wednesday, July 3rd, 2013 - 15:38

Grettel Rojas Vásquez

University Authorities made the official inauguration of CIDICER (photo credits: Dennis Castro)

The first Research Center of the University of Costa Rica located in the Western Campus was recently opened in San Ramon. It is about the Research Center on Cultural Diversity and Regional Studies, (CIDICER) approved by the University Council in October 2012.

Dr. Francisco Rodriguez Cascante, the Campus Principal and one of this project promoters, recalled some relevant aspects about the process of the CIDICER creation.

He pointed out that this academic school is the result of collective work, where it was tried to rescue the trajectory in research in the Social Sciences and Humanities field that has developed the Western Campus during 45 years of existence.

At the time, Rodriguez emphasized, the Center was thought for carrying out “cultural and regional studies that allow us to comprehend the regionalization processes and how to understand the region internally and externally. We wanted that our center allows us the study of these subjects at a comparative level”.

“We continue to believe that it is one of the main tasks, to recover the cultural productions and the edition of cultural documents essential for the Western Region”, he claimed.

Dra. Magdalena Vásquez Vargas, CIDICER’s principal, underlined that it is very significant that the research trajectory of the campus has been taken into account for the approval of this center, which is product of transformations of the Local history, cultural patrimony and identities of the Central Western Region of Costa Rica program.

She emphasized that the CIDICER currently develops eight research projects in the fields of music, graphic design, classical philology, literature, linguistics, and that several projects are close to signing up. 

The Research Vice rector of the University of Costa Rica (UCR) Dr. Alice Pérez Sánchez, mentioned that the creation of the first research center in a Regional Campus should mark a milestone in the institution history; she gave emphasis on the fact that there is no coincidence that it was in the Western since “San Ramon has always shown signs of the development and consolidation of the UCR in the regions”.

To the Research Coordinator of the Western Campus, Dr. Henry Vargas Benavides “CIDICER within its cultural components of the diverse that includes the abundance and variety, and the regional that includes limits, borders, and territories; opens the dialogue to a new chapter for the Western Campus and the University of Costa Rica.”

“In all the universities of the world, research has become the backbone, where the intellectual production is generated and the academic excellence is achieved by both instructors and students”, this statement by Dr. José Ángel Vargas, representative of the Regional Campuses before the University Council, makes evident the importance of this new research center for the work that is done both in the Western and the other regional campuses of the UCR.

According to Vargas, the creation of this center is consequent with the University policies divulged by the University Council. He mentioned that currently, the institution has 33 research centers, three institutes, and four experimental stations, “what constitutes an extraordinary achievement”.