UNESCO University Chairs and Networks in the United States

The UNITWIN/UNESCO Chairs Program, created in 1992, was conceived as a way to advance research, training and program development in higher education by building university networks and encouraging inter-university cooperation through transfer of knowledge across borders.

The 15 UNESCO Chairs in the United States are shown below, with the year in which they became part of the UNESCO network. Note that several of them were enrolled prior to the time when the United States rejoined UNESCO and the U.S. National Commission for UNESCO was revived, including three in Puerto Rico. (The number in parentheses represents the place in the list of Chairs in chronological order of enrollment.)

1. UNESCO Chair of Education for Peace (1996), Universidad de Puerto Rico, San Juan de Puerto Rico (172)
2. Mobile UNESCO Chair dedicated to the Problems of Habitability in the Hispanoamerican Cities and to the Integral Revitalization of their Historical Centres (1996), Universidad Interamericana de Puerto Rico, San Juan (173)
3. Chaire UNESCO d'enseignement supérieur (1999), Universidad de Puerto Rico, San Juan de Puerto Rico (485)
4. UNESCO Chair in Comparative Human Rights (2001), University of Connecticut, Connecticut (544)
5. UNESCO Chair in Human Rights (2002), Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton (595)
6. UNESCO-Cousteau Ecotechnie Chair in Global Coastal Assessment (2004), University of Rhode Island, Narragansett (658)
7. UNESCO-Cousteau Ecotechnie Chair in Coastal Resources (2004), The State University of New Jersey, Rutgers (665)
8. UNESCO Chair in Communication (2000), The University of Texas, Austin (673)
9. UNESCO chair in Inclusive Education (2005), The University of Colorado, Denver and Health Sciences Center (692)
10. UNESCO Chair in Bioethics (2005), the Ethics and Public Policy Center, Washington D.C. (700)
11. UNESCO Chair on Growing up in cities (2005), Cornell University, New York (702)
12. UNESCO Chair in creating independent, pluralistic media: training and exchange program for journalists (2005), University of Colorado, School of Journalism and Mass Communication, Boulder (703)
13. UNESCO Chair on Achieving the Promise of EFA: A Focus on Literacy and Sustainable Development (2006), Georgetown University, Washington, DC (741)
14. UNESCO Chair in Transcultural Studies, Interreligious Dialogue, and Peace (2007), the University of Oregon (774)
15. UNESCO Chair in Sustainable Rivers (2008), the University of Washington (808)

There are also two UNITWIN Networks headquartered in the United States:

1. UNITWIN Network for Improving Biological Sciences Education through the Development and Use of Information Technologies in some Arab States Universities (318), established in 1997 at Purdue University, West Lafayette
2. UNITWIN Network on Gender, Culture and People-Centered Development (780), established in 2007 at Boston University, Women’s Studies Program

Promote The Big Read to Help a Big Cause

In less than two weeks on April 20 through the 26, the Global Campaign for Education will have its Global Action Week highlighting one of the most neglected Education for All goals: literacy. Now is the time to plan big and small ways to support this extremely worthy endeavor!



UNESCO, as the chief coordinator of EFA and of the United Nations Literacy Decade (2003-2012) , fully supports this cause and will have events worldwide related to the Big Read. Director-General Koïchiro Matsuura, for example, will host an event at UNESCO headquarters on April 23 to commemorate the week. Listings of more events and other information can be found here.

As UNESCO and others strive to realize the EFA goal of cutting literacy in half, it is essential for all to promote literacy in every way possible. For more information on the campaign for literacy, see

UNESCO's The Global Literacy Challenge

and information on

The Big Read Campaign