8 research outputs found
Surreal(ist) Chair’s Techno-liberation
Get PDFThe "Surreal(ist) Chair’s Techno-liberation" by Katucha Bento and Matjaz Vidmar reimagines the metaphor of having "a seat at the table" as an inclusive space where all forms of existence are respected. Challenging Euro- white-cis-hetero-abled-male-centric norms, the project critiques fixed ideas of identity and stability, advocating for flexibility and transience to dismantle power imbalances shaped by colonialism and systemic inequalities. By integrating algorithms, Afrofuturism, ecological justice, and ancestral knowledge, it envisions a utopian reality where humanity collaborates with digital agency, fostering new forms of coexistence beyond binaries and rigid structures. The chair becomes a dreamscape—a surreal, multisensory metaphor that inspires radical imagination, co-creation, and liberation, expressed through algorithmic art and digital materiality. This vision aligns with Suzanne Césaire’s call for a permanent readiness for the marvellous
Surreal(ist) Chair’s Techno-liberation
Get PDFThe "Surreal(ist) Chair’s Techno-liberation" by Katucha Bento and Matjaz Vidmar reimagines the metaphor of having "a seat at the table" as an inclusive space where all forms of existence are respected. Challenging Euro- white-cis-hetero-abled-male-centric norms, the project critiques fixed ideas of identity and stability, advocating for flexibility and transience to dismantle power imbalances shaped by colonialism and systemic inequalities. By integrating algorithms, Afrofuturism, ecological justice, and ancestral knowledge, it envisions a utopian reality where humanity collaborates with digital agency, fostering new forms of coexistence beyond binaries and rigid structures. The chair becomes a dreamscape—a surreal, multisensory metaphor that inspires radical imagination, co-creation, and liberation, expressed through algorithmic art and digital materiality. This vision aligns with Suzanne Césaire’s call for a permanent readiness for the marvellous
“The hysteria of a little flu”:Effects of COVID-19 on HEIs in Brazil
Get PDFThis essay will look at the key challenges public Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) faced in Brazil during the COVID-19 lockdown. The pandemic led universities to close their campuses and adopt an online interface for academic activities. However, many of these institutions do not have the technological infrastructure for such, nor did the staff and students who suffered further social exclusions. The president of Brazil referred to the pandemic as a “little flue” and later on responded to measures adopting the lockdown as a “hysteric” act that “will lead to an economic crash”. Considering the lack of support from the government and the process of dismantling resources for public HE since the beginning of the new presidency elected in 2018, the COVID-19 lockdown quickly revealed the institutional racism, elitism and ableism evident in this administration’s agenda. The consequence of the agenda is the cuts on research funds and lack of infrastructure to provide online classes, as examples of the severe policies that promote the erasure of marginalised groups. Such policies follow Sylvia Wynter’s “Argument”, revealing a code of symbolic life and death of how human order organises itself through the coloniality of power/being. In order to show how such symbolic code is engraved in the Brazilian educational system, this study explores narratives of staff and students from three universities per region of Brazil to identify how the colonial legacies are correlated with postulates of power in the Brazilian HEIs setting during the pandemic. The paper discusses the challenges experienced while keeping the HE sector active during a pandemic that the government has belittled. The conclusions advocate for organised strategies at the union and social movements level to dismantle the colonial occupation put in place in the foundation of the HEIs and reinforced by the current necropolitical administration.</p
Weaving An Affective Economy Onto (Post)Colonial Narratives Of Diaspora: Black Brazilian Women In The United Kingdom
No full textThis research discusses the affective economy in the lives of Black Brazilian women who live in the United Kingdom. I use ‘affect’ as part of what circulates in the ways identifications and social encounters happen situated in particular standpoints (lugar de fala). To understand the weaving process of expressing and identifying Blackness and being Black, I centred the voices of Black Brazilian women as participants in conversations during the fieldwork. Along with their voices at the centre, Black feminist and decolonial literature established the epistemological framework for the ‘ethnographicness’, ethics of caring and discourse analysis deployed in this research. The concept of coloniality of power has a relevant connotation in the ways that oppressions have been naturalised and legitimised at the institutional level. The British Racial Contract has a particular affective economy in such coloniality of power when Black Brazilian women make use of institutional services or in their daily process of making home. Herstories reveal that oppressions, agency and liberation are lived individually and also shared by the commonalities that resistance and coloniality of power enact. This shows that the affective economy disrupts binary understandings of how Blackness and being Black means. Instead, it complicates the narratives and the analysis of multiple possibilities of performing Black and Blackness, using dis-identifications processes (being Amefricaladina) as a systemic denial of the place that coloniality allocated to Black women
Decolonising minds in higher education:An ode to black ancestrality in four movements
Get PDFThis paper is an ode to Black diasporic ancestrality, structured around four movements inspired by Shirley J. Thompson's New Nation Rising: A 21st Century Symphony. It explores how coloniality perpetuates racism by defining, validating, and reproducing knowledge systems that marginalise Black epistemologies. The ostracism of Black scholars, exemplified by Virginia Leone Bicudo, Brazil’s first Black female sociologist and psychoanalyst, underscores this exclusionary process. The movements delve into rediscovery, mourning, dreaming, and a commitment to addressing systemic racism within academia, while celebrating the contributions of Black productions. The paper critiques the reduction of Black identities to narratives of pain and victimhood, offering decolonial practices as strategies to disrupt colonial modes of knowledge validation. It advocates for a reimagined educational future that embraces inclusivity and opens pathways to dismantle the ostracism entrenched within traditional academic frameworks
R-existence and healing in quilombo territory: COVID made us rethink our relationships
Get PDFThe Ylê Asé de Yansã Community, located In Araras (SP), is an ancestral, quilombola, and sacred territory of the Jejê-Nagô branch of Candomblé. This text explores practices of existence and healing within the Ylê, highlighting the impacts of social distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic and positioning the community as a space of resistance and collective care. Cosmoperception, a concept developed by Oyèrónkẹ Oyěwùmí, guides the analysis by emphasising the community’s motto, “respect for life,” which connects territoriality, epistemology, and life, bringing together land, spirituality, and solidarity. The Ylê challenges hegemonic colonial concepts of “humanity,” valuing ancestry and relationships with the territory. Its practices not only resist coloniality but also propose autonomous ways of living and re-existing. This reflection, combined with narratives from community members, highlights dreaming as a transformative practice that opens pathways to alternative modes of existence. Thus, the Ylê strengthens struggles for food and land sovereignty, reaffirming self-determination and care as foundational pillars of new Afrofutures.A Comunidade Ylê Asé de Yansã, em Araras (SP), é um território ancestral, aquilombado e sagrado do Candomblé Jejê-Nagô. O texto explora práticas de existência e cura no Ylê, destacando os impactos do distanciamento social na pandemia de COVID-19 e situando a comunidade como espaço de resistência e cuidado coletivo. A cosmopercepção, conceito de Oyèrónkẹ Oyěwùmí, guia a análise ao enfatizar o lema comunitário “respeito à vida”, que conecta territorialidade, epistemologia e vida, unindo terra, espiritualidade e solidariedade. O Ylê desafia conceitos coloniais hegemônicos de “humano”, valorizando ancestralidade e relações com o território. Suas práticas não apenas resistem à colonialidade, mas propõem modos autônomos de viver e r-existir. Essa reflexão conjunta com narrativas das pessoas da comunidade evidencia o trabalho de sonhar como uma prática transformadora que abre caminhos para modos alternativos de existir. Assim, o Ylê fortalece lutas por soberania alimentar e territorial, reafirmando autodeterminação e cuidado como pilares de novos afrofuturos
Diálogos de (re)existencia Indígena Afro-Latinxs: Descolonialidades posibles
Get PDFEste artículo es el resultado del diálogo generado en el simposio “Descolonizando el Norte Global: Afro-Latinoamérica, el Caribe y Abya Yala en diáspora” durante el Congreso Internacional de Americanistas (56º ICA 2018). Escrito en el formato de una conversación hecha a ocho manos, este texto tiene como objetivo exponer las condiciones de opresión vivenciadas por pueblos indígenas y afro-latinos desde dos posicionalidades: La primera de ellas es la voz de lxs investigadorxs inmersxs en las realidades contextuales dadas, seguidas por los comentarios de lxs investigadorxs abordando temas relacionados al racismo institucional, a la explotación y uso de la tierra y a la construcción de identidades y espacios queer desde una perspectiva descolonial. El esfuerzo de este diálogo es apuntar hacia horizontes posibles de liberación a partir de intercambios que puedan construir redes de solidaridad
Dialogues of Indigenous Afro-Latinxs (re)existence: Possible decolonialities
Get PDFThis article is the result of the dialogue started in the symposium "Decolonizing the Global North: Afro-Latin America, the Caribbean and Abya Yala in Diaspora" during the International Congress of Americanists (56th ICA 2018). Written by eight hands in the format of a conversation, this text aims to expose the conditions of oppression experienced by indigenous and Afro-Latinx peoples from two positionalities. The first is the voice of researchers immersed in their given settings. This is followed by the comments of peer researchers addressing issues related to institutional racism, the exploitation and use of land, and the construction of identities and queer spaces from a decolonial perspective. This dialogue attempts to point toward possible horizons of liberation from exchanges that can build networks of solidarity
