Academic narratives on education of ethnic-racial relations in public Latin American universities (Brazil and Peru)

Abstract

This article analyses academic discourses on the production of knowledge about race, racism and anti-racism in public Latin American universities, focusing on Black populations (Afro-Brazilian and Afro-Peruvian). What are the advances, approaches and challenges faced by these universities in building an anti-racist agenda, especially in the field of Social Sciences and Humanities in Brazil and Peru? The theoretical-methodological perspective dialogues with studies of ethnic-racial relations (race, racism and anti-racism) by authors such as Aníbal Quijano, José Luciano, Victória Santa Cruz, Nilma Lino Gomes, Jurema Werneck, Stokely Carmichael, and Charles Hamilton. Furthermore, Teun van Dijk’s critical discourse analysis is here adopted. Besides conducting a literature review, I have also worked with interviews held between 2018 and 2022, comprising 18 participants of different ethnic-racial profiles: 11 interviewees from a Brazilian public university (six students and five professors); seven participants from a Peruvian public university (four professors and three students) from undergraduate Social Sciences and Humanities courses. The studies show that the resistance of racialised populations in Latin American universities (Black, Afro-Peruvian and Indigenous people) and their anti-racist struggles represent a search for equity in the educational field. Issues such as access, retention and qualification are taken into consideration, based on a theoretical-methodological and epistemic framework for education through an Afro-centric debate, where expectations and limitations regarding university education are often crossed with institutional racism.