Framework

According to the proposal developed by Boaventura de Sousa Santos (2014), “Epistemologies of the South" are a set of procedures that seek to recognise and validate the knowledge produced by those who have suffered injustices, oppression and domination caused by colonialism, capitalism and hetero-patriarchy.

Underlying the Epistemologies of the South proposal is the idea that in the global North there looms a feeling of intellectual and political exhaustion that translates as an inability to face, in an innovative way, the various challenges facing the world in the first decades of the 21st century: social, environmental, inter-generational, cultural, historical and cognitive justice.

Epistemologies of the South denounce, on the one hand, the epistemological interventions that led to the suppression of knowledges over the last centuries, due to the imposition of the dominant epistemological norm; on the other hand, they value the knowledges that have successfully withstood and the reflections they have produced, exploring the conditions for a horizontal dialogue between knowledges.

In this sense, summoning various themes, researches and struggles, the Epistemologies of the South Workshops aim to foster a space for the exchange of knowledges. Consequently, on the one hand, this series of workshops aspires for a dialogue capable of problematizing silences absences and incommunicabilities. On the other hand, it intends to create a space capable of building recognitions, translations for the sake of an alternative thinking of alternatives.

The Seminar Series "Epistemologies of the South Workshops" will take place on the second to last Thursday of each month, between October and June, with several guest speakers.  This initiative is organised under the Research Programme "Epistemologies of the South", developed from the research project "ALICE – Strange Mirrors, Unsuspected Lessons: Leading Europe to a new way of sharing the world experiences" (2011-2016, financed by the ERC, coord. Boaventura de Sousa Santos).

Seminar Calendar:

19 October 2017, 14h00, Sala T2, Dep. Arquitetura da UC
Ecologia de Saberes: ecologia, política, saúde e conhecimentos alternativos
Marcelo Firpo de Souza Porto

23 November 2017, 14h30, Sala 1, CES | Alta
Territórios que gritam | Outras economias, outras linguagens, outros saberes do interior centro de Portugal
Vanessa Sousa, José João Rodrigues, Teresa Cunha

18 January 2018, 14h30, Sala 1, CES | Alta
A violência do encontro colonial: procurando alternativas para uma democratização profunda da história
Ana Paula Tavares, Camilo de Sousa, Maria Paula Meneses, Miguel Bandeira Jerónimo

15 February 2018, 14h30, Sala 1, CES | Alta
Racismo institucional, antirracismo político: reflexões para o debate académico-político
Oradora: Silvia Rodriguez Maeso | Comentador: Bruno Sena Martins

• 15 March - Sala 1 | CES Alta;
• 19 April - Sala 1 | CES Alta;
• 24 May - Sala 1 | CES Alta;
• 12 July - Sala 1 | CES Alta

Organisers: Boaventura de Sousa Santos, Bruno Sena Martins, João Arriscado Nunes, José Manuel Mendes, Maria Paula Meneses, Teresa Cunha and Sara Araújo.