05/25/2024 – 8:28
Seeking more opportunities for black researchers and ensuring the continuity of research in the postdoctoral scholarship program for this segment are some of the objectives of the “Meeting Sueli Carneiro and Kabengele Munanga of Black Postdoctoral Students at USP”, on Monday , 27, in Cidade Universitária, in São Paulo.
The meeting is the result of a mobilization of researchers for the continuation of the scholarship program offered by the Dean of Inclusion and Belonging (PRIP) in 2023. This program selected 50 black scientists from different areas of knowledge, such as genetics, education, astrobiology, neurology , social sciences, history, pharmacy, among others. The researchers argue that they need more time to advance their research.
“We want to present our research and the program itself as a way of mobilizing the university community, black collectives and other movements to support and demand from USP the renewal and institutionalization of this program”, explains researcher Alexandre Bortolini, aged 43, in the area of Social Sciences.
The University of São Paulo (USP) informed that it is evaluating the continuity of the initiative. “We are currently receiving reports on the 2023 notice. After the evaluation phase, we will study the future prospects for the program”, stated professor Rogério Monteiro de Siqueira, coordinator of the Women, Ethnic-Racial Relations and Diversities Directorate at Pró -Dean of Inclusion and Belonging Estadão.
The rectory claims to have invested around R$5.5 million in the program, which received 1,017 applicants from various parts of the country in 2023. “There is a large contingent of black men and women with good education, in a position to continue their careers as university professors and researchers”, says Siqueira.
To encourage the institutionalization of the program, the meeting will bring together important names in the fight for more affirmative actions, such as the philosopher, writer and activist Sueli Carneiro, and Márcia Lima, National Secretary for Affirmative Action Policies, Combating and Overcoming Racism at the Ministry of Racial equality.
More than a postdoctoral fellowship
The reduced number of affirmative actions in the research area was also a stimulus for mobilization. According to a study by the Postgraduate Affirmative Action Observatory (Obaap), carried out based on the analysis of selection notices for master’s and doctoral courses at public universities until 2021, 1,531 programs already adopted some type of affirmative action in their processes of admission.
The scenario improved in 2023, when the Racial Quota Law included affirmative actions for postgraduate programs. For Bortolini, the application of policies of this nature resembles the steps of a ladder. “It’s a very recent performance. First, we got quotas for graduation. With the pressure of the movements came postgraduate quotas. After graduate school comes research, postdoc. And the last stage is teaching.”
Communicologist and pedagogue, the scholarship holder studies the construction of gender policies in Brazilian education, focusing on actions for black boys. According to Bortolini, this group has the worst educational indicators since the 1990s. “To date, there is no public education policy aimed at guaranteeing the right to education for these boys. My research seeks to understand the reasons for this scenario”, he explains.
The scholarship program for black doctoral students should inspire other educational institutions, says the researcher. “Consolidating a type of affirmative policy in research at USP is very symbolic due to its size, but also because it reverberates in other institutions”.
The USP professor adopts a similar argument. “The program had two editions, with the character of inducing diversity policies in the sciences. Fortunately, development agencies are realizing this demand and have started to draw similar lines.” The professor cites, as an example, the Beatriz Nascimento de Mulheres na Ciência program of the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPQ).
Bortolini highlights the benefits of these actions for the advancement of science. In his view, the production of innovative knowledge also starts from the social diversity of people, experiences and particularities.
“Black women were able to think about the concept of intersectionality. Transgender people have developed the concept of cisgenderness. It was researchers from the global south who brought the concept of decoloniality. The social place contributed a lot to the production of research”, she says.
The group of researchers is made up of 29 women (58%), which represents an important contribution to ethnic-racial issues. Data from the Affirmative Action Multidisciplinary Study Group (Gemaa) indicate that black, brown and indigenous women make up 2.5% of the population of Brazilian scientists.
* This content was produced in partnership with the collective of Fellows of the Post-Doctoral Program for Black Researchers at USP
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Service
Event: Sueli Carneiro and Kabengele Munanga Meeting of Black Postdoctoral Students at USP
Date: May 27th (Monday)
Time: 12pm to 5pm
Location: Institute for Advanced Studies
Address: Rua Praça do Relógio, 109 – Cidade Universitária – Butantã
Online broadcast: https://www.instagram.com/pdocsnegros.usp/
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