Advanced Diploma in Afro-descendant Peoples and Historical Reparation
2th Cohort | Virtual Modality
ACADEMIC COORDINATION:
Pink Campoalegre Septien (Center for Psychological and Sociological Research, Cuba) and Anny Ocoró Loango (Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences / CONICET, Argentina)
PROFESSORS
Pink Campoalegre Septien (Center for Psychological and Sociological Research, Cuba), Anny Ocoró Loango (Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences / CONICET, Argentina), Paulo Vinicius Baptista Da Silva (Federal University of Paraná, Brazil), Karina Bidaseca (University of Buenos Aires, Argentina), Santiago Arboleda Quiñonez (Andean University Simón Bolívar, Ecuador), Roberto Carlos Borges Da Silva (Centro Federal de Educação Tecnológica Celso Suckow da Fonseca, Brazil), Luis Osvaldo Martelo (National Conference of Afro-Colombian Organizations, Colombia), Elia Avendaño Villafuerte (National Autonomous University of Mexico), Hernan Mariano Amar (National Pedagogical University / CONICET, Argentina), John Anton Sanchez (National Institute of Higher Studies, Ecuador), Felicitas Regla López (Center for Psychological and Sociological Research, Cuba) and Claudia miranda (Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil).
Virtual format | September to December 2025
Home: 10 / 09 / 2025 | Registration: 09/05/2025 al 09/09/2025
The Advanced Diploma in “Afro-descendant Peoples and Historical Reparation” is a training program that arises in response to the need to build an anti-racist agenda, especially in the wake of the racialized and feminized pandemics. It is framed within the context of the end of the International Decade for People of African Descent proclaimed by the United Nations (2015-2024). This Decade has fallen short due to the failure to achieve its goals: Recognition, Justice, and Development.
The program's central theme is historical reparations, conceived holistically and from a decolonial perspective. The analysis addresses two crucial questions: What are the theoretical, methodological, and practical implications of studying Afro-descendant peoples from the perspective of the right to historical reparations? What can be done to defend this right and others in a second International Decade for People of African Descent? These questions guide the course structure, which is organized into five modules and taught by an international faculty from CLACSO Centers and leading Afro-descendant organizations.
Until recently, knowledge about the Caribbean as part of Our America had been scarcely explored. The study of Caribbean history and geopolitical and cultural space was part of generalizing studies that assumed a Eurocentric, modern, colonial, and liberal vision, leaving the region as an inherent appendage of grand Western history.
Throughout the history of Latin America, the Caribbean islands and their continental borders have been intertwined, sharing a past steeped in events that have shaped a unique universe within the American world. It was imperial presence that fragmented and deconstructed Caribbean reality, transforming continental enclaves into islands, fracturing the region into isolated fragments, regardless of whether they were separated by a mere strait or a precarious border, or by speaking languages other than the dominant Spanish of the region.
Beyond the diversity found within the various Caribbean regions, they share a common thread forged by metropolitan dominance and dependence on centers of power. Their shared ethnohistorical past, the relocation of European borders to the region, and models of economic exploitation forged deep and lasting ties. Metropolitan power isolated and disrupted the region's continuity while simultaneously enabling the emergence of a distinct world, a unity within its diverse circumstances.
As a consequence of colonial domination and the rise of capitalism, which found a touchstone in the Caribbean, societies were established that still exist today and preserve the memory of the bitter experiences associated with indigenous genocide, the transposition of different parts of Africa into a fragmented space, enslavement, dispossession, and outrage. Understanding this history and these realities demands research and approaches that abandon abstract and generalizing views and consolidate a specific, alternative knowledge, grounded in the rigor of Caribbean thought and practice. A reflective and critical vision is essential, one that engages in dialogue with traditional forms of knowledge from a transdisciplinary and "undisciplined" perspective characteristic of Caribbean cognitive work. This is the approach that this Postgraduate Diploma proposes to adopt.
At the same time, the course will delve into critically examining history, geopolitics, economics, cultural and linguistic expressions, artistic and literary production, and the international relations of small states, starting from the challenge to metropolitan dependence, the questioning of hegemonic power and the colonial legacy, and epistemic challenges and ruptures. Racial and gender issues, within specific political and historical contexts, will be considered as cross-cutting themes throughout all content.
Caribbean studies, essential for practical action and the transformation of the region's reality, have achieved systematicity in universities in North America and Europe and, in recent decades, in universities and research centers in Latin American countries such as Chile, Argentina, Mexico, Colombia, Venezuela, and Brazil, among others. In the island states and metropolitan dependencies of the Caribbean, the study of their own realities with "epistemic independence," rather than merely reproducing knowledge from other academic institutions, has become a strength. This is evident in the academic and intellectual circles of the larger islands and the Anglophone, Francophone, and Dutch territories, as well as in academic communities such as those surrounding the University of the West Indies.
Another important objective of this Higher Diploma is to make visible approaches and concepts of Caribbean studies that pursue emancipation and overcoming epistemic dependence on Western centers of knowledge production.
General Purpose
- To contribute to specialized training on Afro-descendant peoples from the emerging and developing paradigm of the right to historical reparation.
Specific objectives
- To use theoretical and methodological tools for the understanding and transformation of affirmative action policies aimed at Afro-descendant peoples.
- To build an Afrocentric epistemic and political positioning on the fight against structural and systemic racism in the face of historical reparation.
- To characterize social inequalities from an intersectional perspective, with emphasis on the educational field, from the place of enunciation of Afro-descendant peoples.
- To assess the history and development of affirmative action policies, highlighting the need for their deconstruction based on the right to historical reparation in the educational field in Latin America and the Caribbean.
- Confronting the legal challenges in the face of a second International Decade for People of African Descent on the basis of historical reparation.
The Higher Diploma in Afro-descendant Peoples and Historical Reparation is aimed at undergraduate and postgraduate students; teachers at all levels; activists and members of trade union organizations, social movements and political parties; public officials; members and managers of non-governmental organizations and professionals interested in the subject.
- Rosa Campoalegre Septien (Center for Psychological and Sociological Research, Cuba)
- Anny Ocoró Loango (Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences / CONICET, Argentina)
- Paulo Vinicius Baptista Da Silva (Federal University of Paraná, Brazil)
- Karina Bidaseca (University of Buenos Aires, Argentina)
- Santiago Arboleda Quiñonez (Andean University Simón Bolívar, Ecuador)
- Roberto Carlos Borges Da Silva (Centro Federal de Educação Tecnológica Celso Suckow da Fonseca, Brazil)
- Luis Osvaldo Martelo (National Conference of Afro-Colombian Organizations, Colombia)
- Elia Avendaño Villafuerte (National Autonomous University of Mexico)
- Hernan Mariano Amar (National Pedagogical University / CONICET, Argentina)
- John Anton Sanchez (National Institute of Higher Studies, Ecuador)
- Felicitas Regla López (Center for Psychological and Sociological Research, Cuba)
- Claudia miranda (Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil)
The program consists of 5 modules of 3 weekly classes each, taught consecutively and linked together.
Total workload of 128 hours.
The modules that comprise the Higher Diploma are:
Class 1: Presentation of the Higher Diploma program in Afro-descendant peoples and historical reparation
Teachers in charge: Rosa Campoalegre Septien and Anny Ocoró Loango
Conceptual summary of the class
This is the introductory class of the Advanced Diploma program. It is designed to provide a comprehensive overview of the academic program. It includes a dialogic presentation of the objectives, the program's structure highlighting its core themes, the teaching staff, and the student body. It outlines the Diploma's organizational structure and dynamics, as well as the final assessment process.
Class 2: Afro-descendant peoples and historical reparation: approaches in tension and emergencies
Teacher in charge: John Anton Sanchez
Conceptual summary of the class
The purpose of this class is to develop an epistemic and political stance on fundamental concepts in this field of study. At the heart of the analysis is the concept of Afro-descendant people and historical reparations as a paradigm in the construction of the anti-racist struggle and the epicenter of the future International Declaration on the Rights of People of African Descent. The debate within the Permanent Forum for People of African Descent, sponsored by the United Nations, is focused on this issue.
Simultaneously, new perspectives are being promoted through dialogue between academia and the Afro-descendant movement. The process of deconstructing traditional categories related to the topic—Blackness, Blackness, and Afro-descendants—is presented, aiming to strengthen the Afro-descendant peoples approach. In this regard, the theoretical positioning of the Afro-descendants and Counter-Hegemonic Proposals Working Group is analyzed, with a focus on sociology and mobilizing political action.
It contemplates a space for experiential reflection by students about their imaginaries and the meaning of historical reparation and of being Afro-descendant or assuming other names with which people and communities and African peoples identify themselves in the various countries.
Class 3: Intersectionality as an analytical tool for the study of Afro-descendant peoples and their historical reparation
Teachers in charge: Claudia Miranda and Karina Bidaseca
Conceptual summary of the class
This course aims to contribute to the understanding and, based on this understanding, the effective use of the intersectional perspective as an analytical tool with great potential for comprehending systems of oppression. This explains its relevance to the study of and fight against racism. The course begins by analyzing the genealogies of this perspective, highlighting the context of its emergence, its works, key authors, and its scope. Simultaneously, it engages in a critical discussion of the limitations and challenges of its application.
Special attention is given to the work of the author Mara Viveros, due to her contributions in this field from a knowledge situated in the realities and conflicts of the articulation between academies and the Afro-descendant movement.
Lesson 4: Racism and its typologies. How to understand them today
Teachers in charge: Rosa Campoalegre Septien and the International Network of Afrofeminist Voices
Conceptual summary of the class
Coloniality, decoloniality, and racism. Racism as a process and ideology that constitutes one of the main instruments of domination. Epistemic disputes and political practices surrounding the definition of racism and its impact on historical reparations. Origins of racism. The genocide of the transatlantic slave trade. Causes of its perpetuation to the present day. Racism is systemic and structural. Racism and racial discrimination.
Types of racism and the methodological and political importance of their differentiation: doctrinal racism, partisan racism, programmatic racism, racism of conviction, institutional racism, partisan racism, habitual racism, media racism, epistemic racism, and other forms of racism. Main forms and areas of manifestation. Strategies to combat racism. Debunking racist myths and stereotypes. Why it is not enough to simply not be racist (Davis, 2019)1 and what then is enough to combat racism.
Class 5: The enduring legacy of Durban in the fight against racism
Teacher in charge: Roberto Borges Da Silva
Conceptual summary of the class
The class anchors its purpose in the appreciation and historical recovery of the legacy of the Third International Conference against Racism, Xenophobia and Other Forms of Intolerance, held in Durban, South Africa in 2001, hereinafter referred to as the Durban Conference. In this context, it analyzes its antecedents, highlighting the contributions of the preparatory conference in Santiago, Chile, and especially the role of the women's movement of Latin America in this process. It demonstrates how, within this context, a process of strengthening and articulation of the Afro-descendant movement was achieved.
A central aspect of this topic is the analysis of the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action. Its content and historical significance for understanding and combating racism are examined, as is the scope of the international platform for combating racism established in Durban. The emergence of new approaches, concepts, and practices is also explored. The discussion focuses on the potential invisibility of Durban's legacy in state policies and the strategies of the Afro-descendant movement in this regard. Finally, the International Decade for People of African Descent (2015-2024) and the Durban Programme are examined: points of convergence, divergence, and the emergence of change.
Class 6: The reconfiguration of racism and the de/construction of the anti-racist agenda
Teachers in charge: Rosa Campoalegre Septien and the International Network of Afrofeminist Voices
Conceptual summary of the class
The class is focused on reflecting on the epistemic and political keys for an anti-racist debate in "Latin America", after the impact of racialized and feminized pandemics, where Afro-descendant peoples were not only one of the main victims, but also mark with their struggles the alternative of other possible worlds.
The concept of reconfiguration of racism encompasses the multidimensional process of reaffirmation and changes in racist theory and practices, characterized by the rise of racial violence, the promotion and legitimization of hate speech, racist and patriarchal cyberbullying, and the impunity surrounding the murder of racialized leaders and women.
This process manifests itself in the emergence of regressive trends such as: the dismantling of specialized government institutions and other mechanisms for racial equity, achieved in previous decades as a victory for the Afro-descendant movement and its strategic alliances; the rise and legitimization of racist political and media discourse from centers of power and within the imaginaries and practices of certain social groups and organizations; the increase in the impunity surrounding the murders of Afro-descendant leaders; the deepening of police genocide based on racial profiling that normalizes the killing of young people as an everyday occurrence; and the statistical invisibility of the racial and ethnic variable before, during, and after the pandemic, with notable cases of political manipulation.
Given this scenario, the class encourages the identification, evaluation, and promotion of political action strategies in response to the reconfiguration of racism. It addresses the need to deconstruct the anti-racist agenda. In this regard, the class emphasizes the role of Afro-descendant women in this process, and what their anti-racist political agenda should be.
Class 7: Social and educational inequalities in Latin America from an ethnic-racial perspective
Teacher in charge: Hernán Amar
Conceptual summary of the class
The class is organized into two parts: the first analyzes inequalities related to the labor market, employment, income, health, and education in Latin America; the second examines some socio-educational inequalities at the regional level, focusing on ethnic and racial issues. Among other objectives, the course aims to help participants understand the reinforcing relationships between education and social inequalities of origin, as well as to recognize that the challenges of access, retention, and graduation for Latin American students at the secondary and higher education levels are closely linked to the working conditions, wages, health, housing, and cultural circumstances of their families and households.
Class 8: Symbolic and material reparations for Afro-descendants in education
Teacher in charge: Anny Ocoró Loango
Conceptual summary of the class
Currently, Afro-descendants face significant structural obstacles to completing their educational paths, both at the secondary level and in gaining access to higher education. In addition to difficulties accessing education, the ethnic and racial inequalities affecting Afro-descendants are also manifested in the lack of inclusion of their history and epistemologies in curricula, the invisibility of their contributions to knowledge, the undervaluation of their academic and scientific output, and the denial of their contributions to the construction of national identities, among other problems (Ocoró, 2016).
As is well known, historically the curriculum has reinforced Eurocentric perspectives and excluded the ethnic diversity of countries, strengthening narratives that presented national societies as homogeneous. Likewise, it has reflected racism and gender inequality, and has contributed to maintaining the subordination of the history and culture of Indigenous and Afro-descendant populations (Ocoró, 2021). Based on this, this class reflects on the need to include the contributions of these peoples to national history in the curriculum, thus reflecting the social and cultural plurality of Latin American societies, in order to break with what Fricker (2017) calls epistemic injustice and advance symbolic and material reparations for Afro-descendants in the field of education.
Class 9: Political Cartographies and Contemporary Theoretical Debates on the Curriculum with an Intersectional Perspective
Teacher in charge: Curricular cartographies of the African diaspora in Latin America
Conceptual summary of the class
In recent decades, various curricular areas in secondary education in Latin America and the Caribbean have incorporated the knowledge and history of Afro-descendants, opening new possibilities and horizons for making the African diaspora in Latin America visible, valuing its history, and combating racism. However, efforts to value and make visible the culture and contributions of Afro-descendants have not been equally widespread in all countries, manifesting in diverse ways and intersecting with the complex reality of inequality, racism, and racial discrimination that exists in the region.
This course takes stock of this incorporation and the contexts in which its development unfolds, analyzing experiences from several countries in the region. Consequently, this work examines the extent to which these curricular approaches engage with African history, what changes and continuities emerge, and what their contributions are to the decolonization of education in the region. This course introduces students to the main contemporary theoretical debates surrounding educational inequalities, from an intersectional perspective of race, gender, and social class, with the aim of reflecting on the challenges posed by an anti-racist, egalitarian, and intercultural education. This approach will allow students to broaden their understanding of educational inequalities and enrich their training through an intersectional analysis and an examination of cultural diversity in the field of education.
Class 10: Genealogies of affirmative action policies for Afro-descendant peoples in Latin America and the Caribbean
Teacher in charge: Paulo Vinicius Baptista Da Silva
Conceptual summary of the class
The emergence of affirmative action policies: what they are and why they exist. Forms of hegemony based on ethnic and racial hierarchy operate to maintain "whites" or descendants of Europeans at the top of the racial pyramid, while the racialization of Black and Indigenous people keeps these groups in situations of less access to material and symbolic resources. The rhetoric of mestizaje (racial mixing) is used to undermine the social demands of Black and Indigenous social movements and intellectuals, thus perpetuating the concentration of power among local elites within the racialized and Eurocentric structure.
Each country in Latin America and the Caribbean has its own particularities and complex, distinct, and constantly evolving social processes. There are also several points of convergence in our historical processes and in our strategies for accessing material and symbolic power by different ethnic and racial groups.
This class focuses on the ways in which the process of resistance to race/ethnicity hierarchies developed policy proposals to promote equality for an Afro-descendant population in various Latin American countries.
Class 11: Black movements and different contexts of discussion and emergence of affirmative action for Afro-descendants
Teacher in charge: Rosa Berrio
Conceptual summary of the class
Throughout the centuries of slavery and in subsequent periods when forms of ethnic and racial hierarchy persisted, Afro-descendant movements maintained different forms of resistance, fighting against domination and for rights and citizenship. In the 20th century, these struggles gained a foothold in public debate, and several policy experiments were conducted to promote equality.
This class discusses how, in different contexts, the struggles of Afro-descendant movements were channeled to generate a response from the State in terms of equity policies.
Social demands gained momentum with the organization of multilateral organizations, proposals for an international human rights system, and the holding of three United Nations conferences on racism. The class also analyzes the impact of these international conferences, and in particular the Durban Conference, on the development of affirmative action policies for people of African descent in various Latin American countries.
Class 12: Comparative analysis of national experiences of affirmative action policies in the educational field in the Region
Teacher in charge: Pablo Vinicius Batistta Da Silva
Conceptual summary of the class
The class conducts a comparative analysis of national experiences with affirmative action policies in education in various countries of the region: Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Argentina, Uruguay, and Mexico. In doing so, it evaluates the commonalities and differences among these policies, considering their history, regulations, disputes, agency, and challenges.
Class 13: The current regulatory framework regarding the rights of Afro-descendant peoples: challenges and alternatives
Teachers in charge: Elia Avendaño Villafuerte and Felicitas López Sotolongo
Conceptual summary of the class
The class examines the regulatory framework of affirmative action policies based on the main legal instruments at the national, regional, and international levels that promote the rights of Afro-descendant peoples, with an emphasis on those related to education. While it accounts for the transformations that have occurred in the legal approach to the topic, it reveals as a central aspect the need to address the tension between the regulation of these rights and their implementation in practice. This frames a historical challenge for guaranteeing full citizenship in the face of structural and systemic racism.
This paper addresses the process of promoting and drafting, for the first time in history, an International Declaration of the Rights of People of African Descent and the role of the Afro-descendant movement in this context. It analyzes new international and national mechanisms, especially the significance and challenges of the United Nations Permanent Forum on People of African Descent. Emphasis is placed on the role of national programs and the impact of the demands of the Afro-descendant movement on the constitutions of the region.
Class 14: Ecogenoethnocide, truth and historical justice
Teacher in charge: Santiago Arboleda Quiñones
Conceptual summary of the class
This course aims to provide tools for reinterpreting the harm inflicted on Afro-Colombians during the internal armed conflict. It seeks to move beyond the fragmented descriptive and interpretive approaches that have prevailed to date. The guiding questions are: To what extent can what happened be considered an ecogeno-ethnocide? And why is it necessary to holistically understand ecocide, genocide, and ethnocide as a necrophilic colonial and neocolonial pattern?
The relevance of concepts such as genocide, ethnocide, and ecocide is defended, proposing a conceptual framework that integrates the holistic and relational vision of these ancestral communities with the notion of ecogenoethnocide. This conceptual framework seeks to address the ongoing tension between sociohistorical and legal truth, present in these types of phenomena subject to interpretive disputes. It advocates for critical, biocentric, and decolonizing social, human, and intercultural sciences that, from the lived experiences and emerging dissenting perspectives of the victims, strive to construct dignified memories, promote humanization, and achieve comprehensive historical justice.
Class 15: Systematizing dialogues for the closing of the Higher Diploma
Teachers in charge: Rosa Campoalegre Septien, Anny Ocoró Loango and the International Network of Afrofeminist Voices
Conceptual summary of the class
Assessment of learning, deconstructions, and alternative approaches. Revisiting the initial expectations of the Diploma program. Reflections on the achievement of objectives. Identification of emerging content for future editions. Peer evaluation. Methodological and organizational clarifications regarding final projects.
| Early registration (until 27/08) | General registration (May 6th to May 03st) | Registration without discount (September 4th to 9th) | Payment in 3 installments | |
| Full or Associate Member Center | $125 | $185 | $240 | USD 315 (3 x USD 105) |
| No Link | $250 | $310 | $370 | USD 540 (3 x USD 180) |
* Residents of Argentina will pay the equivalent in Argentine pesos according to the official exchange rate of the Banco de la Nación Argentina (BNA) on the day of payment.
You must be registered in the CLACSO Single Registration System (SUIC) and enter your username and password. If you are not registered, click here. hereTo access the registration form, you must click the "Register" button on the webpage of the Diploma you are interested in.
Upon completion of the registration process, you will receive a confirmation in your email.
Classes will begin in September and will conclude in December 2025.
All registered participants will receive, on the first day of activities, the necessary instructions to access the classes, bibliography, and discussion forums through the CLACSO Virtual Training Space.
Accessing and navigating the Virtual Learning Environment is very simple and user-friendly. In any case, a technical and academic support team will always be available. For inquiries, you can write to [email protected]
You must write an email with the request to [email protected] We will send you the requested certificate as soon as possible.
Exceptional criteria: In exceptional cases and within the first 20 days of starting the Higher Diploma, the student may write to [email protected] Requesting withdrawal and stating the reasons. After the case is evaluated, a response will be sent to the request. If approved, the student may resume the Higher Diploma program if a new cohort is offered the following year. After that period of time has elapsed since the start of the course, no requests will be accepted.
Money paid will only be refunded in cases where the organizing institutions decide to cancel the activity.
Yes, the advanced diploma is certified by CLACSO. The diploma will be sent digitally and is completely free of charge.
Payment can be made in one installment, by credit card or bank transfer. We also offer the option of paying in 3 installments.
Yes. There will be discounts for students belonging to CLACSO Member Centers and CLACSO Associated Centers, for CLACSO Associate Researchers, and for all those who pay within the discount period.
You can check if you belong to a member center here:
The Advanced Diploma program integrates a dynamic of asynchronous and synchronous classes. Classes are primarily asynchronous. The schedule for synchronous sessions will be communicated by the Diploma coordinator at the beginning of the program, and participation in these sessions is not a prerequisite for passing the program.
Queries: WhatsApp:+54 9 11 3880 – 1388
E-mail: [email protected]
