Afro-Latin American and Caribbean Studies

The Specialization and International Course in Afro-Latin American and Caribbean Studies is an intensive postgraduate training program that aims to disseminate current research and debates on the history, trajectories, and social dynamics of the Afro-descendant population of Latin America and the Caribbean from critical decolonial, Afro-Latin American, Afro-Caribbean, and Afro-feminist perspectives. It also provides a space for intertwining academic, political, educational, and aesthetic reflections and fostering the creation and strengthening of this field of study.

In Latin America and the Caribbean, coloniality is a constitutive and specific element of a power structure in which the imposition of an ethno-racial classification on its population played a key role. Becoming aware of this coloniality of power, which operates in macro-social, micro-social, and subjective spheres, requires addressing the epistemologies of Afro-America and the racial question as a colonial historical invention whose effects continue to influence the social destiny and daily lives of those who inhabit this region. In turn, recognizing power as a web of relationships that inextricably intertwines at least three systems of oppression—race, gender, and class—and the various matrices that shaped the “historical alterities” derived from racialization in each nation, implies offering a new perspective on these relationships and promoting more effective actions, based on the specificities of Afro-Latin American and Caribbean thought and creativity. Finally, it involves understanding and confronting the processes of discrimination, exclusion, criminalization, genocide, femicide, and juvenicide of Afro-descendant populations and participating in the creation of conditions for the production of their own knowledge about these processes, and of appropriate strategies to fight against these forms of violence.

Over the past decade, the region has witnessed what could be termed an anti-racist turn, a shift in how racism and its effects are addressed in the public sphere, particularly from the perspective of local anti-racist work. Simultaneously, the last two years have brought to the forefront the processes of oppression and racist violence inherent in colonialism—as evidenced by the disproportionate ethnic and racial distribution of COVID-19 victims and the global movement of protests and awareness-raising against racism sparked by police violence and the deaths of George Floyd in Minneapolis and other young people of color in various countries across the region. Furthermore, in many contexts, this movement has driven—with varying levels of intensity, scope, and results—the development and implementation of public policies to combat racism.

This training program seeks to account for the growth in the academic and political sphere of the intellectual and political organization of Black Latin Americans and Caribbeans and of an Afro-oriented theoretical and intellectual production that is investigating and confronting racism in its multiple dimensions and levels, from a critical and emancipatory perspective.

• To publicize and promote research on theories, histories, philosophies, knowledge, arts and cosmologies of African heritage in the Latin American and Caribbean continent.
• To provide conceptual and historical elements that allow for critical and intersectional approaches to addressing the racialization processes of Afro-descendant populations and their effects on social and daily life.
• Promote intersectional and situated analyses that allow understanding of the complexity of the existence of Afro-descendant women, men and LGBTIQ people and encourage the recognition of their rights.
• To train and empower for the design, monitoring and evaluation of actions and policies aimed at guaranteeing the human rights of Afro-descendant populations in the face of criminalization, genocide, femicide and black youth murder.
• Analyze the international conventions, agreements and resolutions that recognize and protect the rights of Afro populations within the framework of the Decade for People of African Descent.

The Specialization and the International Course are aimed at undergraduate and postgraduate students; teachers at all levels; activists and members of Afro-descendant organizations, trade unions, social movements and political parties; public officials; press workers; members and managers of non-governmental organizations and professionals interested in Afro-Latin American and Caribbean studies.

The Specialization in Afro-Latin American and Caribbean Studies will last 12 months and requires for its accreditation the completion of: an international course and two optional virtual seminars from the curriculum; a writing support workshop; and the preparation of a final monograph.

The international course consists of lectures given by the program coordinators and the teaching team. Accreditation requires the completion and approval of a final project, as well as participation in at least 80% of the activities and assignments proposed by the instructors.

The specialization and international course will take place between September 2022 and August 2023.

Students in the specialization and international course will have the support of academic tutors who will accompany them through the virtual seminars and guide them in completing their final projects.

Once the seminars have concluded, students will have four months to submit their final project. If they still need to complete a credit, they will also have four months to do so.

The specialization and international course are certified by CLACSO and FLACSO Brazil.

The specialization certifies 360 hours/chair of work; the international course 90 hours/chair.

CLARIFICATION: Those who enroll in the full specialization should not enroll in the International Course separately.

The courses may be taught in Spanish or Portuguese interchangeably, both official languages ​​of CLACSO and FLACSO.

The online seminars will be offered in both Spanish and Portuguese. Similarly, the course materials may be provided in either of the two official languages. Student contributions to the discussion forums may also be in these languages. The final research paper may be written in either Spanish or Portuguese.