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 seeks 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 constitutes an academic, political, educational, and aesthetic space, as well as a platform for the creation of a collective within 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 adopting a new perspective and undertaking more effective actions based on the specificities of Afro-Latin American and Caribbean thought and creativity. Likewise, 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 knowledge about these processes, and of strategies to fight against these forms of violence.

The processes of oppression and racist violence affecting people of African descent in the African diaspora have been confronted and combated by the organizational strength of Black women and men. Black movement organizations, Black women, and collective actions undertaken by Afro-Latin Americans and Afro-Caribbeans have brought racism and racial oppression to light. In some contexts, with varying levels, intensity, scope, and outcomes, these movements have driven the development and implementation of public policies to combat racism. This training program aims to reflect the academic growth of the intellectual organization of Black Latin Americans and Caribbeans, generating Afro-oriented theoretical and intellectual production that investigates and confronts epistemic racism and is committed to the development of emancipatory knowledge.

• 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 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 one year 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. It will last one year and requires, for accreditation, the completion and approval of a final project, as well as participation in at least 80% of the activities and tasks assigned by the instructors.

The specialization and international course will take place between September 2019 and August 2020.

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 the international course are certified by CLACSO.

The specialization certifies 480 hours/chair of work; the international course 120 hours/chair.

International Course: “Afro-Latin American and Caribbean Studies”

Abstract: Thinking about Latin America and the Caribbean means thinking about race completely outside the framework of multiculturalism and the political identities of the globalized spectrum, which constructed the myth of “race” as ethnicity or substantivized cultural difference founded on separation. “Race” in our continent is a product of racialization of colonial origin that varies according to different national contexts. There are three main axes through which the capitalist power structure classifies people: work, sex, and race. However, it is the category of race that is the structuring center of coloniality-modernity. From this common ground, the keynote lectures will address topics related to being Afro-descendant in Latin America and the Caribbean in the fields of history, philosophy, religion, the arts, law, gender relations, politics, violence, and education, among others.

Classes and teachers

• Intersectionality: A useful paradigm for Afro-Latin American and Afro-Caribbean studies. Mara Viveros Vigoya.
• Black Movement and anti-racism: struggles built in emancipation processes. Nilma Gomes.
• Understanding race among us. Rita Segato.
• Women, feminisms and amefricanidade. Intersectionality as a methodological proposal regarding insurgent epistemologies. Luciana de Oliveira.
• African philosophies in Africa and the Diaspora: ways to confront racism and understand our history. Wanderson Flor do Nascimento.
• Between "race" and miscegenation: the harmonious way to escape racialization? Claudia Mosquera Labbé.
• Ethnic-racial self-identification, censuses, and population policies. Franklin Gil Hernández.
• The contributions of Ubuntu ethics to the fight against racism in our America. Jean Bosco Kakozi Kashindi.
• Afro-knowledge in the aesthetic elaboration of "mulatto" music. Ángel G. Quintero Rivera.
• The Caribbean: Configurations of Race, Nation, and Ethnicity Around a Name. Elissa Lister.
• Afro-descendants: Crossroads of the Decade. Rosa Campoalegre Septien

OPTIONAL SEMINARS

Workshop to support the submission of the final project

Summary: This workshop is a training space designed to guide the development of the final monograph for the specialization. It will support students in defining their object of analysis, translating it into a viable research problem, constructing a work plan, developing argumentative frameworks, and establishing analytical conclusions. These tasks will be carried out individually and collectively through peer exchange and with the workshop instructor, following a discussion forum format. The workshop's objective is to produce a draft of the final specialization paper. The final monograph may be written in Spanish, Portuguese, or English.

Optional seminar "Discourses on gender, sexuality and race"

The accreditation and certification of the Specialization and the International Course will be carried out by the Latin American Council of Social Sciences (CLACSO)

To encourage the participation of Afro-descendant students and researchers affiliated with the CLACSO network's Associated Centers, 50 scholarships will be awarded for enrollment in the Specialization and International Course in Afro-Latin American and Caribbean Studies . The scholarships cover 100% of tuition fees.

Participants will be selected by the evaluation team appointed by the convening organizations. Applications will be submitted through the CLACSO website.

Method of awarding scholarships:

1. Candidates must complete the scholarship application available at our website.
2. The available scholarships (50) will be assigned to students in training respecting gender equity.
3. An Academic Committee will analyze the applications and award the scholarships; it is not possible to appeal the result.
4. This call for scholarship applications will remain open until September 08, 2019.