Elisabete Figueroa dos Santos: Holds a bachelor's degree (2008), a master's degree (2011), and a doctorate (2015) in Psychology from the Federal University of São Carlos – UFSCar. Currently, she is head and professor of the Department of Educational Psychology (DEPE) and a professor in the Postgraduate Program in Education (PPGE/UNICAMP). She leads the Research Group "Differences and Subjectivities in Education" at the Faculty of Education/UNICAMP and coordinates the Study Group on Black Thought in Psychology and Education. She is a member of INDDHU (Research Group on Childhoods, Differences and Human Rights/UNICAMP). She is an associate coordinator of the Afro-Brazilian Studies Center (NEAB/UNICAMP). She is president of the UNICAMP Verification Chamber (CAVU). She is a member of the Advisory Committee on Racial Relations (CADER/UNICAMP). She is a member of the Working Group "Psychology and Ethnic-Racial Relations" of the National Association for Research and Graduate Studies in Psychology (ANPEPP). She is part of the "Interuniversity Network for Higher Education and Indigenous and Afro-descendant Peoples in Latin America (Red ESIAL)," representing NEAB and UNICAMP. She has experience in the areas of Social Psychology and Educational Psychology, working mainly on the following themes: ethnic-racial relations, gender relations, resistance movements, epistemicide, and Africanities. She is a single mother to Malick (2008) and Naomi (2018).
JULY'S THEME: Student Struggle and Affirmative Action: Special 10th Anniversary of the 2016 Strike at Unicamp, history of quotas, inclusion of vulnerable populations, affirmative action, and student movements.
Research and Scientific Dissemination Coordination (CPDC) . What is the title or topic of your research?
Elisabete . The title of the research I'm going to talk about today is "African Sciences for the Decolonization of Knowledge and Confrontations Against Epistemicide".
This research was conducted with funding from PIND, the Incentive Program for New Teachers, over the last three years, from 2023 to 2025. It comprised three fronts: a data collection front across the university, in all undergraduate courses; a teaching front, which involved actions to promote knowledge of African origin in some of the subjects I taught; and an outreach front, which aimed to connect students involved in these subjects with the Black communities in the city of Campinas.
So, as I sought to identify what knowledge of African origin and about ethnocratic relations existed in the curricula and practices of the different undergraduate courses at Unicamp, I also sought to promote this knowledge in the contexts in which I was involved as a teacher and researcher.
CPDC. Do you conduct individual or team research? Who participates?
Elisabete . This was a research project that I initially submitted to Firex, a program of FireEx, but later several students, BAS scholarship holders, and also graduate advisees joined the team.
So, in the end, the team was made up of master's student Ana Carolina Silva dos Santos, master's student Jaciara Cristina da Silva, then doctoral student Mais Helena Ribeiro, now Mais is a professor at Unilab and my research partner, doctoral student Constanza Lobos, who came to do an exchange program at Unicamp and ended up joining the research team as well, doctoral student Elda Moreira, doctoral student Airton Pereira Júnior, and the BAS scholarship students Natália Vitória da Silva, Pátima Vilanulo Costa, Abumbi Bronx, and the NEAB technical assistant Gislane Alíbio.
So, the team was quite large in the end.
CPDC. When did the research begin and what was the expected completion date?
Elisabete . The research began in the second half of 2023 and ended in the second half of 2025.
CPDC. Does the research have any funding?
Elisabete . Yes, she was funded by Firex, which is the university's support fund, the Research and Extension Support Fund, I think, through the PIND program, a program to encourage new faculty members.
CPDC. Is this research linked to any graduate program or research group?
Elisabete . She was linked to the group I was part of at the time, which was DIS, the Differences and Subjectivities in Education group. And, therefore, she was also linked to the Postgraduate Program in Education, also because a large part of my research team consisted of master's and doctoral students from this program.
CPDC. What was the central objective of the investigation?
Elisabete . The objective was to identify what content of African and Afro-Brazilian origin existed and was or is promoted in the different undergraduate courses at the State University of Campinas.
CPDC. What methodology was used?
Elisabete : We initially created a digital form. The intention was to send this digital form via institutional email to all incoming and graduating students in 2023 and 2024. We tried this method, but the response rate was extremely low. We tried via the Academic Affairs Department (DAC), which sent these emails three or four times to the entire student body, and the response rate was very low. I think we have some possible explanations for this. I believe many research projects are conducted digitally, thus competing with other research and the schedules of students. And I think the topic is also, to some extent, taboo. Therefore, having identified that the response rate was very low, we moved to an in-person application, across all undergraduate courses.
The initial idea was to include all undergraduate courses in all fields of knowledge at Unicamp. So, we initially contacted the course coordinators to request authorization to administer these forms in person to incoming and graduating classes.
Once the coordinators authorized the application, we asked for the names of teachers or subjects, classes, and times when we could conduct it. And that's when the research team started growing, because we moved towards an in-person application of this research.
I said that initially we had this intention because, in the end, not all courses opened their doors for the application of the research. I think that's also a fact; the courses that collaborated the most with the application of the research, where the research took place most, were the courses in the humanities and exact sciences. The health science courses were very difficult to access; either the coordinators didn't respond, or they responded but kept postponing the possibility of application, or they put up many bureaucratic barriers to prevent it from happening. And there's a very interesting case of one of these health science courses, where the coordinator put up several bureaucratic steps to be completed before we could carry out the application. When we managed to overcome all those hurdles, he authorized it, but he didn't indicate any professor or any subject in which we could do this. He recommended that we do it in an open space, under a tree, inviting students to be there and fill out the digital form, which completely made it unfeasible. If the virtual invitation to answer didn't work, imagine if we invited students to join us under a tree and fill out a digital form. That's not going to happen!
So, this is one of the most symbolic cases we've had of an initial "no" but ultimately a "no."
CPDC . When did the need to investigate this topic arise?
Elisabete. The need arises from a literature that will speak precisely about the dimension of epistemicide, that is, the systematic non-treatment of themes of knowledge, wisdom, and technologies of African and Afro-Brazilian origin in the different instances of knowledge production, especially those that are considered legitimate or legitimized, such as schools and universities, for example.
So, there is already a vast body of literature denouncing the lack of treatment of these forms of knowledge in different areas. Therefore, given this observation, the intention was to find out precisely if there are advances at Unicamp, or if this history of epistemicide still resonates. If there are advances, in which areas is this happening, and in what ways?
So, it was from that point that we decided to carry out this research.
CPDC. How does this research relate to the current challenges of education in Brazil?
Elisabete, I think we're at a point, more than 20 years after the establishment of Law 10.639, which proposes the treatment of Afro-Brazilian and African histories and cultures in basic education, and also proposes, based on the opinion issued about this law, the need for co-responsibility of higher education in relation to the effective implementation of this law in basic education. In other words, if we are not training teachers within the university who know about this knowledge, these technologies, these themes to address this in basic education, the law will not be effective there. So, we have more than 20 years, 23 years since this law was enacted, and it is still not fully implemented.
Furthermore, we also have over 20 years of quotas in higher education, which, decade after decade, has altered the student profile present in the university and challenged the university to recognize that it is not just bodies. It is not merely an aesthetic change in the university, but a structural change that, therefore, demands other forms of knowledge within this context.
So, in the end, I think that these two contexts, both the establishment of the law, a law that is yet to be fully implemented, and the advent of quotas, also create a tension that will demand that education discuss, propose, and not only diagnose how this knowledge is being guaranteed, or not, in curricula, practices, and the implementation and legitimization of knowledge within these fields, but also that, based on this, we promote these forms of knowledge.
So, I think this is an important and strategic moment for us to address this and promote knowledge in the field of education.
CPDC. Which authors or theories were most influential in shaping your work?
Elisabete . I started largely from the framework of Sueli Carneiro and Renato Nogueira, who discuss the dimension of epistemicide. But also, Renato, in addition to denouncing epistemicide, also coined a notion, or proposed a theoretical perspective, that he calls Afro-perspective, which is a theoretical lens that seeks not to reject European classics—he brings European classics into the conversation as well—but he values counter-colonial, quilombola, Black, African, and Indigenous knowledge.
So he brings this confluence of knowledge into the Afro-perspective. This theoretical lens also somehow inspired the readings, propositions, and theorizations we made within the research, as well as the perspective of Afrocentricity, especially the discussions of Moléf Katechante, a theorist who addresses a central dimension of this discussion: the notion of agency of the African person or agency of the Black person. He argues that when we are distanced from our original symbolic horizon, or an African symbolic horizon that recognizes us as subjects and validates us as subjects in the world, we are in a state of agency. Therefore, to reclaim this symbolic horizon and strengthen and promote it is to enable Black African subjects in the diaspora to be in a state of agency.
So, I think these are some concepts, some notions that are brought into this research.
CPDC. What have been the main findings so far?
Elisabete . Some interesting findings, as I mentioned before, relate precisely to a reluctance from different courses, from different areas of knowledge, but especially from the health area, to receive us. Not all courses were receptive; nursing, for example, was one of those courses that received us and assisted us throughout the process of applying the digital forms, which contributed significantly to the research. But this was not the norm. In general, we had a lot of difficulty accessing courses in the health area. Those who responded to our forms the most were white students who self-identified as white, and most were from the exact and technological sciences, which is also quite interesting.
Yes, we have a series of numerical findings and discussions, but I wanted to focus more on the thematic categories that we identified. The thematic categories that appeared, that emerged as central dimensions of what the students were proposing. And these categories arose because we applied this digital form that had mostly closed-ended questions. I think there was one open-ended question, which was whether there was anything else the person wanted to say. And there, people spoke, they talked a lot, most of the people participating in the research. And then we categorized that open-ended question.
So, the categories we found were contestations of some point in the research. For example, there were students who questioned the necessity or validity of research of this nature in the 21st century, which discusses racism and knowledge of African origin. Some of these students even said that they didn't see the need for research of this nature, nor for the treatment of knowledge of African origin in their respective fields of knowledge, since Black people were only very recently arriving in these areas. Therefore, they didn't yet have consistent contributions to be taken to undergraduate courses, for example. I remember a mathematics student, for instance, saying that Black people are a very recent addition to mathematics. So, what are the contributions of Black or African people to this area of knowledge? And that's interesting because it makes explicit a systematic erasure of the fact that mathematics originated in Africa, that the first mathematical instruments were found in Africa, that many mathematical advances were made by the Egyptian civilization, for example, not only because there were other great civilizations and other great peoples, especially in sub-Saharan Africa, who are not as talked about as the Egyptian civilization, but who were just as great and important as the Egyptian civilization, and who made contributions even to the field of exact sciences.
So, this lack of knowledge, not only of this student but of students in general, speaks to epistemicide.
Another category that emerged was the critique of epistemicide. Many students, both male and female, spoke about not seeing any discussion of race or African-based knowledge in their respective courses. Some of these students even said that because I asked a closed-ended question—in their respective field of study, "Do you learn about African-based knowledge?"—the answer was yes and no. Some students answered yes, but then, when faced with an open-ended question, they explained: "Look, I saw it, but I saw a slide, or I saw it in a class, or I saw it in an elective course, so you can't say the course includes that debate." It was a very specific issue. And some students even said: "Look, when it appears, it appears from a perspective of, wait a minute, I've already talked about all the European classics, now let me show that this little bit of knowledge exists here too, or as a way of saying, no, wait a minute, I'm still a decolonial and anti-racist person, so let me bring a slide that talks about the racial issue or the issue from an African perspective."
But this doesn't translate to a systematic treatment of this knowledge within the field of knowledge in which these courses are situated. So, it also speaks to epistemicide.
The other category was demands for training on Africa and anti-racism. So, students were saying: “Look, it doesn’t exist, we don’t have Black teachers, there’s no treatment on racial issues and Africanities, but we need to have it at different levels. Teachers also need to be trained to be able to bring this knowledge to us.”
There was also a category that we called the manifestation or celebration of Africa, which involved people highlighting the grandeur of African knowledge and African culture, and the need to address this in curricula; the other category was the recognition of disciplines or courses.
So, these were students who said, "Look, in my field of study, there's a subject that deals with, that presents the concepts, that discusses in depth, taught by such-and-such professor." So, it was a recognition of some of these initiatives that were important for them to access this knowledge.
And the last category we identified was praise for the research. So, several students talked about the importance of the research, unlike the first category, which was because the research exists, the last one was how good it is that the research exists. I stopped to think now and realized, for example, that in my course there are no Black professors. Before I answered the survey, I hadn't stopped to think about the fact that there isn't a single Black professor in my course. There's a computer science student who says: "It's frightening to realize that in my course there are zero Black professors, none." And I think the research also contributed to people stopping to think and doing what has been called the "neck test," which is to look around to see how this space is occupied, and not only the physical, geographical space, but also the space of knowledge.
So I think that's a bit of a summary of the research findings.
CPDC. Has the research already resulted in any publications or presentations at events? If so, where?
Elisabete , we submitted three articles and organized a book, which is currently under review. We are waiting for a response regarding the possibility of publication in book format.
And we presented the research at four scientific events. One of them was the Brazilian Congress of Black Researchers, which took place in Belém do Pará in 2024, and we had the support of the Postgraduate Program in Education to participate. We also presented at Combate, which is the international conference on art, activism and citizenship that took place in Lisbon. And we also went with funding from the postgraduate program. We also presented at the International Congress of African Studies in 2025, with the help of the postgraduate program as well, and at the annual conference of the American Association of Blacks in Higher Education in 2025 as well.
So this is a little bit of what we've already done discussing the research.
CPDC. What are the next steps after completion? Are there any planned developments?
Elisabete: Yes, based on these findings from this research, I'm proposing a new project that I should submit to FAPESP now, in which we want to identify, thinking about Black students who are in the university, how these students participate in Afro-Brazilian cultural expressions, Black collectives, and Black territories. How do they belong to Black territories? How does this impact the knowledge they are producing within the university?
So this is the overall objective of the work that I must submit now, and it is an extension of the findings from the previous research.
One dimension I didn't mention, but many students talked about accessing knowledge of African origin and about race relations through other students or through participation in the student movement and Black collectives. So I was able to perceive that Black collectives had an important function in this movement of knowledge, based on African and Afro-Brazilian references.
So I want to unfold this in this new research, understanding exactly how participation in these collectives, in these cultural manifestations, and belonging to Black territories impacts the production of knowledge that is happening at the university in this post-training action phase.
Elisabete: I wanted to say that this research was carried out with public funding and that it involves several dimensions that are also of public interest. Our denunciation of epistemicide within the university is something that has significant social and scientific relevance. Therefore, we hope that this data and these discussions will reach not only the different areas of knowledge within the university itself, but also other universities, because we understand that this is not a reality unique to the State University of Campinas; it is present in how higher education is structured.
So I think this is a matter of public interest.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
SPEAKING OF RESEARCH!
Topic: Student Struggle and Affirmative Action
Interview conducted on: 07/05/2026
Posted in: 23/07/2026
Researcher Interviewed: Elizabeth Figueroa dos Santos
Interviewer: Julia Santiago Carrion
Screenplay: Erika Blaudt and Lucas Ferreira
Executive production: Lucas Ferreira, Cláudia Reis and Julia Santiago Carrion
Direction: Nora Rut Krawczyk
Presented by: CPDC – FE – Unicamp