This Autumn School explores Latin America and the Global South as sources of resistance, solidarity, and knowledges otherwise (Escobar 2007). As immigrant researchers and Latin American women, we seek to foster cross-cultural dialogue on gender, diversity, and decolonial practices within academia. We feel inspired by and wish to build on the work of female researchers of diverse skin colors and geographies who have challenged the Matrix of Domination (Collins 2000) emphasizing, the role of practice and horizontality within the decolonial project (Rivera Cusicanqui 2012) towards epistemic and social transformation.
Our goal is to create a dynamic, interdisciplinary platform that examines gendered perspectives on the challenges and disparities of knowledge production in academia. With a focus on decolonial methodologies, the program will explore how Latin American women and other women in movement navigate and transform their own borderlands, while sustaining a political and creative presence in their homelands. We invite critical analysis of the persistence of Eurocentric paradigms and structural barriers, while highlighting alternative epistemologies emerging from the Global South.
Key Objectives and Thematic Framework
Challenging Systemic Barriers:
Engage with alternative theories and practices, or knowledges otherwise that question established academic hierarchies and promote inclusive and transformative methodologies and cognitive justice.
Amplifying Marginalized Voices:
Provide a space for scholars, students, and practitioners—especially women of color navigating historically and still predominantly masculinized fields such as STEMPS while confronting the hegemonic masculinity of academia (Connell 2005).
Promoting Cross-cultural Exchange:
Encourage transcontinental dialogue and cocreation of innovative research strategies and pedagogical practices, celebrating the richness of exchange, within the universitas - unity in diversity.
The project is informed by a rich tapestry of theoretical perspectives as well as the life stories of academic disruption from different corners of the world, including:
Chicana Feminist Epistemologies:
Drawing on Gloria Anzaldúa’s concepts of the borderlands, we explore on the importance of hybrid identity and knowledge production.
Decolonial Methodologies:
In dialogue with the legacy of Linda Tuhiwai Smith, we critically assess the limitations of traditional Eurocentric research paradigms and advocate for methodologies that honor indigenous and mestizo epistemologies, critical theories, and alternative pedagogical approaches.
Intersectional Analysis:
We explore the interplay of gender, race, migration, and academic inclusion as experienced by women of color drawing on Gayatri Spivak's subalternity and Dahlia de la Cerda’s insights on embodied resistance.
For questions, registration, and possible collaborations please write to:
