The context: Universities around the world have been fundamental tools for social development, for safeguarding collections and archives, for promoting humanist and democratic values. On the other hand, universities have also been instruments of colonization, concentration of privileges and reproduction of inequalities. Like the rest of society, universities face the enormous challenge of reparation.
There is much to be repaired around us: from structural inequalities of gender, race and sexual identity to destroyed biomes and ecosystems, to communities destroyed by climate change and violence. There is also much to repair within our universities: ensuring a place for ways of life that have never been recognized, rebuilding student and faculty bodies in accordance with the ethnic, class and gender composition of society in general, opening or reopening archives from dark periods, reinterpreting collections and archives, rebuilding libraries to accommodate greater diversity. In some cases, it is necessary to promote processes of true memory and justice, publicly apologize, demarcate dates and places.
The University of São Paulo´s Provost for Inclusion and Belonging, with support from FAPESP, proposes the São Paulo School of Advanced Science in University, Memory and Reparation to address the links between academic research and reparation processes, and recognizing the inseparability of reparation and memory.
The School addresses the social role of the University, not only as a platform and repository for research on the themes of memory, justice, and reparation but also as a relevant institution in these processes. The school stresses the debate on the role of the university as a safeguard of archives and collections, as an entity that interprets and makes available places of memory to society, as an institution that can promote (or obstruct) the right to memory, an institution that can carry social reparation initiatives.
With partnerships of: USP Agency for National and International Cooperation – AUCANI-USP; Museu Paulista; Centro Maria Antônia; Centro de Preservação Cultural USP; Biblioteca Brasiliana Guita e José Mindlin.
Expected audience: The students must be enrolled in undergraduate or graduate programs in Brazil or abroad, being potential candidates for master’s, doctorate or post-doctoral programs in higher education and research institutes in the State of Sao Paulo. Recently graduated PhDs can also be accepted. Students from every field are welcome
We invite researchers from all over the world and from all disciplines to submit proposals to participate in the program. We expect participants whose research projects relate to the concepts of memory and reparation, and whose goal is to contribute to the proposal, promotion and acceleration of reparation processes.
Fifty participants from outside Brazil will be selected, 20 from the State of São Paulo and 30 from other Brazilian states. The selection will be based on the candidate’s letter of interest and curriculum to be submitted for selection, respecting regional diversity and criteria of gender and ethnic-racial equity.
FAPESP will pay for the selected participants: airfare (economy class) or ground transportation costs; daily allowances during the course; health insurance. Some of the meals will also be provided free of charge in the University Restaurant.
The Program
The School’s program will have three main components:
– In-depth discussion of the research projects presented by participants, by experts from Brazil and other countries, and by other course participants. Each participant will submit a poster with a summary of their research. The poster will be reviewed during the course with the supervision of the experts in charge, and after the course;
– Lectures by international experts on the themes of memory and reparation. Confirmed professors: Aline Montenegro (Museu Paulista); Ana Claudia Veiga de Castro (FAUD-USP/Centro Maria Antônia); Ana Lúcia Duarte Lanna (FAUD-USP / PRIP-USP); Ana Paula Brito (REBRAPESC); Deborah Neves (UNIFESP); Gabi Dolff Bonekamper (TU Berlim); Flávia Brito do Nascimento (FAUD-USP / CPC-USP); Paulo Tavares (UnB); Renato Cymbalista (FAUD-USP / PRIP-USP); Mandy Sanger (District Six Museum Cape Town); Leslé Honoré (Urban Gateways, Chicago).
– Visits to institutions and places of memory in São Paulo, museums, sites of memory and cultural centers linked to USP.
The program will ensure time for interaction among participants. Aiming at the exchange of experiences and the construction of possibilities for collective work.
The School activities will be held in English, with simultaneous translation available in specific sessions. Check out the full program here.
January 5th 2025 to January 27th 2025 – period of applications
February 5th 2025 – publication of selected applicants
February 10th 2025 – deadline for confirmation of interest and sending the necessary documents for flight reservation and health insurance
June 1st 2025 – sending of posters for discussion in the School