MESPT and the counter-colonisation of University

Epistemic territories in dispute

Abstract

The present paper intends to reflect on the academia as a place for social transformation. It shares the experience of eight MESPT students, interviewed during their course. The criteria for choosing the interviewees was to become as close as possible to the social and demographic composition of the whole classroom, base on ethnicity and gender. As a result, here are registered the speeches of indigenous students, quilombolas, gipsies, fisherwomen and men and afro-religious representatives. The interviews are semi-structured and the speech analysis was based on the concept of counter-colonization as developed by Antônio Bispo dos Santos (2015), as well as on the reflections on the motivations to enter higher education presented by Luciano (2011) and Sotto (2017). The paper concludes that the access to politically relevant positions and the epistemic confrontation with academia are the main motivations for these students to join the program.