The (in)visibility of Blacks in the Production of Knowledge on Graduate Programs at UFPB

Abstract

This study analyzes the knowledge production of researchers in the science memory of Federal University of Paraíba, focusing on the graduate programs located at campus I, aiming at the theses, dissertations, monographs, reports, articles, essays, and other documents produced by researchers of that Institution. There is a suspicion that the studies published up to now have given more priority to the topics on universal constructs, not being identified a significant production related to topics of interest to the black population. This discrimination contributes to increase the invisibility of African descents in contemporary society. The way in which knowledge is produced in public universities and the audience to whom it is produced is also a crucial task that must be undertaken by researchers of Information Science and Education. Not only does such an ethno-social responsibility aim to communicate and disseminate this knowledge production, but it also turns to topics which result in a knowledge production that permits an intervention to change the historical and structural situation in which live the African descents in Brazil. We conclude that the science memory of that Institution needs to be properly disseminated in the academic community and in the general public, so that they will be able to know what researchers do inside and outside the laboratories. A preliminary analysis shows that the exclusion of some topics from the science memory, the imposition of silence, the interdiction of the other’s voice, and the impediment of the other to say about himself/herself, contributes to the (in)visibility of African descents in the Brazilian society.