DESTABILIZING IMAGES AND PEDAGOGIES OF RESISTANCE:

BLACK WOMEN FACULTY IN BRAZILIAN GRADUATE EDUCATION

Abstract

This article examines the trajectories and experiences of Black women faculty in Brazilian graduate education, with a focus on the country’s South and Northeast regions. Adopting an intersectional perspective that considers the interplay of race, gender, and class, it argues that the presence of these faculty members operates as destabilizing images that unsettle the narcissistic pact of whiteness (BENTO, 2002). The study reveals how they craft pedagogies of resistance and insurgent epistemologies within higher education. Methodologically, it draws on a hybrid approach that combines documentary analysis of institutional policies with in-depth interviews conducted between 2023 and 2024. The professors, based at institutions in the states of Rio Grande do Sul and Sergipe, reflect on their pedagogical practices, institutional challenges, and strategies for confronting structural racism. Findings demonstrate how their presence generates tensions in academic spaces historically structured by white privilege, thereby challenging entrenched racial hierarchies. The pedagogies forged by these women reconfigure teaching practices and formative processes, underscoring the urgency of inclusive policies and the strengthening of affirmative action, particularly in light of Laws No. 12.711/2012 and No. 14.723/2023. This article contributes to debates on the construction of an anti-racist and plural graduate education, grounded in cognitive justice and the recognition of epistemic diversity.