Fronteiras do saber decolonial de gênero: leitura dos coletivos feministas na universidade pública

Abstract

This work discusses, through decolonial feminism, how there are still arrangements that favor a valorization of European and North American production of knowledge instead of Latin American and regional valorization which contribute to put women sidelined – whom are left out from certain spaces. Decolonial feminism deconstructs oppression from its origins, converging multiple questions of gender, race, social class, assuming a non-Eurocentric point of view. It proposes to listen and gives visibility to stories about women, delegitimizing violence, building bonds and leading to a (re)definition of the way we do science. Coloniality is present in the most diverse instances and social practices, including the university, through interfaces of the coloniality of knowledge, of being and of power; the resistances to this scenario are presented through social movements typified as collectives. The panorama of making visible and clear what is hidden with the colonial/modern gender system leads us to question: what is the role of feminist collectives in the decoloniality of knowledge in a public university from decolonial feminism point of view? Gender and feminism are still marginal subjects and the contribution of this research is to understand the role of feminist collectives in the decoloniality of knowledge within the scope of Federal University of Lavras from decolonial feminism point of view. The research approach is qualitative, characterizing itself as descriptive and explanatory. A triangulation was performed in longitudinal studies with interviews between phases of observation. For data analysis, a comprehensive interpretation or argumentative narrative was adopted. The analysis allowed women’s knowledge to rise and have a major role in this research, enabling them to discuss about feminist resistance groups actions, about their journey aspects and their relation with the collectives, their understanding about it, about different forms of coloniality’s oppression and manifestations, and about the challenge of intersectionality that permeates these spaces. The collectives and the feminist debate triggered changes in the personal identity of the interviewees in constant transformation with these women union as a resistance identity. The construction of the collectives’ identity has been mainly formed by transdisciplinary knowledge, reinterpreting the reality and the education in the university. The collectives work as shelters, counseling and supporting women whom have experienced some form of violence or oppression in or outside the university. The collectives have a commitment to perceive, to lead and to break the oppression thinking about race, social classes, gender, and sexuality – despite not achieving intersectionality in practice. It concludes, emphasizing their revolutionary power, the collectives are in action, acting in thinking and the rebuilding the senses upon what it is to be a woman, constructing a denatured view about the social reality, about the other, about the place itself, transforming the university environment. Therefore, they are a collective and shared construction to contribute on overcoming the patriarchalisation of society and to appreciating the public university.