New reading group on "The Dialectic Is in the Sea: The Black Radical Thought of Beatriz Nascimento"

This is to invite you to a reading group on the feminist political economy of Beatriz Nascimento and her work on relations between Brazil and the African continent. 

The reading group will focus on the recently published The Dialectic Is in the Sea: The Black Radical Thought of Beatriz Nascimento (2023). The book introduces and translates some of Nascimento's most important texts. Beatriz Nascimento was a founding voice and writer of Black feminism who researched 'alternative social systems organized by black people', such as quilombos and favelas. Her research on race relations in the country shows the conjunctions between history and anthropology and the construction of anti-racist organisation and theory. In 1979, while travelling to the African continent, Nascimento visited the territories of the former Angolan quilombos and reaffirmed the link between black Brazilian and African cultures through the prism of Atlantic connections. Alongside Lélia Gonzalez (1935-1994), Sueli Carneiro (1950-) and Luiza Bairros (1953-2016), Nascimento is one of the most important Brazilian intellectuals. Due to her remarkable contributions to academic research, she was posthumously awarded the title of Doctor Honoris Causa by the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ) in October 2021.

OneDrive link to the book: The Dialectic Is in the Sea_The Black Radical Thought of Beatriz Nascimento (2023).pdf 

To join the reading group, please reach out privately via email (Allan.SouzaQueiroz@UGent.be). Meetings will take place at the Department of Conflict and Development Studies between April and May, but remote participation is also an option. We plan on convening two to three sessions in advance of a film screening on May 13th featuring Beatriz Nascimento (further details on this will be provided soon). 

We aim to initiate a series of discussions at UGent focusing on the works of Southern thinkers, especially South American Black feminist, indigenous, and quilombola thinkers who developed anti-colonial, decolonial, or counter-colonial approaches. Please stay tuned for updates and do get in touch if you have any suggestions. Hopefully, we will have sufficient time, energy, and enthusiasm to come together, read, and discuss some texts. 

This activity is particularly timely as we near the end of the International Decade for People of African Descent (2015-2024).