The Political-Pedagogical Praxis of Afro-Brazilian Travestis and Trans Women: A Reading List by Maria Clara Araújo dos Passos
Top row (left to right): Jovanna Cardoso, Thiffany Odara, Maria Clara Araújo dos Passos, and Ana Flor Fernandes Rodrigues. Bottom Row (left to right): Jaqueline Gomes de Jesus, Jota Mombaça, Benny Briolly, and Dora Silva Santana.
A reading list by Maria Clara Araújo dos Passos from her teach-in “The Political-Pedagogical Praxis of Afro-Brazilian Travestis and Trans Women (1979-2020)” for the School for Black Feminist Politics.
On Saturday, September 18th, 2021, scholar and activist Maria Clara Araújo dos Passos led the teach-in "The Political-Pedagogical Praxis of Afro-Brazilian Travestis and Trans Women (1979-2020) for The School for Black Feminist Politics. You can watch the teach-in here.
About the teach-in: Right now, Brazilian progressive activists are denouncing that under Bolsonaro’s administration, in the first six months of 2021, more than 75 travestis and trans women were murdered. About 80% of the murders against the trans community in Brazil in the past 3 years were against Afro-Brazilian travestis and trans women. So, in Brazil, racism, and transphobia walk together. But we must discuss not only those terrific numbers but also what has been done against this dynamic of war that never ceases. Next year (2022), we’ll celebrate the 30th anniversary of the foundation of the social-political movement of travestis e transexual women in Brazil. In a moment in which Latin American is witnessing a neoconservative agenda that impacts our democracies, those actresses are presenting a political-pedagogical praxis responsible for fighting the narrative that frames them as non-citizens.
Even though the intersection of racism and transphobia tries to position them outside the abyssal lines that delimit the status of citizens, or even the ontological status of human beings, Afro-Brazilian travestis and trans women have found ways to collectively affirm a critical-reflexive citizenship able to challenge the forces of coloniality. Over the past three decades, those actresses have mobilized collective action, contributed to LGBTI+ affirmative policies, and created insurgent and emancipatory knowledge. This talk aims to reflect on how Afro-Brazilian travestis and trans women have been contributing for the broadening of social-political and pedagogical agendas in Brazil.
About the teach-in curator: Maria Clara Araújo dos Passos (she/her) is an afrotransfeminist from Brazil. She received her B.A in Pedagogy at the Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo. She is pursuing her master’s degree in Education (Sociology of Education) at University of São Paulo. During undergrad, her goal was to understand how to build an education process in Brazil that is inspired by the insurgent knowledge that comes from the social and political movements of Latin America.
She dedicates most of her time studying decolonial pedagogies and curricula, social movements in Latin America, gender and race intersections, and trans+feminism. Right now, she works as a parliamentary assistant, responsible for doing political and pedagogical work with LGBTQIA+ movements and women’s movements for the Mandata Quilombo at the Legislative Assembly of São Paulo state. Mandata Quilombo is a group of Afro-Brazilian people, with a majority of Afro-Brazilian women, whose work is to fight structural racism, sexism, and LGBTQIA+phobia alongside the first transgender Black woman to become a state congressperson in Brazil, Érica Malunguinho.
The Political-Pedagogical Praxis of Afro-Brazilian Travestis and Trans Women (1979-2020) - A Reading List
Books
Nascimento, Letícia Carolina Pereira do. (2021). Transfeminismo. São Paulo: Jandaíra.
Odara, Thiffany. (2020). Pedagogia da Desobediência: travestilizando a Educação. Salvador: Devires.
Hooks, Bell. (2014). Teaching to transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom. Routledge.
Freire, Paulo. (1996). Pedagogy of the oppressed (revised). New York: Continuum.
Jesus, Jaqueline Gomes de (Org.) (2014) Transfeminismo:teorias & práticas. Rio de Janeiro: Metanóia Editora.
Silva, Jovanna Cardoso da. (2021). Bajubá Odara: resumo histórico do nascimento do movimento de travestis e transexuais no Brasil. Picos.
Book Chapters
Alvarez, Sonia. E., Dagnino, Evelina, & Escobar, Arturo. (2018). “Introduction: The Cultural and the Political in Latin American Social Movements.” In Cultures of Politics Politics of Cultures” (pp.1-30). Routledge.
Paschel, Tianna. (2018). “Repensando la movilización de los afrodescendientes en América Latina”. Estudios afrolatinoamericanos: una introducción, p. 269-316.
Thesis (Master’s and Doctoral)
Coacci, Thiago. (2018). “Conhecimento precário e conhecimento contra-público: a coprodução dos conhecimentos e dos movimentos sociais de pessoas trans no Brasil.” Programa de Pós-Graduação em Ciência Política, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, MG, Brasil.
Sales, Adriana. (2018). “Travestis brasileiras e escolas (da vida): cartografias do movimento social organizado aos gêneros nômades.” Programa de Pós-Graduação em Psicologia, Universidade Estadual Paulista, Assis, SP, Brasil.
Vergueiro, Viviane. (2015). “Por inflexões decoloniais de corpos e identidades de gênero inconformes: uma análise autoetnográfica da cisgeneridade como normatividade.” Programa de Pós-Graduação em Cultura e Sociedade, Universidade Federal da Bahia, Salvador, BA, Brasil.
Web Articles
The Nation. Why Brazil’s First Trans State Legislator Built a Refuge for Black Queer and Trans People.
Passos, Maria Clara Araújo. (2018). Afrotransfeminismo: travestilizando o Movimento Negro e racializando o Transfeminismo.
PinkNews. Trans politician forced to flee Jair Bolsonaro’s Brazil after chilling death threats.
Academic Articles
Rodrigues, Ana Flor Fernandes. (2019). QUEM NÃO QUER AS TRAVESTIS NAS ESCOLAS? UMA VOLTA ATÉ A DITADURA MILITAR NO BRASIL. Revista Semana Pedagógica.
Mitjans, Tito. (2020). “De puentes afrotransfeministas Articulaciones feministas afrodiaspóricas frente a los procesos de desterritorialización antinegras”. Millcayac-Revista Digital de Ciencias Sociales, 7(12), 61-84.
Passos, Maria Clara Araújo dos. (2019). “O currículo frente à insurgência decolonial: constituindo outros lugares de fala”. Cad. gên. Tecnol., Curitiba, 12(39), 196-209.
Santana, Dora Silva. (2019). “Mais Viva! Reassembling Transness, Blackness, and Feminism.” Transgender Studies Quarterly, 6(2), 210-222.
Mombaça, Jota. (2019). “Notas estratégicas en cuanto al uso político del concepto de lugar de habla: Lauren Olamina y yo en las puertas del fin del mundo.” Re-visiones, (9), 3.
Oliveira, Megg Rayara Gomes de. (2018). “Why Don't You Embrace Me.” SUR-Int'l J. on Hum Rts.,28, 167.
Kaas, Hailey. (2016). “Birth of Transfeminism in Brazil: Between Alliances and Backlashes.” Transgender Studies Quarterly, 3(1-2), 146-149.
Ribeiro, Djamila. (2016). “Black feminism for a new civilizatory framework”. SUR-Int'l J. on HumRts., 24, 99.
Jesus, Jaqueline Gomes de. (2014) “Transfobia e crimes de ódio: Assassinatos de pessoas transgênerocomo genocídio.” História Agora, São Paulo, v. 16, p. 101-123.
Collins, Patricia Hill. (1999). “Reflections on the outsider within”. Journal of Career Development, 26(1), 85-88.
Carneiro, Sueli. (1999). “Black Women’s Identity in Brazil”. Race in Contemporary Brazil: From indifference to inequality.” 217-28