Adna Candido de Paula

.She holds a Master's and a PhD in Literary Theory and History from UNICAMP, and received scholarships from FAPESP in both categories. She also holds a PhD in Religious Studies, in the area of #8203;#8203;concentration "Philosophy of Religion", from UFJF. She spent a year of research at the "Fonds Paul Ricoeur", in Paris, where she studied the works of philosopher Paul Ricoeur, as part of a sandwich doctorate. She conducted two post-doctoral studies (i) at UNICAMP, on the work of Paul Ricoeur, with a scholarship from FAPESP; (ii) at UFRJ, on the notion of imagination as a philosophical problem. She is currently an associate professor at the Federal University of Vales do Jequitinhonha and Mucuri, in the Bachelor's Degree in Human Sciences/Public Policy and in the Graduate Program in Human Sciences. She is a professor of Afro-Brazilian and African Philosophy, and in the classroom she develops themes and problems addressed by political philosophy, especially with regard to ethnic-racial relations. She coordinates the Center for Research, Teaching and Extension on the African Diaspora, where members develop their teaching, research and extension activities, anchored in black thought, produced by black Brazilian intellectuals, as well as African and Afro-diasporic authors, from the 1920s to the present day. The professor works in the field of what she has called "de-Westernization", understood as a strategy for Brazilian cosmo-socio-political emancipation, with regard to cultural practices: (i) formal education, (ii) science, (iii) epistemology, (iv) the economic model, (v) social stratification, (vi) ideology, (vi) religion, (v) work and (vi) the arts. NUPED has weekly meetings and has a group of participants from various regions of Brazil, linked, notably, to different Brazilian educational sectors. The center develops and hosts research projects and extension activities, and proposes and carries out activities that promote interaction between public entities, universities and society. These actions are aimed at analyzing problems, issues, public policies, etc. that interest and affect the black population in Brazil in general, and the city of Diamantina and the Jequitinhonha Valley in particular. This center not only aims to review the historical, social, economic and philosophical process that promoted and continues to promote the genocide of the enslaved black population, but also engages in dialogue with other groups, collectives and initiatives that focus on presenting a different social imaginary about the black population, different from that constructed over the centuries by the capitalist system. For this reason, NUPED focuses on black memories and cultures originating from the African diaspora. The center also discusses the limits of Western epistemology and worldview and advocates the adoption of other epistemological paradigms, focused on Brazil as a member country of Latin America. (Source: Lattes Curriculum)