Description
This paper aims to explore how to embrace diverse methods of knowledge production without excluding those outside the Eurocentric scientific framework. The distinction between "scientific" and "non-scientific" knowledge stems from hierarchical and racist perspectives tied to the capitalist project, which encompasses civilizational discourse, colonialism, and the persistence of colonial ideas and practices. By employing the first person to highlight the importance of individual experiences within collective contexts, this paper focuses on my experience as a student, professor and educator in the International Relations' field. I will consider analytical categories such as Black woman in the Northeast of Brazil (nordestina), and being a middle-class woman from the Global South to understand how the intersectionality and decolonization of knowledge cross me and influence my academic practices. To develop this analysis, I will use the qualitative method and decolonial theoretical perspectives, as these consider the agency of non-European bodies in the academic environment. The paper asserts that multiple valid ways of producing knowledge exist, even if they do not conform to European paradigms. From regions and communities often overlooked in these spaces, we, as scholars from the Global South, examine our own practices and realities to develop perspectives rooted in our own context.
