Projects
UP-TO-THE-MINUTE GRADUATE RESEARCH
Migration, Language and Culture: Ontological Deportugality and Debrasility In times of fatigue, we have learnt how to deal with transhumance, which refers to the animality of the human condition, especially with regard to the intensified process of transience, which refers to absolute uprooting. Migrations, within their various categories and nuances, and which operated on this platform prescinds to the ontological dignification of the migrant, especially the one who is a learner of other languages, by depriving this being-in-the-world of its subjectivity and the right to collectivity that, in the end, produces its forgetfulness. My perception is that this logic of disremembering, anchored in the myth of modernity, feeds on a dynamics of colonialist and patriarchal operation exacerbated by capitalism, which deeply affects the transhumanised migrant into a transient non-being. Therefore, one of the cores of this research project has to do with the revival of migrant memory as an epistemology of being-in-the-world. Another axiom includes the questioning of designations like Community of Portuguese-Speaking Countries (CPLP) and African Countries of Portuguese Official Language (PALOP), which imply a geographic differentiation, with Brazil as the external wildcard in this equation. A third objective is related to the maintenance of Portuguese colonial-patriarchal-capitalist focus, now consented and disguised as mutual cooperation, but which continues to be sedimented through a relationship of domination, exclusions and dependence. Finally, it is also necessary to think about the brazilianisation, portuguesesation with its lusophonisation of the other, subtly manifested through the language, since this can result for cplp-palopian migrants as well as many other uprooted ones in transhumance, transience, erasure, dememorialisation, racialisation and invisibility of bodies and, eventually, in the production of ontological non-existences. The entire investigative process ought to be thought via decolonial, axiological and theoretical-methodological lenses of discourse, within the field of Language and Education studies. Therefore, this research project harbors investigations that aim at the epistemological reversal of such architecture that promotes non-being-in-the-world. Last but not least, it is worth mentioning that this research project and its siblings, under my overseeing, are linked to the research group I marshal, namely, the Interdisciplinary Group on Language Studies housed in the Federal Institute of Education, Science and Technology of São Paulo (GIEL/CNPq/IFSP) as well as to a hereinafter postgraduate program.
Philosophy of Migration, Anticolonial Praxis and Discourse The scientific studies that adhere to this project are harboured on the Language and Education arena. Our starting point is the promotion of social justice and inclusion interbred by the anticolonial plataform and its criticisms while aiming at the proposition of other ontological and epistemological perspectives. Additionally, based on Derridian epistemology, we bring hospitality actions to the core when talking about mobility in contemporary times, which, in our perspective, means transiting through a word that in its essence is metamorphic, multiple and syncretic (Sá, 2019). Furthermore, based upon the principles of Ethics in Levinas, Freire, Dussel and others, we contemplate the understanding of the current migratory grammar as well as the situation of other populations under social vulnerability scenarios (Sá, 2014; 2017; 2018; 2021). Finally, by means of a discursive perspective, we adhere to critical studies and Foucauldian thinking so as to analyse practices that establish and align social relations that involve asymmetries of power-know-being embodied by language. Therefore, the attempt of the researches on screen is to extrapolate the linear image of borders and territories in order to lead to a multiple, diversified, planetary and deterritorialised reality by transcending the physical space and embracing the various human spheres and abodes of meaning. Last but not least, it is worth mentioning that this research project and its siblings, under my overseeing, are linked to the Postgraduate Program in Education and Health from the Federal University of São Paulo (PPGES/UNIFESP) as well as to the research group I marshal, namely, the Interdisciplinary Group on Language Studies housed in the Federal Institute of Education, Science and Technology of São Paulo (GIEL/CNPq/IFSP).
CURRENT UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH
From Epistemology to Anticolonial Praxis Since the time of Pythagoras, philosophy has instigated many to search for knowledge, which is based on different epistemologies allied to praxis. Given that we live in dark times that feed back on the colonialist, capitalist and patriarchal matrix in the production of violence and injustice in different nuances, it is relevant to think of an anticolonial philosophical platform whose central premise is the reversal of this socially destructive dynamic, even if it is about a project of the few at the expense of the many. Therefore, this project will deal with that and, for that, we will continue unlearning so that we can learn, apprehend and relearn new ways of being-in and being-with, in Heideggerian’s dasein terms. This process will be achieved by means of anticolonial methodological premises that aim to re-signify the act of research that is guided by the rationality that sustains the myth of modernity and the pensée unique of the universality fallacy. The novelty of the research is related to an expansion of the decolonial thinking because an anticolonial philosophy implies not only a critique, a theoretical and epistemological basis but also a methodological and praxis one which means effective actions towards the reversal of social violences and injustices. The activities of this project are linked to those of the Interdisciplinary Research Group on Language Studies (GIEL/CNPq), its researchers and advisees through monthly meetings, conversation circles, colloquia, study groups, production of academic papers, etc. Thisaway, such actions will contribute to the consolidation of an anticolonial philosophy that is guided by diverse epistemologies and by an emancipatory praxis that makes it possible to break contemporary violent ties.
Education Modernization Brazil, Colombia, Europe: The New Era of Digital Higher Education Cooperation EMBRACE project responds to the Latin American partners' needs to develop and implement institutional reforms by offering a strong input in higher education modernization. Education is seen as means to respond to both regional and global challenges. The projects main objectives are to 1) Develop HEI teachers' digital and pedagogical competence to plan, implement and assess student-centred and competence-based online education; 2) Support educational management in managing impactful pedagogical change and organisation of the innovative learning ecosystem with all the relevant stakeholders; 3) Build innovative collaboration between HEIs and work life/society partners resulting in stronger learning ecosystem and more robust economic and social development. The project supports teachers' (25) professional development by organizing joint online learning modules, badge-driven competence development process, MOOC (300 teachers), open access learning materials and guidelines. Educational managers (15) define guidelines for teachers' digital and pedagogical competence development and assess sustaining educational change and project goal achievement in the learning ecosystem of HEIs and their industry partners. Project creates, in co-creation with different stakeholders (students, teachers, managers, minimum of 10 industry and society partners), transferable models for innovative education-industry collaboration. Over 250 students in 5 Latin American HEIs will participate in new pedagogical practises during the project timeline gaining relevant competences and concrete experience with the world of work. The EMBRACE project result is modern and resilient HEIs in Latin America with capacity to utilize digitalization for creating inclusive and student-centered learning experiences. New co-creation models involve variety of different stakeholders and contribute towards robust and sustainable learning ecosystem
PAST INVESTIGATIONS
Decolonial Thinking: Epistemological Perspectives Encouraging a conversation about decoloniality implies revisiting the history of humanity as well as understanding the genocidal movements that colonised bodies, and the epistemic dynamics of colonisation of the minds of many peoples under the baton of modernity between the 15th and 18th centuries (Grosfoguel, 2016).

 That was validated by the logic of the ego cogito, ego conquiro and ego extermination of the Descartian philosophy, the Iberian peninsula captains the domain of the bodies and minds of Semites, Native Americans, Asian aborigines, Africans and women. Then, the Cartesian view is ratified by the anthropology of Kant and Humboldt and the world-system corroborates Western Europe as the ground zero in epistemological and ontological terms (Dussel, 2008a, 2008b).

 Setting off from such historical landmark, this project aimed at the understanding of all dynamics imposed by the colonisation, decolonisation, colonialism, coloniality and decoloniality. Such path included subaltern, post-colonial and decolonial studies as well as the different colonialities that, hegemonic and ideologically, are articulated for the maintenance and control of minds and bodies. The goal was to approach this theme through several meetings of study, research and discussion of the various perspectives of decolonial thinking that cover issues of discourse, race, ethnicity, gender, epistemologies, ontologies, diversities, minorities, etc. In this way, it was possible to think about the inclusion of social actors in the educational environment and in the society as a whole (Resende, 2019; Mignolo, 2003). This 2021 project was carried out by the members of the research group I marshal, namely, the Interdisciplinary Group on Language Studies housed in the Federal Institute of Education, Science and Technology of São Paulo (GIEL/CNPq/IFSP), who were able to broaden their understanding of the decolonial proposal focusing on the global south.
Bolivian Migrants: Hospitality, Multilingualism and Interculturality This 2021 project was initially conceived from the empirical perception of the different urgencies of migrants in São Paulo and, secondly, from the needs of a Municipality of Education from a city nearby that requested the university assistance to properly deal with migrant students enrolled in their schools. Thus, its execution was justified considering the following assumptions: i. the condition of guests, of cultural in-between and the multilingual characteristic in the surroundings that receive such migrants (Derrida, 2000, 2003; Kubota, 2004; Bhabha, 2013); ii. social practices and new relationships between nationals and these migrants as being cyclical and continually reconfigured; iii. the difficulty of actions for self-empowerment, social emancipation as well as the construction of new meanings, subjectivities and knowledge (Sousa Santos, 2007); and, iv. the processes of stereotyping, prejudice, discrimination and, as a result, recurrent actions of social exclusion to which they are subjected. (Sá, 2015, 2018, 2020b, 2020c; Baeninger, 2018; Domeniconi, 2020) Therefore, this project aimed, in the first instance, at a partnership between the university and schools of the Department of Education of the Municipality of Francisco Morato. However, it could be extended to other municipalities, as it aimed to address the needs of migrant students from the perspective of hospitality, the linguistic and cultural processes involved. Linked to this, it was intended to understand these conjectures with the objective of acting prophylactically and purposefully for the benefit of the population in question by envisioning the alleviation of the deprivations they suffer in the country that receives them (Rojo, 2006). To this end, interdisciplinary and inter-institutional efforts were made based on epistemic-methodological assumptions in the fields of Education, Health and Language Studies, among others. In this way, the university and the school could contribute to the social inclusion of migrant students through the proposition of hospitality policies and actions that took into account the language and culture in their accommodation and stay movements.
From Episteme to Epistemology in Social Research The central motto of this 2020 project was to provide a space for discussion and exchange of ideas among professors, lecturers, researchers and language students as well as from other areas of knowledge from several universities and institutions in Brazil and abroad. All of them being interested in studying, discussing, articulating different epistemic-methodological prisms to social practice and reflecting on broader phenomena in their structural, cognitive, social, historical, identity, cultural, political, legal, literary and other perspectives. Thus, the premise of this project was anchored and justified in conceptual and representative issues. Although it aimed at an international reach, it was not limited to the linear image of borders and territories. Rather, it led its participants to a multiple, diversified and deterritorialised reality. If, on the one hand, the international construct prints a planetary mark and presence, the interdisciplinary scope of the project, in turn, appropriated the universality so characteristic of the phenomenon of language, transcending physical space, embracing the various human spheres, territories of meaning and abodes of language (Sousa, 2017).
Internationalisation at the University: Policies, Reception and Critical Interculturality The central objective of this 2016 to 2019 project was to understand the way the process of welcoming immigrants/international students at the university was conducted and what relationships were established in/through language given the multilingual and intercultural context in which the social actors involved were intertwined as well as the policies that manage such process. It was anchored in critical-contemporary social theories whose focus were to provide social inclusion and integral, multilingual and intercultural citizenship education for the students. Thus, it was expected to expand the picture of the context of university internationalisation programs in Brazil, the welcoming actions, the configuration of multilingual scenarios and the development of intercultural skills from a critical perspective. Thus, the aim was to shorten the sociocultural distance between the welcoming society and the students as well as any relevant impacts on their academic path (Nóbrega, 2014; Sá, 2015).