Body and Emotion in the Integrative Training of Researchers and in the Decolonization of Academic Practices

The decolonized production of knowledge is an intellectual project and political practice that involves the recognition of multiple knowledges, the integrality of the human (mind-body-emotion) and the involvement of the researcher. Corazonar (thinking with the heart) is an alternative to confront exclusionary and dominating dichotomies constructed by the West, as it places the heart as the principle, enriching reason (Arias, 2010).

In this collective work between professor and students, our objective is to present and reflect on the corazonante experience of the Laboratory for the Integrative Training of Researchers, seeking to answer: how to include the body and emotion in the decolonized production of scientific knowledge? What skills are required of the researcher and how to establish them in the university training space?

The work resulted from a Sociopoetic Research experience, which provokes the knowledge that is in the body's memory through corporal and artistic techniques, and which showed us how far conventional training (focused on rational-cognitive skills) was from preparing researchers for the decolonized production of knowledge. From a decolonial perspective, the researcher is part of the system and knowledge about the other is also knowledge about oneself. Therefore, the Laboratory is theoretical-experiential and provides the opportunity for the development of self-reflective, affective, creative and ethical-political skills through four blocks: self-knowledge, involvement of the subject-researcher, communication-relational skills and self-management of the research. We conclude that crowning hegemonic epistemologies in academic practices is an act of decolonization, still little explored and will need to confront the status quo of academia.

Arias, P. (2010). Corazonar el sentido de las epistemologías dominantes desde las sabidurías insurgentes, para construir sentidos otros de la existencia. Calle 14, 4(5), 80-94.

Ferrarini, A. V. (2016). Corpo e emoção na produção de conhecimento científico: uma experiência de pesquisa sociopoética com trabalhadores da economia solidária. RELACES, 21, 80-92.