Between April 7 and 9, 2026, the seminar “Latin American Critical Thought: Interdisciplinary Dialogues and Contemporary Challenges” will take place at the Faculty of Philosophy and Human Sciences (FAFICH) at UFMG.

The event will bring together researchers from different institutions to discuss theoretical perspectives and fields of investigation focused on a critical understanding of Latin American reality, with an emphasis on counter-hegemonic approaches that value situated knowledge. The proposal also includes strengthening academic networks and expanding the debate on the contemporary challenges of the region. Registration is available through the Even3 platform.

Among the guests are Professor Adriane Vidal Costa, from the Department of History at UFMG, and Stella Ferreira Gontijo, a postdoctoral researcher at IEAT/UFMG, both linked to the IEAT Darcy Ribeiro Chair: Sovereignty, Education, and Politics. They will participate in the roundtable “State, Culture, and Education: Critical Perspectives in Latin American Intellectual Thought,” which will also feature Professor Daniel Chacón, from the Department of History at UFMG.

The program will also include lectures by specialists from different Brazilian universities. Participants include Professor Cláudia Wasserman, from the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, with the lecture “Dependency Theory: From National-Developmentalism to Neoliberalism”; Professor Petrônio Domingues, from the Federal University of Sergipe, who will give the lecture “Clóvis Moura: Radical Black Thought and the Formation of Brazil”; and Professor Bernardo Ricupero, from the University of São Paulo, who will speak on the theme “Between Ariel, Caliban, and Prospero: Dilemmas of (Latin) American Identity Considered from the Perspective of Brazil.”

In addition to the lectures, the seminar will feature thematic panels dedicated to different approaches to critical thought. The panel “Intellectual History and Decoloniality: Powers, Limits, and Tensions” will feature Professor Leo Name, from the Federal University of Bahia, Professor Priscila Dorella, from the Federal University of Viçosa, and Professor Alfredo Nava Sánchez, from the Federal University of Ouro Preto. The panel “Marxism in Latin America” will include Professor Osvaldo Coggiola, from the University of São Paulo.

The working groups will address central themes for contemporary debate, such as (Neo)fascisms and the far right in Latin America; the Anthropocene and civilizational crises; political economy and the economic formation of the region; epistemologies of liberation; gender and sexuality; critical thinking and education; Indigenous peoples and resistance; race and racism; and the transnational circulation of ideas in the 20th and 21st centuries.

The seminar is organized by the research and outreach group “Intellectual History: Practices, Narratives, and Circulation of Ideas,” from UFMG, in partnership with the Center for Studies and Research in Political and Economic History of the State University of Minas Gerais.