I CATALOGUE ABPN: African Brazilian Study Groups
NEPA/UESPI ________________________________________ History
Institution Federal University of the Piauí
Coordinator NEPA – Center For African Study And Research Dr. Elio Ferreira de Sousa and of State University of Piauí (Universidade Ms. Assunção de Maria Sousa e Silva Estadual do Piauí - UESPI) is group of studies and Contacts researches focused on African and Africanelioferreir@yahoo.com.br Brazilian Literatures, whose aims are both academic and institutional. NEPA is linked to Areas UESPI’s Licentiate Course in Liberal Arts, at a first African literature, african-descent, instance, and to the Research and Post ethnicity and gender. graduation Pro-Rectory, at a high instance. It develops studies, conducts researches, and advises in African and African-Brazilian Culture issues, aiming at academic, professional and institutional levels, respecting the race and ethnic differences, thus, struggling against racism and discrimination. As far as methodology is concerned, it privileges literary analysis and its interfaces with other areas of knowledge, gathering, then, the fields of social and human investigation, language and arts sciences. From 2005, the year of its creation, to these days, studies and research activities have been realized, such as the 1st and the 2nd UESPI’s Afro-cultural Week (in the years of 2006 and 2007), as well as the 1st International Encounter of African and African-Brazilian Literature and Culture in the year of 2009. In this same year, alongside the Research and Post graduation Pro-Rectory, the first Non-Degree Graduate Course on African and African-Brazilian Literature and History was promoted and realized. In the year of 2010, the second one begins, in a partnership with NEPA/PROP and the Secretary of State for Education of Piauí. The professors-members of this Center have given permanent mentor assistance in UESPI’s graduation and post graduation (Non-Degree Graduate Course) courses. As result, there are more than ten monographs and essays related to the field of research focused from 2007 to 2010. NEAB’s objectives To create a study and research space for the African and African-Brazilian Literatures; To make the literary works of African and African descendants known, thus, strengthening AfricanBrazilian culture; To take into highest consideration Brazilian black people’s context, having as a starting point the literary productions which were born from authors who are concerned about racism and racial discrimination so that there is significant contribution to the debate and to the change of the mentality, which tends to silence or omit the black people’s participation in our country’s History and Culture.
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