BETWEEN CANON AND TERRITORY: RETHINKING THE TEACHING OF INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS IN BRAZIL

Abstract

This article explores the experiences of three Brazilian professors who teach postcolonial and decolonial theories in International Relations (IR). Having been trained within a Western-centric academic tradition, the authors describe a profound epistemological rupture inspired by Gayatri Spivak’s Can the Subaltern Speak? and Paulo Freire’s critical pedagogy. Their pedagogical practices,   including artistic interventions, decolonial approaches to environmental politics, and critical readings of canonical theories, aim to transform the classroom into a dialogical and emancipatory space. Drawing on experiences at PUC Minas and UFG, the article argues that decolonizing IR requires a dual effort: internally, by challenging the field’s epistemic hierarchies, and externally, by dismantling the banking model of education. The metaphor of Guimarães Rosa’s “third bank of the river” symbolizes the in-between position of these educators,   situated between canon and dissent,   as they build a decolonial praxis that affirms the Global South as a legitimate producer of critical knowledge.