This session brings together a global collaboration among emerging scholars from distinct contexts in Brazil and South Africa, two nations whose histories of racial stratification, colonial legacies, and affirmative action policy have generated rich bodies of knowledge on racial inequality in higher education. Panelists will share their research and lived experiences navigating higher education systems shaped by exclusion and, more recently, by policies designed to redress it, from Brazil's cotas raciais to South Africa's post-apartheid transformation mandates. Rather than presenting isolated case studies, the conversation is structured as a dialogue: scholars will identify points of convergence and divergence between the Brazilian and South African contexts, explore how each has theorized race, redress, and belonging in the university, and consider what solidarity across the Global South can look like in practice, not just in citation, but in shared methodology, mutual mentorship, and coordinated advocacy. The session is designed to be interactive, with structured space for audience questions and cross-national exchange, modeling the kind of transnational scholarly community it discusses.

Session Participants: 

1. Siphesihle Mbhele, University of Western Cape

2. Washington Galvão, University of Minnesota

3. Lebo Nkopodi, Ask An Elder

4. Tendani Maumela, University of the Western Cape

5. Rutenda Nesto, University of the Western Cape