POLITICAL DISPUTES AT THE UNIVERSITY: truth commissions students at state universities in São Paulo
It is known that the university as an institution is a privileged space for teaching, reflection,
scientific development and humanistic knowledge. Within this institution, disputes around
demands, policies and meanings are also constant. Since the military regime is quite recent in
Brazil, its memory is in constant dispute (from those who suffered from the violations of
human rights, to the defenders of the regime), and in this institution is no different. This work
seeks to understand how political disputes occur at the Brazilian university, focusing on
disputes over the memory of the dictatorship. Having memory as a living discourse of the
present in relation to the past, the disputes over it are quite debated, however, this debate does
not take place around the university institution, so seen as an exempt space, taking into
account that it builds scientific knowledge. During the military regime, the information
system was present in the country's university institutions and kept the faculty, students and
staff under surveillance, and with the end of these institutions, several documents remained
confidential, or were destroyed. The University Truth Commissions have recovered the events
and memory of the dictatorial period in Brazil, through research in collections and interviews.
Its institution and operation is also permeated by political disputes, ranging from maintenance
difficulties to the non-acceptance of recommendations by the university community. This
work seeks to understand how such memory disputes occur in the Brazilian university
environment from 2012 to 2021, through document analysis of the reports of the University
Truth Commissions of the three state institutions of São Paulo: USP, Unicamp and Unesp, as
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well as reports from other Committees, minutes of meetings, reports and other relevant
documents.