CLALSES Series with Lázaro Raimundo dos Passos Cunha: "OGUNTEC: An Affirmative Action for Scientific Education for Black Brazilian Youth"

 

Abstract

The lecture will present the experience of the development of the OGUNTEC program, a science education initiative of the Steve Biko Cultural Institute founded in 2002 in Salvador, Bahia, Brazil. The program prepares Black public school high school students for university studies and careers in the areas of science, technology, and innovation.

 

Bio

Lázaro Raimundo dos Passos Cunha is Co-Founder and is currently Executive Director of the Steve Biko Cultural Institute, a pioneer educational organization focused on preparing Black students for admission into Brazilian universities. He was trained as a mechanical engineer and later received his masters in Philosophy and History of Science at the Federal University of Bahia. Cunha has focused his professional work on policies aimed at popularizing and democratizing access to science and science education in secondary and higher education. He served as Director of the Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado da Bahia (FAPESB), and for the last twenty-two years has coordinated the Biko program OGUNTEC, a groundbreaking initiative in Brazil he established to train Black youth in the areas of science, technology and innovation. He just published his first book Ogunhê: Relações Raciais e Formação Científica de Estudantes Negros e Negras no Brasil [Ogunhê: Race Relations and the Scientific Formation of Black Students in Brazil].

 

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