Alexandre Da Costa, PhD

Area of Study / Keywords

Sociology of Education Cultural Studies Anti-Racism Decoloniality Whiteness Anti-Oppression Education Global Development

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About

I received my PhD in 2009 from the Department of Development Sociology at Cornell University in New York State (USA). Prior to joining the University of Alberta, I taught for 5 years at Queen's University (Kingston) in various fields, including Development Studies, Cultural Studies, and Sociology. My program specialization in Educational Policy Studies is in Social Justice and International Studies in Education (SJI).

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Research

Research Interests

• Racism, Colonialism, and White Supremacy
• "Post-racial" ideologies and discourses in the Americas
• Whiteness
• Anti-Racism and Decolonizing scholarship, pedagogy, and politics
• Social Justice and Anti-Oppressive Education
• Activism and Community Movements

Projects

Whiteness and multiple colonialisms

Racism, colonialism, schooling, and education in Brazil and Canada

Anti-racist activism, social justice pedagogies, and learning in Education 

Supervisory Interests 

[I am currently not taking on new students]

I am interested in supervising students who would like to focus on the ways in which race, ethnicity, gender, class, disability, sexuality, and interlock to shape racialization, white supremacy, and privilege in educational, government, and community institutions and/or social movement activism. I especially encourage those interested in research on anti-racist and/or multicultural related reforms in primary, secondary, and tertiary education as well as social justice, anti- or de-colonizing struggles and perspectives in general to make an inquiry.  

My areas of supervision include race, ethnicity, and racism; anti-racisms and multiculturalisms within education policy; the politics of global development; critical approaches to development and international education; intersections between culture, race, and political-economic processes; coloniality and decolonization in theory and practice; contemporary social and cultural theory. (If you have doubts about whether your interests fit, please contact me). 

My key countries/regions of interest include (but are not limited to): Brazil, Canada, the United States, South America

Publications

Books 

2014Reimagining Black Difference and Politics in Brazil: From Racial Democracy to Multiculturalism. London and New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

Special Issues of Scholarly Journals (Guest Editor)

2019 (co-edited with Dia Da Costa and Meaghan Frauts) Cultural production under multiple colonialisms, Cultural Studies, 33(3). (e-link)

2016Post-Racial Ideology and Politics in the Americas. Critical Sociology. 42(4-5). (e-link)

Refereed Journal Articles 

2019 (co-authored with Dia Da Costa). "Introduction: Cultural production under multiple colonialisms," Cultural Studies, 33(3), 343-369 (e-link) 

2018“The Decolonial in Practice, Quilombismo, and Black Brazilian Politics in ‘Postneoliberal’ Times,” Journal of Ethnic and Cultural Studies, 5(1): 27-40. (e-link, open access)

2017“Da miscigenação ao pluriculturalismo: questões em torno da ideologia pós-racial e a política da diferença no Brasil [From miscegenation to pluriculturalism: questions about post-racial ideology and the politics of difference in Brazil],” Hendu: Revista Latino-Americana de Direitos Humanos. 2015 6(2): 40-54. (e-link)

2016a“Introduction: Thinking ‘Post-Racial’ Ideology Transnationally: The Contemporary Politics of Race and Indigeneity in the Americas,” Critical Sociology. 42(4-5): 475-490. Published online before print July 3, 2015. (e-link)

2016b“Training educators in anti-racism and pluriculturalismo: recent experiences from Brazil” Race Ethnicity and Education 19(1): 23-45. Published online before print September 15, 2014. (e-link)

2016c“The (Un)Happy Objects of Affective Community: Mixture, Conviviality, and Racial Democracy in Brazil.” Cultural Studies 30(1): 24-46. Published online before print March 25, 2014. (e-link)

2016d “The significance of post-racial ideology, black political struggle, and racial literacy for Brazilian anti-racist education policy,” Policy Futures in Education 14(3): 345-359. (e-link)

2016e“Confounding Anti-racism: Mixture, Racial Democracy, and Post-racial Politics in Brazil.” Critical Sociology 42(4-5): 495-513. Published online before print on January 31, 2014. (e-link)

2010a “Afro-Brazilian Ancestralidade: Critical Perspectives on Knowledge and Development.” Third World Quarterly 31 (4), pp. 655-674. [Part of special issue, “Relocating Culture in Development and Development in Culture”] (e-link)

2010b “Anti-Racism in Movement: Afro-Brazilian Afoxé and Contemporary Black Brazilian Struggles for Equality.” Journal of Historical Sociology. 23 (3), pp. 372-397. (e-link)

Refereed Book Chapters

2010“Decolonizing Knowledge: Education, Inclusion, and the Afro-Brazilian Anti-racist Struggle.” Pp. 199-214 in Contesting Development: Critical Struggles for Justice and Social Change, Philip McMichael (ed.). New York: Routledge. 

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Teaching

Graduate

EDPS 501. Knowledge and Decoloniality in the Americas

EDPS 591. Foundations of Education: Perspectives on International Issues

EDPS 523. Education and Development Theory

EDPS 526. Race, Racialization, and Education

EDPS 563. Sociological Perspectives on Social Justice Education

EDPS 580. Contemporary Issues in Education: Perspectives on Policy and Practice

Undergraduate

EDPS 412. Multicultural and Anti-Racism Education

EDPS 360. Society and Education 

EDU 100/300: Contexts of Education

EDPS 360 - Society and Education

The changing function and structures of education, with special reference to contemporary Canadian society.

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EDPS 412 - Multicultural and Anti-Racism Education

This course examines key theoretical and pedagogical aspects of multicultural and anti-racism education with a focus on how race, ethnicity, colonialism, and diversity shape issues of equity within school systems and the communities they serve. The course presents various social processes fundamental to shaping constructions of racial and cultural difference historically and in contemporary times, examining how such differences work at various levels, from everyday micro interactions to societal institutions and larger macro social structures.

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EDPS 526 - Race, Racialization and Education

The course examines the concept of race and its manifestations in society and the education system. We engage with the idea of race as philosophy, race as theorized by sociologists and race as a historical discourse. Further, the course highlights how such modes of analyses and conceptual frames are theorized, utilized and legitimized. Students may not receive credit for both EDPS 501 Race, Racialization and Education and EDPS 526.

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Browse more courses taught by Alexandre Da Costa

Whiteness and Education. 2022 October; 10.1080/23793406.2022.2136106

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Alexandre Emboaba Da Costa

Critical Sociology. 2016 January; 42 (4-5):475-490

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Alexandre Emboaba Da Costa

Race, Ethnicity and Education. 2016 January; 19 (1):23-45

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Alexandre Emboaba Da Costa

Cultural Studies. 2016 January; 30 (1):24-46

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Alexandre Emboaba Da Costa

Palgrave Macmillan. 2014 January;

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Alexandre Emboaba Da Costa

Third World Quarterly. 2010 January; 31 (4):655-674

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Alexandre Da Costa

Policy Futures in Education. 14 (3):345-359