- The reports of three researchers who took the PhD program at the University of Coimbra are joined by the testimonies of Brazilian deputy Bella Gonçalves and Mapuche activist Moira Ivana Millan. The University has begun the research and has ceased it until its completion.
Several women have denounced in recent days the sexual abuse committed by the Portuguese sociologist Boaventura de Sousa Santos. The sociologist is one of the most prestigious left-wing intellectuals in Europe, a reference in epistemology and decolonality in the South. He wrote, among others, the book Human Rights, Democracy and Development and has participated in meetings and forums worldwide.
These facts have been mentioned for the first time by three researchers in the research Inadequate sexual behavior in academia. Researchers from Belgium EE.UU. and Portugal have explicitly omitted the name of De Sousa Santos, but they have referred to him with the nickname "star professor". The abuses reported occurred between 2011 and 2019 at the Centre for Social Studies of the University of Coimbra (CES). The sociologist was then a professor and director of the center.
In the text they denounce that the institutions have allowed De Sousa sexual abuse and abuse of authority. In addition, they accuse the sociologist of appropriating the ideas and texts of researchers and academics.
The University of Coimbra has launched the research and has dismissed the professor until its completion. The same applies to Professor Bruno Sena Martins, accused of sexual abuse.
More testimonials
The text has raised powders and some women have reported more sexual abuse by the scholar. Among them, Brazilian deputy Bella Gonçalves. PhD at the CES in 2013 and 2014 and was his advisor De Sousa Santos.
Mapuche activist Moira Ivana Millan denounces to El Salton that in 2010 she was the victim of sexual abuse. Ivana Millan went to Portugal to give a conference at the request of De Sousa Santos. The scholar opened a family restaurant for themselves and took him home. The attack happened there.
The Mapuche activist explains that he told what happened and that he was told not to denounce it because "the right would instrumentalize" this fact.
The Latin American Council of Social Sciences (CLACSO) has also suspended the activity of Sousa Santos until the end of the investigation. Ivana Millan, however, denounces in the interview that CLACSO has always known the attack made by Portuguese and is therefore complicit.
De Sousa denies attacks
A manifesto signed by 250 academics and people of culture in solidarity with the victims. De Sousa, for his part, denies the accusations against him and denounces with Sena Martins that they are victims of "anonymous defamation". He has defined the complaint as a "personal revenge" of the three researchers who have published the text.