Jessika Rezende Souza da Silva is a historian, educator, and activist in the struggle for anti-racist education. She has a master’s degree in History Teaching and is a PhD student in Education at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro – in collaboration with New York University.
A member of the Laboratory of Studies and Research in History Teaching (LEPEH) and of the Group of Studies and Research in Anti-Racist Education (GEPEAR), both at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, she researches multicultural education, postcolonial curriculum, education in museums and sites of memory, teaching of Afro-Brazilian history and culture, and Anti-racist Education.
As a researcher, in her doctoral work, she has been studying the educational potential of museums in a transnational perspective. Putting in dialogue the exhibitions of the Afro-Brazil Museum in São Paulo and the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington D. C., she has been reflecting on how museum exhibits constitute narratives that educate and give way to intercultural communication, sense-making, and multicultural education. The partial results of this ongoing research have already been presented in lectures and congresses at Brazilian and US universities, such as the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, New York University, University of Pennsylvania and Harvard University.
Currently, Jessika works in the public school system of the state of Rio de Janeiro where she teaches high school. She also participates in a special program for Knowledge and Practices of Basic Education at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, teaching and advising students, who are mostly teachers from public and private schools in the country seeking to improve their pedagogical practices.
Publication:
Souza, J. R. (2016). Entre a cruz e o terreiro: uma análise em torno da integração entre a religiosidade afro-brasileira e o Ensino de História no Museu do Negro. Rio de Janeiro: Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro.
