The University in the cracks

a manifesto for a sentipensante outreach

Abstract

This text proposes a poetic and ethical journey through the university, questioning the colonial structures that still sustain knowledge and teaching. Inspired by authors such as Paulo Freire, Dussel, Krenak, and Conceição Evaristo, the manifesto calls for an education that springs from the ground, from the waters, and from the people – an outreach that feels and thinks, that listens and shares. The narrative intertwines a critique of the coloniality of power, as proposed by Aníbal Quijano, with the urgency of an ethics of care and alterity, as articulated by Dussel, and with Krenak’s notion of florestania, which reclaims life as a shared territory. Sentipensante extension, thus, is presented as a whole-body practice, one that takes root in the territory and flourishes in the encounter between university and community, where knowledge is not extracted but composed, shared, and lived. It is, therefore, a manifesto for a university that breathes, listens, and walks with the world.