Teaching and university extension

thinking about the dictatorship and challenges to the democratic regime in the informational field

Abstract

Interview with Professor Maria Guiomar da Cunha Frota about the 60th anniversary of the 1964 coup in Brazil, conducted in July 2024 using direct collection techniques through a script developed with questions regarding the dictatorship, memories of repression and resistance — areas of research for the professor — within the context of teaching and extension. It was possible to discuss university pedagogy, training in human rights, the university-school articulation, and the challenges of teaching, both during the dictatorship and in the current scenario. The professor emphasized the importance of the commissions, reinstated by the current government, for implementing transitional justice measures and for archiving documents related to the memory of the 1964 coup. Regarding teaching, she highlighted the 10 years of transversal training at the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG) and the Transversal Training in Human Rights, which enables students to experience interdisciplinarity in practice. In terms of research, she discussed the importance of producing and publishing knowledge about the coup, disseminating this knowledge in various subjects, and contributing to different forums to reflect on the recommendations of the Truth Commission, its implementation, and the monitoring of this process. On the extension front, she underscored the establishment, in 2021, of the University of Human Rights, which is a directorate within the Office of Extension, as one of several measures already being developed at the University aimed at human rights, to advance these policies at UFMG.