Open Letter in Defence of Professor Boaventura de Sousa Santos - By Hector Costa

Hector Costa — Educational Sociologist, Researcher, Professor, Linguistic and Cultural Mediator, Social Activist

My academic and personal development is deeply intertwined with the career of Professor Boaventura de Sousa Santos. I was his student during my bachelor's degree in Sociology, my master's degree and my PhD, all organised by him at the Centre for Social Studies at the University of Coimbra. More than an academic journey, it was a transformative journey, marked by rigour, affection and political commitment to the knowledge of the Global South.

Boaventura was not just a teacher. He was — and continues to be — a builder of possible worlds. He was an intellectual who dared to challenge the Eurocentric canon, who taught us to think with our feet on the ground and our eyes on the horizon. His methodological, pedagogical and epistemological rigour was not a burden, but an invitation to critical responsibility. He never treated us as objects of study, but as subjects of knowledge.

The Pedagogy of Encounter: In the formal space of the classroom and in the corridors of CES, Boaventura cultivated a pedagogy of listening, presence and dignity. But it was also in informal spaces — in cafés, at dinners at the Casarão restaurant, where he paid for meals for the most disadvantaged students — that his human and emotional side was revealed. These moments were not just gestures of generosity: they were practices of inclusion, recognition and symbolic sharing.

The Mondego River as a Metaphor for Resistance: Today, when I look at Coimbra, I see the Mondego — the largest of Portugal's rivers — as a symbol of the strength that Boaventura represents. But I also see how they tried to drain it, kill it, silence it. Like the river, whose current was diverted, dammed and tamed, Boaventura was also the target of attempts at symbolic containment. They emptied his name, killed his reputation, silenced his voice. But like the Mondego, which resists and continues to flow, Boaventura remains a stream of insurgent thought, a source of plural knowledge and a mirror of intellectual dignity.

Affection and Culture: A Grammar of the South: As a Latin American, I know that our modes of expression — hugs, kisses, physical closeness — are part of our affective grammar. They are gestures of welcome, not invasion. Boaventura understood this cultural language and never exploited it. In all my years of working with him, I never witnessed any behaviour that could be interpreted as moral or sexual harassment. On the contrary, I saw a man who gave voice to the silenced, who created spaces for the invisible to be heard.

Symbolic Disputes and Power Struggles: Academia is a field of forces. CES, like any institution, is not immune to disputes over legitimacy, internal tensions, and attempts at symbolic domination. Allegations that arise must be listened to seriously, but also with sociological rigour.

There are contexts in which denunciation becomes an instrument of power struggle, an attempt at institutional coup, a way of silencing those who dare to think outside the norm.

Boaventura as an Epistemological Horizon: As an educational sociologist, researcher, cultural mediator, and social activist, I affirm with conviction: Boaventura de Sousa Santos is an ethical, political, and epistemological reference. His work is not just theory—it is transformative practice. His presence is not just academic — it is insurgent, affective, radically committed to cognitive justice.

This letter is not merely a defence. It is a collective affirmation. An affirmation that there are teachers who change our lives. And Boaventura was, for me and for many, that teacher.