Can the subject of research theorize? The practice of emancipatory enunciation in (auto)biographical research

Abstract

This article discusses a classic problem in human sciences research: the role of the research subject. It questions the possibilities of including the subject in the final reports, which may take on different forms when the subjects of the research are also the researchers themselves. It was written as an essay, which takes an innovative exercise from a dissertation as a starting point for a discussion on a threshold debate in contemporary epistemology, coloniality, and its expression in Latin American academia. It problematizes the breaking of fixed positionalities in scientific discourse, which can contribute to understanding paths different from those inscribed in the most frequent modern register: subject/object and theory/empiricism. In dialogue with (auto)biographical research, the paths found from this theoretical-methodological approach were outlined to elaborate the narratives of the subjects. As a result, it presents statements of other positions for research subjects, taking the interviewees as producers of a theory about the world. It concludes by tensioning modern practice and pointing to other emerging forms of practice in the context of the Global South.