Professor at FGV wins the Jabuti Award 2025 in the Education category
Work by Adilson José Moreira, professor at FGV Direito SP, takes first place by proposing a reflection on the role of racial literacy in strengthening citizenship and democracy in the country.
Professor Adilson José Moreira from FGV Direito SP is the winner of the 2025 Jabuti Award, the most prestigious literary recognition in Brazil, presented by the Câmara Brasileira do Livro (CBL). His work Racial Literacy: A Proposal for the Reconstruction of Brazilian Democracy, published by Editora Contracorrente, won first place in the Education category.
The book, written during his tenure as a visiting professor at the Stanford University Graduate School of Education, presents racial literacy as an essential process for enhancing Brazilian democracy. The work discusses how this form of “social grammar” can reveal cultural and institutional mechanisms that sustain racial inequalities, as well as indicate paths for constructing broader civic solidarity.
“Democracy presupposes, among other things, equal treatment among all individuals, which implies recognizing their moral equality. Racism hampers the advancement of civic solidarity, which is why I propose that the process of racial literacy should begin in schools through the teaching of fundamental political and legal principles from basic education. Just as we tell imaginary stories to children, we can tell stories that foster the feeling of reciprocity, solidarity, equality, respect, dignity, and rights,” states the professor.
Adilson José Moreira earned his doctorate from the universities of Berkeley, Harvard, and UFMG, and completed his post-doctorate at Berkeley. He is the author of reference works such as *Recreational Racism*, *Treatise on Anti-Discriminatory Law*, and *Thinking Like a Black: An Essay on Legal Hermeneutics*, the latter being a finalist for the Jabuti Award in 2020. His research areas include constitutional law, anti-discriminatory law, legal sociology, history of law, human rights, and legal psychology.
This recognition reinforces the importance of the debate on diversity and inclusion in education and reaffirms the role of academic reflection as a tool for social transformation.
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