How Extension works

Published: Nov. 25, 2022, 7:30 a.m.

In the second part of a two episode podcast, Professor Ana Laura L\xf3pez de la Torre and Sophie Hope discuss the specific role and function of \u2018extensi\xf3n\u2019 at the Universidad de la Rep\xfablica, Uruguay.

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All academic activity is organised under 3 essential functions: teaching, research and extensi\xf3n. This last function - loosely translated as \u2018outreach\u2019 - is a distinctive element of the Latin-American university movement. Extensi\xf3n mandates public universities to serve society and the public good. Over the years, the way this has been interpreted and put in practice has changed alongside ideas of democracy, equality, social justice and inclusion. Today, \u2018critical extensi\xf3n\u2019 is a complex field of theoretical and methodological innovation, connected to the fields of critical pedagogy, southern epistemologies and decolonial thought. 

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Ana Laura talks us through this function of the university and gives us a detailed account of current project working with students and an old site of detention and torture during the dictatorship.