Biography

Catarina da Rocha Cota is a researcher in Contemporary History, with a particular interest in Cultural History and the relationships between music, artistic circulation, and socio-political contexts in the 20th century. She completed her Master’s degree in History at the University of Coimbra, with a dissertation focusing on the intersections between Coimbra folk songs and Azorean musical traditions in the 1960s and 1970s. She is currently a PhD candidate in Contemporary History at the Institute of Contemporary History, where she is conducting a research project on the presence of foreign artists in Portugal between 1945 and 1974, exploring the dynamics of artistic and cultural circulation within the context of the Estado Novo.

Her research has focused on cultural flows and the circulation of musical repertoires and artists, with a particular emphasis on music as a form of cultural and political expression. She took part in the research project of the Coimbra Song Platform, where she carried out work involving the collection, mapping and analysis of sources and archives.

Research fields

• Cultural history
• History of music in the 20th cebtury
• Artistic circulation and transnational cultural networks
• Art and culture in authoritarian political contexts

Selected publications

• Cota, Catarina da Rocha. ““SEM ESQUECER AS RAÍZES”: A canção de Coimbra e as intersecções com a musicalidade Açoriana (1960-1970).” Master’s in History dissertation presented to the University of Coimbra, 2024. [link]🔓

Main projects

• “Isolamento político e Permeabilidade Artística: Artistas em circulação no Portugal do II Pós Guerra Mundial (1945-1974)” [Political Isolation and Artistic Openness: Artists on the Move in Portugal in the Second Post-War Period (1945–1974)] — PhD thesis to be presented to the NOVA School of Social Sciences and Humanities, supervides by Luís Trindade (IHC — NOVA FCSH) and Leonor Losa (CEIS20 — University of Coimbra). Individual PhD project funded by the Foundation for Science and Technology (2025.03194.BD). 2025-