Biography

Rui Cidra has a degree and a PhD in Anthropology from NOVA FCSH. His research uses cultural anthropology, history, ethnomusicology, and post-colonial studies to address the way in which music, dance, and expressive culture originated in former Portuguese colonial territories, particularly in Cape Verde, were mobilized in the demarcation of borders of race, gender, social class, nation, and diaspora between colonial and post-colonial moments.

Research fields

• Cultural anthropology
• Contemporary colonial histories
• Ethnomusicology
• Postcolonial studies

Selected publications

• Cidra, Rui. “Identidades de diáspora, cosmopolitismo e a promessa da cidadania: a lusofonia a partir das vozes de músicos das diásporas africanas,” Análise Social 242 (2022): 56-84. [PDF]
• Cidra, Rui. Funaná, raça e masculinidade. Uma trajetória colonial e pós-colonial. Lisbon: Outro Modo, 2021. [link]
• Cidra, Rui. “Cabral, popular music and the debate on Cape Verdean creoleness,” Postcolonial Studies 21 (2018): 433-451. [link]
• Cidra, Rui. “Politics of Memory, Ethics of Survival: The Songs and Narratives of the Cape Verdean Diaspora in São Tomé,” Ethnomusicology Forum 24 (2015): 304-328. [link]

Main projects

• Co-coordinator of the project “YouSound – Music education as an inclusive tool for underage refugees in Europe” — Coordinated by Alix Sarrouy (INET-md) and funded by the Foundation for Science and Technology (EXPL/SOC-SOC/0504/2021). 2022- [link]
• Co-coordinator of the project “ORFEU (1956-1983): The Politics and aesthetics of popular music production and consumption in modern Portugal” — Coordinated by Salwa Castelo-Branco (INET-md) and funded by the Foundation for Science and Technology (PTDC/ART-OUT/32320/2017). [link]
• Researcher in the project “Portuguese Colonial Empire and Urban Popular Culture: comparing visions from the metropolis and the colonies (1945-1974)” — Coordinated by Nuno Domingos (ICS — University of Lisbon) and funded by the Foundation for Science and Technology (PTDC/CPC-CMP/2661/2014). [link]