CESEM celebrates new PhDs: Beatriz Silva, Jorge Graça and Gonçalo Moreira

Sofia Beatriz Silva, a researcher at the Music in the Modern Period Group, defended on February 13 her doctoral thesis in Art Studies entitled ‘Singing the Revolution: the role of songs and opera on the dissemination of communism in Mao Zedong’s China’.

The jury was chaired by Professor João Soeiro de Carvalho (NOVA FCSH) and the defendant was Professor Ruth Piquer from the Complutense University of Madrid. The jury also included Professor Pablo Sotuyo Blanco (UFBA), Professor Maria Irene Aparício (NOVA FCSH), Professor Luísa Correia Castilho (IPCB), and Professor Luzia Aurora Rocha (tutor). The final classification was ‘Very Good, unanimously’ with a unanimous recommendation for publication.

In the same week, two other CESEM members, now from the Education and Human Development Group, finished their doctorates. Jorge Graça presented his thesis ‘Music and Community: Music in the Community in Portugal and Artistic Education’ on February 14, while Gonçalo Moreira defended a thesis written in English entitled ‘A Journey of resonances: Exploring Focusing as the basis for music creation’ on February 12. Both were categorised as ‘Very Good, unanimously’.

The jury was chaired in both sessions by Professor Manuel Pedro Ferreira (NOVA FCSH). The first defence included Raymond AR MacDonald, Chair of Music Psychology and Improvisation at the Reid School of Music, Edinburgh College of Art at the University of Edinburgh, UK; Isabel Pires and Ana Isabel Lemos do Carmo Pereira (NOVA FCSH); and Nicholas McNair (ESML – IPL). Gonçalo Moreira’s defence included Pedro Rebelo, Professor at the School of Arts, English and Language at Queen’s University of Belfast, Northern Ireland; Hugo Alves da Cruz, Assistant Professor at the Escola Superior de Dança do Instituto Politécnico de Lisboa; Jorge Salgado Correia, Associate Professor at the University of Aveiro; as well as Helena Rodrigues and Ana Isabel Lemos do Carmo Pereira (NOVA FCSH).