Giulia Maggiora

Giulia Maggiora holds a Master’s degree in Music from the Universidade de Aveiro, with a specialization in Ethnomusicology and Popular Music Studies. As part of her master’s research, she investigated batuku from Cabo Verde in collaboration with the Batucadeiras das Olaias, and explored female rap through work with the collective Hellas, focusing on issues of identity, gender, and resistance in contemporary cultures. Her research approach is grounded in participatory methodologies that promote dialogue and the co-construction of knowledge with the communities involved.

She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Music and Theatre from the Università di Udine (Italy) and a Master’s in Musicology – Ethnomusicology from the Università di Bologna. During her undergraduate studies, she contributed to the creation of Universinmusica – Itinerari di ascolto musicale guidato, a project aimed at introducing classical music to non-academic audiences. In Bologna, she took part in fieldwork with the association E Bene Venga Maggio, focused on the balli staccati repertoire of the Apennino Tosco-Emiliano.
She studied classical piano for 12 years in Italy, earning a Diploma di Solfeggio from the Conservatorio di Musica

She arrived in Portugal in 2015 through an Erasmus exchange within the Master’s in Ethnomusicology at NOVA. Between 2015 and 2019, she collaborated with the Associação dos Amigos de Tocá Rufar, contributing to the Bom Porto project, dedicated to the safeguarding of bombos traditions in Portugal, and co-directed the documentary A Moda do Bombo, in partnership with the Italian production company Produzioni Clandestine.

She is currently a PhD fellow funded by the Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, developing a project focused on women’s performative practices as a means of preserving cultural memory within the Cape Verdean diaspora.

Doctoral project

Title
Práticas expressivas nas festividades religiosas de Santiago e Lisboa como instrumento de manutenção da memória transnacional entre as mulheres cabo-verdianas.

Advisor
Ana Flávia Miguel

Abstract
With this doctoral project, I propose to investigate the expressive practices led by Cape Verdean women within the context of religious festivities celebrated in the Lisbon Metropolitan Area (AML) and on the island of Santiago (Cape Verde). The research stems from the recognition of the scarcity of academic studies that approach these expressions from a gender perspective, acknowledging the central role of women in the construction and transmission of Cape Verdean cultural practices, both in the country of origin and in the diaspora. Grounded in an ethical, collaborative, and participatory approach, I propose to study how expressive practices – such as singing, dancing, and other performative forms – contribute to the construction, maintenance, and dissemination of cultural identity within transnational communities. The research is framed within a broader reflection on music as a social practice and as a tool for the production of meaning (Blacking, 1986; Frith, 1996), asserting the importance of music research that engages with social, cultural, and political issues. Alongside the fieldwork and academic production, this project also seeks to value ethical and accessible forms of dissemination of results. Public presentations of the documented practices, training activities in partnership with associations and cultural institutions, and the creation of an open-access dataverse are also planned, following the principles of open science and the responsible reuse of data. By valuing the role of women in Cape Verdean expressive practices, this research aims to contribute to a more inclusive reflection on cultural memory and processes of transformation in contemporary diasporas.

Keywords
Music and gender; Transnationalism; Shared research practices; Religious festivities; Cape Verdean identity.

Funding
Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (UI/BD/03431/2025)