Stephen Bocskay

I am a cultural historian of the African Diaspora who studies popular music and culture, black political thought, social movements, media, and authoritarianism, with a particular focus on Brazil. I am the author of Candeia, o Samba, o Quilombo e o Ativismo Negro (Malê, 2026), which draws on more than fifteen years of archival research and field interviews with activists, intellectuals, and artists to examine the political legacy of samba musician Antônio Candeia Filho and his Grêmio Recreativo de Arte Negra e Escola de Samba Quilombo. Since its launch in June 2026, the book has received coverage in leading Brazilian news outlets including O Globo, Estadão, Folha de S. Paulo, Estado de Minas, SBT News, PublishNews, and Rádio MEC.

I am also the author of Brazilian Popular Music and Censorship: From Getúlio to Redemocratization (Cambridge University Press, in press), the first comprehensive study of how state censorship and surveillance, cultural policy, and musical expression intersected across Brazil’s twentieth-century authoritarian and democratic regimes. My work has also appeared in scholarly venues such as the Latin American Research Review, Afro-Ásia, Latin American Perspectives, Chasqui, the Revista de Crítica Literaria Latinoamericana, and an edited volume published in Brazil.

I am committed to public education and engaged scholarship and have written for major publications and provided commentary for media outlets in Brazil such as Correio Braziliense, O Globo, Sem Censura, Estúdio Móvel, Instituto Moreira Salles, and Cultne. As a guest and keynote speaker, I have delivered presentations at universities and institutions throughout the United States and Brazil. As a translator, I have subtitled feature films by acclaimed Brazilian filmmakers such as Sérgio Oliveira, Renata Pinheiro, and Gabriela Amaral Almeida.

I also prioritize exchange and collaboration with scholars in Latin America and have published an essay with Rafael Pinto Ferreira de Queiroz on the Brazilian singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist Marku Ribas, which inspired the musical Marku Musical: Identidade, memória e ancestralidade negra at the CCBB São Paulo.

Before coming to the University at Albany, I held teaching positions at Harvard University, the Universidade Federal de Pernambuco, and the University of Michigan.