Mauricio Acuña
Assistant Professor
Appointments
Assistant Professor of Spanish and Portuguese
Area of Expertise
Contemporary Afro-Brazilian Literatures and Cultures,
Afro-Latin American Literatures and Cultures,
Race and Ethnicity,
Poetics, Performance and Politics,
Blackness in the Global South,
Popular Culture
Biography
I am a scholar of Afro-Latin American Studies, specializing in contemporary literatures and cultures of African Diaspora in the Americas, with a special focus in Brazil. My research interests include the poetics, performances, and aesthetics of Afro-diasporic artists and intellectuals, Brazilian Modernism, race relations, and capoeira.
I am currently engaged in two research projects. The first is a biography of Mestre Pastinha, focusing on his intellectual contributions to Black Modernities and the Brazilian Avant-Garde. The second explores Afro-Brazilian poetics and performances alongside the rise of Global South alliances in relation to the First World Festival of Negro Arts, held in Senegal in 1966. My first book A ginga da nação: intelectuais na capoeira e capoeiristas intelectuais unveils the multiple creative ways which previously marginalized capoeira practitioners generated to legitimize and promote their art, sport practice and knowledge.
My teaching philosophy emerges from my pedagogic training and experiences in Brazil and the U.S., as well as from my research on Afro-Latin American writers and artists. I teach Portuguese and Spanish language, literature and culture courses emphasizing the creations by and about African descendants in Latin America. My courses explore how these contributions shape key moments in aesthetic production, how artists and writers expand literary liberties, and how they engage with anti-racist practices and movements in Latin America, Africa and the U.S..
Finally, I am a mestizo Brazilian son of Chilean parents, and a first-generation college student educated in public schools, at the University of São Paulo, and among capoeira practitioners. I am eager to mentor students through their academic development and help them navigate new ways of learning from the literatures, cultures, and peoples of Latin America.
Education
Ph.D Princeton University, 2021
Ph.D University of São Paulo, 2017
M.A. Princeton University, 2015
M.S. University of São Paulo, 2011
Taught Courses
Publications
Books
2015 Acuña, Mauricio. A ginga da nação: intelectuais na capoeira e capoeiristas intelectuais. São Paulo, Editora Alameda. (link)
Edited Collections
2025 Acuña, Mauricio (org.); Rossi, Gustavo (org). Trenzar palabras: Congresos, festivales y encuentros entre artistas, intelectuales y activistas afrolatinoamericanos/as (dossier). Perspectivas Afro: Revisa de Investigaciones en Estudios Afrolatinoamericanos y Afrocaribeños, Vol. 5, No. 1, July-December, 2025, pp. 11- 106 (link). Introduction, pp. 11-16 (link).
2018 Acuña, Mauricio (org.); Hirano, L. F. K. (org.); Machado, B. F. (org.). Marcadores sociais das diferenças: fluxos, trânsitos e intersecções. 1. ed. Goiânia: Editora UFG/ Gráfica UFG/ Editora da Imprensa Universitária, v. 1. (link)
Peer Reviewed Articles
2023 Acuña, Mauricio. "Jorge Amado y su viaje-exilio por América Latina". Revista Casa de las Américas. Volume 313, October-December, 2023, pp. 18-28.
2023 "Saudades in Brazil: Léopold Senghor and the Poetics of a Luso-Afro-Atlantic World" Luso-Brazilian Review, July 2023, 60 (1) 91-116. (link)
2021 "Escritos de geração: Jorge Amado e Edison Carneiro na roda da capoeira." Revista Trilhos, v. 2, n. 1, June, pp. 105-119. (link)
2017 "Políticas da estética no Brasil e Argentina: corpo, gênero e memória em Cabra Marcado para Morrer e La Historia Oficial." Proa - revista de antropologia e arte. Campinas, n.7, v.1, pp. 56-69. (link)
2016 "The Berimbau's Social Ginga: Notes Towards a Comprehension of Agency in Capoeira." Revista Sociologia & Antropologia. Rio de janeiro, v.06.02, pp. 383-405. (link)
Chapters
2018 "Indícios de gênero e raça na capoeira: Ruth Landes e Edison Carneiro ao pé da roda." In: Acuña, Mauricio (org.); Hirano, L. F. K. (org.); Machado, B. F. (org.). Marcadores sociais das diferenças: fluxos, trânsitos e intersecções. 1. ed. Goiânia: Editora UFG/ Gráfica UFG/ Editora da Imprensa Universitária, v. 1, pp. 76-100.
Recognition
2023 Translation into Portuguese. "The Berimbau's Social Ginga" (2016). "A Ginga Social do Berimbau: Notas para compreensão da agência na capoeira." Translated by Thaís Fernanda Salves de Brito. Revista Trilhos, ano 4, v. 4, n. 1, dezembro de 2023. (link)
Translation & Critical Review
2025 With Samantha Kang. Mahler, Anne Garland. "Los límites de la solidaridad global: leyendo el Congreso Cultural de La Habana de 1968 a través del Havana Journal de Andrew Salkey." In: Acuña, Mauricio (org.); Rossi, Gustavo (org). Perspectivas Afro: Revisa de Investigaciones en Estudios Afrolatinoamericanos y Afrocaribeños, Vol. 5, No. 1, July-December, 2025, pp. 17-31 (link)
2024 "El nacedero de la lengua." Allan da Rosa. Revista Casa de las Américas. Volume 313, October-December, 2023, pp. 99-101.
2016 With Marcelo Diego. "Nota à presente edição", critical review and notes to the critical edition of Sérgio Buarque de Holanda's Raízes do Brasil. São Paulo, Companhia das Letras. (link)
2016 "Sobre os princípios." Diaz-Quiñones, Arcadio. Peixe-elétrico. Editora e-galáxia (translation).
Articles in Newspapers and Electronic Media
2025 Acuña, Mauricio. "Mestre Pastinha: the written mischiefs of a capoeira-author." Capoeira History. Essex (UK), February. (link) Also published in Portuguese: "Mestre Pastinha: as malícias escritas de um capoeira-autor." (link)
2024 Acuña, Mauricio. "Chile 1973-2023: Entre a catástrofe da utopia e a duração da resistência." Outras Palavras e Biblioteca Virtual do Pensamento Social. Rio de Janeiro, September. (link)
2021 "A capoeira é recurso na educação." BrazilLAB and Nexo Políticas Públicas. São Paulo, May 09. (link)
2020 "Literaturas brasileiras à margem do mundo afro-atlântico." Biblioteca Virtual do Pensamento Social. Rio de Janeiro, July. (link)
2016 "Edison Carneiro em seu labirinto." Jornal da Unicamp, Campinas, October 24. (link)
2015 "Los sueños abiertos en América Latina." Rebelión, April 04. (link)
Encyclopedia and Book Entry
2023 Acuña, Mauricio. "Etnicidade." In: Ratts, Alex; Rios, Flávia. Dicionário das relações étnico-raciais. São Paulo, Editora Perspectiva, pp. 138-142 (link).
2021 Acuña, Mauricio. "Mestre Pastinha." In: Gomes, Flávio dos Santos, Jaime Lauriano, and Lilia Moritz Schwarcz. Enciclopédia negra: biografias afro-brasileiras. São Paulo, SP: Companhia das Letras, pp. 434-435. Jabuti Prize of Best Book in Human Sciences. (link)
Speaking Engagements
Works in Progress
Mestre Pastinha: Afro-Brazilian Intellectual of Capoeira and Black Modernities
Prizes and Awards
2020 Arcadio Díaz-Quiñones Teaching Award. Department of Spanish and Portuguese, Princeton University.
2019 First Honorable Mention, Silvio Romero Prize for Dissertation “Maestrias de Mestre Pastinha, um intelectual da cidade gingada.” National Institute of Historic and Artistic Heritage, Ministry of Culture, Brazil.
2018 First Honorable Mention, Best Dissertation in the Humanities, University of São Paulo.
2011 Second Honorable Mention, Silvio Romero Prize for Master Thesis “Entre rodas de capoeira e círculos intelectuais: disputas pelo significado da capoeira.” National Institute of Historic and Artistic Heritage, Ministry of Culture, Brazil.
Contact
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A ginga da nação: intelectuais na capoeira e capoeiristas intelectuais (1930-1969). São Paulo: Alameda Editorial, 2014.
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Marcadores sociais das diferenças: fluxos, trânsitos e intersecções. 1. ed. Goiânia: Editora UFG/ Gráfica UFG/ Editora da Imprensa Universitária, v. 1, 2018.
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"Mestre Pastinha." Enciclopédia negra: biografias afro-brasileiras. São Paulo, SP: Companhia das Letras. 2022 Jabuti Prize of Best Book in Human Sciences.
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"Etnicidade." Dicionário das relações étnico-raciais contemporâneas. São Paulo, Editora Perspectiva.