Nicolau Sevcenko, full professor at Harvard and former member of the IEA-USP, dies at 61

Nicolau Sevcenko being interviewed by Harvard Gazette in October, 2010
Nicolau Sevcenko (center), Roberto Ventura (1957-2002) and Lilia Schwarcz during the seminar O Impacto da Mídia Eletroeletrônica no Repertório Visual, on November 26, 1993, at the IEA-USP

Historian Nicholas Sevcenko, a full professor at Harvard University and former professor at USP’s Faculty of Philosophy, Letters and Human Sciences (FFLCH), died at the age of 61 last Wednesday, August 13, as a result of a stroke.

Sevcenko also worked at the IEA-USP in the early 90s, when he joined the Study Group on Cultural History, having delivered the conferences and participated in various seminars.

At Harvard, Sevcenko has taught History and Culture of Latin America and Brazil. Throughout his career, he stood out by studies on Brazilian Culture, Literature, Art and the development of the country's major cities.

Sevcenko graduated in History from FFLCH-USP, where he also earned a Ph.D. (1981). From 1986 to 1990 he held a post-doctoral research in Cultural History at the University of London, where he had as fellow historian Eric Hobsbawm (1917-2012). He became a full professor at USP in 1992.

Besides teaching at USP and Harvard, Sevcenko was also a professor at PUC-SP and UNICAMP, and columnist of the newspaper "Folha de São Paulo".

His major works are "A Revolta da Vacina" ("The Vaccine Rebellion") (1984), "Literatura como Missão" ("Literature as a Mission") (1985), "Orfeu Estático na Metrópole"("Static Orpheus in the Metropolis") (1992) and "A Corrida para o Século XXI" ("The Race for the 21st Century") (2001).

Photos (from the top): Stephanie Mitchell/Harvard University; Mauro Bellesa/IEA-USP