Faculty Directory

Biography, Education and Training

Thiago H. Mota (he/him) is an Assistant Professor of African History. Fully trained in the Global South, he earned a PhD in Social History from the Federal University of Minas Gerais, Brazil (with a cotutelle at the University of Lisbon, Portugal). During and after his doctoral studies, Dr Mota conducted research in several countries, such as Brazil, France, Gambia, Germany, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique, Portugal, and Senegal, working on the early process of social spreading of Islam in West Africa - from the 15th century to the early 19th century - and its impact over the Atlantic World. After completing his PhD, Dr. Mota was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of São Paulo (Brazil), a Fulbright Visiting Scholar at the University of Pennsylvania (USA), and a Marie-Curie Visiting Scholar at the Cheikh Anta Diop University (Senegal). He authored the book Portugueses e Muçulmanos na Senegâmbia: História e Representações do Islã na África (c.1570-1625) and his forthcoming monograph is tentatively titled Global Islam from Below: Africa and Africans in the Making of a Muslim Atlantic. Having published articles in several journals like Slavery & Abolition, Atlantic Studies, Latin America Research Review, Afriques, and Varia Historia among others, he also edited books, such as Ensino Antirracista na Educação Básica: da Formação de Professores às Práticas escolares, in which several antiracist education strategies are approached to support teachers training for middle- and high-school education. Before joining UCSC, Dr. Mota taught courses on African History and Methodologies for History Education at the Federal University of Viçosa (Brazil), from 2018 to 2024. Currently, he is editing two books on African Muslims within the Portuguese Colonial Empire and Postcolonial Lusophone Countries: one academic volume and another aiming to support education on cultural and religious diversity within Portuguese-speaking countries worldwide. His research and teaching interests lie in pre-20th century African History, Islam in Africa and the African diaspora, the social history of Islamic thought in Africa, and methodologies for antiracist education.

Selected Publications

Most of my scholarship is available at https://ucsc.academia.edu/ThiagoMota

Peer-reviewed, selected articles:

MOTA, Thiago H.. Muslims for and Against Slavery: Debates on the European Abolitionism Within the Muslim Elite of Saint-Louis, Senegal (1844). Slavery & Abolition, v. 45, p. 1-24, 2024. 4.

MOTA, Thiago Henrique. Primavera islâmica na historiografia africanista. AFROASIA, v. 1, p. 642-649, 2021. 7.

MOTA, Thiago Henrique. Wolof and Mandinga Muslims in the early Atlantic World: African background, missionary disputes, and social expansion of Islam before the Fula Jihads. ATLANTIC STUDIES (PRINT), v. 1, p. 1-27, 2021. 10.

 MOTA, Thiago Henrique. Um coração de rei: Cultura política islâmica como antecedente das revoluções muçulmanas na África Ocidental (Senegâmbia, séculos XVI e XVII). VARIA HISTORIA, v. 36, p. 295-328, 2020.

MOTA, Thiago Henrique. Muslims, Moriscos, and Arabic-Speaking Migrants in the New World. LATIN AMERICAN RESEARCH REVIEW, v. 55, p. 820-828, 2020. 13.

MOTA, T. H.. Significados da escravidão para africanos muçulmanos: ideias jurídicas e religiosas islâmicas no Mundo Atlântico (séculos XVI e XVII). ANOS 90 (ONLINE) (PORTO ALEGRE), v. 26, p. 1-18, 2019.

MOTA, Thiago Henrique. The Ivory Saltcellars: A contribution to the history of Islamic expansion in Greater Senegambia during the 16th and 17th centuries. Afriques: débats, méthodes et terrains d'histoire, p. 1-27, 2019. 

MOTA, Thiago Henrique. Instrução Islâmica na Senegâmbia e práticas de Muçulmanos Africanos em Portugal: uma abordagem Atlântica (séculos XVI e XVII). ESTUDOS HISTORICOS (RIO DE JANEIRO), v. 30, p. 35-54, 2017.

MOTA, Thiago Henrique. A Universidade Eduardo Mondlane no projeto pós-colonial de educação em Moçambique, 1976-1993. AFROASIA, p. 189-226, 2016.

Authored book:

MOTA, Thiago Henrique. Portugueses e Muçulmanos na Senegâmbia: história e representações do Islã na África. 1. ed. Curitiba: Editora Prismas, 2016. 338p. (Review available)

Edited books:

MOTA, Thiago Henrique. Ensino antirracista na Educação Básica: da formação de professores às práticas escolares. 1. ed. Porto Alegre: Editora Fi, 2021. v. 01. 304p .

REIS, Raissa Brescia dos (Org.) ; RESENDE, Taciana Almeida Garrido de (Org.) ; MOTA, Thiago Henrique (Org.) . Estudos sobre África ocidental: dinâmicas culturais, diálogos atlânticos. 1. ed. Curitiba: Editora Prismas, 2016. 322p . 

Selected book chapters:

MOTA, Thiago Henrique. Islã, Islamização. In: Fernanda Gallo. (Org.). Breve dicionário das literaturas africanas. 1ed.Campinas (SP): Editora da Unicamp, 2023.

MOTA, Thiago H. A africanidade dos objetos de marfim: ensaio conceitual e proposição do método semântico. In: Vanicléia Silva-Santos. (Org.). Marfins africanos como insígnias de poder: contextos de produção e usos dentro e fora da África. 1ed.Belo Horizonte (MG): Fino Traço, 2023, v. 1, p. 165-189.

MOTA, Thiago H. Colonial Marks in African Museums: Cases from Guinea-Bissau and Senegal. In: Rodrigo Christofoletti. (Org.). Soft Power and Heritage. 1ed.New York: Springer, Cham, 2023, v. 1, p. 311-329.

MOTA, Thiago Henrique. O Islã na África Atlântica: transformações no significado de comportamentos religiosos (séculos XVI-XVII). In: Lucilene Reginaldo e Roquinaldo Ferreira. (Org.). África, margens e oceanos: perspectivas de História Social. 1ed.Campinas: Editora UNICAMP, 2021, v. 1, p. 181-216.