Gilda de Melo e Sousa

Gilda Rocha de Melo e Sousa (March 24, 1919 – December 25, 2005), also spelled Gilda Rocha de Mello e Souza, was a Brazilian philosopher, literary critic, essayist, and university professor.

Biography She was born Gilda Moraes Rocha in São Paulo in 1919 and grew up in Araraquara, inland in São Paulo state. She returned to the city of São Paulo in 1930 to attend school. In 1937, she enrolled in the University of São Paulo (USP) graduating with a bachelor's in philosophy in 1940. In 1952, she received a doctorate in social sciences, with a thesis on 19th-century fashion, and in 1954 she became the founding director of the teaching of aesthetics at USP's Philosophy Department.

After retiring in 1973, in 1999 she was named professor emerita in the USP's Faculty of Philosophy, Letters, and Humanities.