Presentation

Brief history (CAPES approval, concept, vacancies, duration, defenses ...)

The Graduate Program in Linguistic Studies (PPGEL), at the Academic Master level, aims to train qualified teachers and researchers to work in higher education, teaching, research and extension activities in the area of Linguistics.

PPGEL is the result of the policy of internalization of research and postgraduate activities developed by Capes. In the case of the State of Santa Catarina, historically, postgraduate programs tend to be concentrated on the coast. In the area of Letters/Linguistics, PPGEL is the only Stricto Sensu Graduate Program in the State. The other programs in the area are installed at the Federal University of Santa Catarina (UFSC) and the University of Southern Santa Catarina (Unisul), both in Florianópolis and the metropolitan region. In the Greater Mercosur Frontier Mesoregion, composed of 396 municipalities, the region where the six UFFS campuses operate, PPGEL is the only program in the area of Letters/Linguistics in public IES. In this mesoregion, besides PPGEL, there is only one more stricto sensu postgraduate program in the area of Letters/Linguistics, operating at the University of Passo Fundo, a community HEI located in the northwest of the State of Rio Grande do Sul.

Due to this historical litoralization of the stricto sensu graduate programs in the area of Letters/Linguistics, the complex linguistic reality of the interior of the State of Santa Catarina and the Great Mercosur Frontier Mesoregion remains unknown in many respects, which produces important effects in regional socioeconomic development. The research activities developed in PPGEL seek, without losing sight of the universality of science, to know the languages, the contacts between languages and the discursive functioning that shape the social ties and productive matrices of the region.

Under the IV National Graduate Plan (PNPG), the expansion of postgraduate is proposed as a recommendation, which purpose is to reduce differences between regions of the country, between areas of knowledge and between various programs and research groups, with a view to the “significant increase in the number of graduate students required to qualify the country’s Higher Education system” (Source: BRAZIL/MCT/CAPES. National Graduate Plan (PNPG) 2005-2010. Brasília, 2005, p. 9. Available at: <www.capes.gov.br>. Accessed on: Feb. 6, 2011). The policies implemented from the PNPG provided a significant increase in Graduate Studies in Brazil. And public universities continue to play a major role in this advance, especially since it is these universities that concentrate the largest number of stricto sensu graduate programs. And also, the offer of these programs falls short of ideal, as it does not fully meet the policies of graduate internalization.

The implementation of the PPGEL, in line with these postgraduate internalization policies, represented an important step in reducing this unequal distribution, contributing to the training and “fixation” of researchers and to the qualification of teaching in the Greater Mercosur Frontier Mesoregion, which will enable the regional development aimed at by the UFFS. In addition to the establishment of researchers from different HEIs in the country, the implementation of PPGEL also enabled the attraction of experienced and qualified professionals in the field of Letters/Linguistics through the Senior National Visitor Program (PVNS/Capes Bid Notice Capes 6/2012). Since 2012, the group of collaborating faculty members of PPGEL are teachers Ester Mirian Scarpa and Carlos Mioto. 
This ratifies the Program’s role in integrating with the community and strengthening language studies on and in the region.