Presentation
The Postgraduate Program in Linguistic Studies (PPGEL), linked to the Department of Letters and Arts (DLA) of the Universidade Estadual Feira de Santana (UEFS), began operating in 2010, with the Master Course, and in 2019 it began to offer the Doctorate Course. The PPGEL is side with UEFS's commitment to train qualified personnel with a higher level and to promote scientific development in the field of Linguistic Studies.
The Postgraduate Program in Linguistic Studies has been increasingly consolidated as an important training center for researchers in the region in which it is inserted. Transforming Feira de Santana into a postgraduate training center for professionals in the Linguistics Area is strategic, due to the connection that the city and the UEFS maintain with the interior of Bahia and with the Northeast of Brazil. Furthermore, it is a measure that fits with the policy of interiorization and expansion of postgraduate studies, undertaken by Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES), Ministry of Education of Brazil.
Since its creation, the Postgraduate Program in Linguistic Studies has focused its identity on the Bahian semi-arid region, where it is located, committing to its development through projects that focus on regional linguistic and cultural questions.
The Bahian semi-arid region arouses scientific interests for the diversity inherent to its human formation and for the cultural and linguistic richness that it converts into a space with unique characteristics. The cultural and linguistic diversity of the Bahian semi-arid region motivated the emergence of the first investigations that originated in the PPGEL and motivated the selection of the concentration area and the research interests of the Program. Language and Society, understood as inseparable, are the point of convergence of PPGEL projects, which, while initially focusing on the Bahian semi-arid region, open to the world through other themes, establishing dialogues in different contexts, without losing focus on its local and regional identity.
Investigations carried out in the scope of the PPGEL/UEFS reaffirm the route of languages studies, in the UEFS, in which the attentions for the relationship between language and society are considered from the perspective of variation and the linguistic change and the interfaces between language and culture, text and discourse, language and teaching.
The Postgraduate Program in Linguistic Studies is organized according to an Area of Concentration, Language and Society, with two research interests: Variation and Linguistic Change in Portuguese and Textual and Discursive Practices. Each of the lines reflects the sub-areas or research topics that have been developed by teachers and students, in alliance with other institutions.
By joining the Program, students are encouraged to take part in research, teaching and extension activities, with a view to becoming competent researchers who are politically aware of their role in society, assuming a conception of language as a social, cultural and political activity, being able to discuss and problematize the interfaces between language and society, to describe and explain linguistic phenomena and interpret diverse textual and discursive practices, contributing to scientific and social development.
The role of the PPGEL in the training of qualified human resources stands out, in the high rate of employability of its graduates and in the strategic role that the Program in the production of knowledge in the field of Linguistic Studies has assumed.
