The Graduate Degree in Linguistics and Literature was established in 1976 with a Master’s Program under the permission of the Federal University of Bahia's Chamber of Graduate and Research Teaching. Back at this time, the Program focused on Portuguese, Linguistics and Literary Theory.
The Federal Council of Education accredited UFBA’s Masters Program in Linguistics and Literature in 1983, allowing its full operation and recognition throughout the whole Brazilian territory. In 1990 the Program obtained its recertification.
The Doctorate Program was created in 1995 with its first group starting in 1996. In 1997 the Master’s Program was reformulated and approved and the Doctoral degree was recommended by GTC-CAPES. For 20 years before the doctoral degree in our Program, our Master’s course was the only graduate program in Language and Literature available in the whole state of Bahia hosting research from professors of our and other institutions in the state, in the northeastern region and in Brazil.
The Graduate Program in Literature, Language and Linguistics (PPGLL) was later created in 1996. It offered two graduate degrees (stricto sensu) – the Master of Arts in Letters (CML) and the Doctorate in Language and Literature (CDL) – and specialization degrees (latu sensu): the Vernacular Language and Literature course and the Translation Course. The Program also hosted a new line of research: Applied Linguistics. Besides the graduate and specialization courses, the Program assisted in an interdisciplinary professional project: the Foreign Language Education and Portuguese Language Education attended by our Program’s alumni.
From 1996 to 2010 (year that PPGLL was extinct), the Program counted on three areas, namely, HISTORICAL LINGUISTICS (with three research lines: (1) Historical Constitution of Portuguese, (2) Linguistic Change in Romania, and (3) Linguistic Diversity in Brazil); APPLIED LINGUISTICS (with two research lines: (1) Acquisition and Teaching of Portuguese and (2) Foreign Languages Teaching and Learning and Translation); and CRITICAL THEORIES OF LITERATURE AND CULTURE (with three research lines: (1) Documents of Cultural Memory, (2) Textual Criticism, and (3) Representation and Reading). In this period, the PPGLL underwent some adaptations according to the new guidelines of the funding agencies, especially CAPES (for example: annual recruitment for new students; a more compact and more flexible curriculum with a larger and more diversified table of courses; a transdisciplinary perspective, which enabled greater integration with other graduate programs and other higher education institutions). These changes
managed professors and students as well as graduate and undergraduate programs to dialog, especially in terms of teaching practices for scholarship graduate students in undergraduate courses.
Thus, the program expanded, admitted new professors and increased slots for students to handle the annual demand of new courses in Linguistics and Literature in Bahia (following the expansion of higher education promoted by the REUNI Brazilian governmental program since 2009). This process resulted in CAPES’ recommendation of splitting the PPGLL into two different programs. It was when the current PPGLinC – Graduate Program in Language and Culture and – and PPGLitCult – Graduate Program in Literature and Culture – were created. As a result of the consolidation of the Program, the Interinstitutional Doctorate project with the Universidade do Oeste do Paraná was implemented in 2010, which had been taken and managed by the PPGLinC. Such actions expand its impact beyond the Brazilian northeastern region.
The PPGLinC was initially organized in two concentration areas: HISTORICAL LINGUISTICS (with four research lines: (1) Historical Constitution of Portuguese and other Romance Languages; (2) Textual Philology; (3) History of Written Culture in Brazil and (4) Variation of Portuguese and Theory of Grammar) and CONTEMPORARY LANGUAGES AND CULTURES (with three research lines: (1) Acquisition, Teaching and Language Learning; (2) Audiovisual Translation and Accessibility Studies; and (3) Text, Discourse and Culture). The organizational scenario changed after extensive curricular reforms carried out until 2018 and implemented in 2019.