Presentation

The Programa de Pós-Graduação em Relações Étnico-Raciais (Graduate Program in Ethnic-Racial Relations - PPRER) from Centro Federal de Educação Tecnológica Celso Suckow da Fonseca (CEFET/RJ), created in 2011, aims to meet the search for reflections, research and theoretical deepening regarding issues that deal with race, racism, and anti-racism from the perspective of human relations and how these concepts continue to operate in society. In addition, it also seeks to respond to a demand caused by Law 10.639/2003, which made the inclusion of the theme “Afro-Brazilian History and Culture” mandatory in the official curriculum of the Education System. This legislation opened an agenda for further studies on themes – such as History of Africa and Africans, the struggle of black people in Brazil, black Brazilian culture, and black people in the formation of Brazilian society – in several areas of knowledge, in order to rescue the contribution of the black people in the social, economic and political areas pertinent to the History of Brazil. In eight years of existence, PPRER had 1,275 applicants for the 219 vacancies that offered in its student selection processes. From 192 students enrolled, we have a rate of more than 90% of graduates. If, at the beginning of the program's activities, a good part of the students' research proposals presented Education for Ethnic-Racial Relations as a central area of interest – in view of the demand provoked by Law 10,639/2003 itself –, today PPRER receives students from the most different areas of qualification, which greatly contributes to the production of knowledge that cross disciplinary boundaries for the investigation of complex phenomena typical of the contemporary world.

CEFET/RJ, when creating the Master in Ethnic-Racial Relations, demarcated a pioneering action in Brazil, both for the thematic and for the strong integration between Secondary /Technical Education (Basic Education), Undergraduate education and Graduate levels. The changes in the social panorama caused by the rise (material and symbolic) of black people to positions hitherto not reached in the History of Brazil and the arrival, on a scale not yet seen, of these subjects to the academic environment and to graduate – especially from the affirmative action policies aimed at the black and poor population – require changes in postures, cognition and analysis not yet performed by the Brazilian Academy. In this sense, PPRER assumes a fundamental role in the qualified training of students interested in the production of socially relevant knowledge, which, from the lens of interdisciplinarity, they seek to respond to new research problems generated in the field through the incorporation of a broader rationality. At the same time, PPRER's pioneering spirit significantly changed the ways of producing knowledge at CEFET/RJ itself, a century-old institution with a strong tradition associated with teaching trades (with its various technical courses of Secondary education level) and Engineering. PPRER was the first postgraduate program of CEFET/RJ in the Humanities area and has, in its faculty, several professors who work in subjects of Secondary education with a technical specialization (such as Portuguese Language, Literature, History, Geography, Arts and Foreign Languages).

PPRER has contributed to the qualified training of professionals from the most diverse areas - for example, Geography, History, Languages, Linguistics, Arts, Physical Education, Philosophy, Pedagogy, Health, Law, Economics, Cinema and Communication – able to act in the field of Ethnic-Racial Relations in its various developments, whether in the field of Education, Law, Arts, Diplomacy, Neighborhood Associations, Health, Politics, among many others. The result of the researches produced in the scope of the PPRER, by its students and professors, has been a great indicator of the social insertion of the program, because these researches have as object of investigation emerging social problems whose structure is a discursive system still structural in our society, habits and ideologies: racism. The knowledge produced directly contributes to the understanding and intervention in the face of racism, a major social problem that cuts across different sectors of practical life, such as labor relations, educational policies, income distribution, public security, among others. The researches carried out in the PPRER collaborate so that we have a more democratic and more equitable society insofar as, without exception, it questions, reflects, seeks ways out for the effective application of the Human rights to the entire population, regardless of race, color, ethnicity, creed, religion, gender, origin, social class, or sexual orientation.

Area: The Graduate Program in Ethnic-Racial Relations belongs to the Interdisciplinary Area and is part of CAPES Chamber II (Humanities and Socials).

GOALS

MAIN GOAL

The Graduate Program in Ethnic-Racial Relations (PPRER) of CEFET/RJ aims to expand researches, produce knowledge, and consolidate professional training in the scope of Ethnic-Racial Relations and diasporic identities, forming graduates with investigative, purposeful, and interdisciplinary expertise in the field of public policies, social analysis, recognition of ethnic-racial plurality, respect for human and civil rights, appreciation of identity and otherness.

SPECIFIC GOALS

1- Reflect epistemologically on the discursive and institutional approaches that served as the basis for the silencing, erasure and exclusion of population segments whose origins lie in phenotypes and/or stereotypes based on ethnic and/or racial marks, as well as the naturalization of barriers and socio-historical prejudices;

2- Deepen research on the historical formation of political conscience, the elaboration of cultural identities, the establishment and affirmation of guarantees of the rights of different ethnic-racial groups;

3- Assess the reach of affirmative action programs, public policies and social movements in the implementation and enforcement of national and transnational agreements, aimed at creating and maintaining anti-racist and anti-segregationist practices;

4- Instruct professionals from the most different areas of knowledge to produce and manage institutional and social projects that impact the production of alternatives focused on reducing racial, gender, social, economic, cultural, intellectual and political asymmetries;

5- Prepare high-level professionals to carry out research, teaching and extension activities in higher education, in the field of Ethnic-Racial Relations;

6- Investigate the dynamics of urban and rural spaces, considering the relations between territory and identity to understand socio-spatial processes that influence the dynamics of Ethnic-Racial Relations at different scales.