ELA - English

Welcome to the Department of Latin American Studies (ELA)

This section is organized as follows:

1. Presentation of the Department of Latin American Studies (ELA)

2. Presentation of the Graduate Program on the Social Sciences - Comparative Research of the Americas (PPGECsA)

3. Academic Administration

4. Faculty of the Graduate Program

We invite you to explore our website and check out the Revista de Estudos e Pesquisas sobre as Américas, our laboratories and observatories, the list of thesis and dissertations and other resourceful links!

1. Presentation of the Department of Latin American Studies (ELA)

The Department of Latin American Studies (ELA) was created in 2017 to promote the first undergraduate course of the Social Sciences dedicated to the understanding of Latin America and the Caribbean societies, cultures, identities and politics. Along with the Departments of Anthropology (DAN) and Sociology (SOL), the Department of Latin American Studies (ELA) constitute the Social Sciences Institute (ICS) at the Universidade de Brasília.

In 2020, ELA celebrated the 33rd year of its Graduate Program on the Social Sciences with focus on the comparative research of the Americas. The multidisciplinary experience of the Graduate Program has been oriented under the social theory produced within the humanistic disciplines of Social Anthropology, Socioloy and Political Science and in direct dialogue with History and Geography, Political Economy, Social and Political Thought and, more recently, with the contributions from the Feminist Studies, Indigenous Studies, Cultural Studies, Post-Colonial and Decolonial Critique, and, of course, from the contributions of the field of Latin American, Latino and Caribbean Studies understood at large. Thanks to the wide interlocution of Latin American Social Sciences the Department of Latin American Studies (ELA) covers a wide range of topics, theories, concepts and methodologies that helps to promote the understanding of shared social problems and processes in the continent which can be recognized by its awarded intellectual production expressed in scientific articles, books, thesis and dissertations! In 2019 the Department of Latin American Studies began its undergraduate course in Latin American Social Sciences.

2. Presentation of the Graduate Program on the Social Sciences - Comparative Research of the Americas (PPGECsA)

The Graduate Program on the Social Sciences with focus on the Comparative Research of the Americas (PPGECsA) was created in 1988 in order to offer Master of Science and Doctorate degrees to researchers and professionals that seek an embodied, situated, critical and multidisciplinary perspective of the shared social, cultural and political phenomena and processes that build the Americas as a unique geohistorical region. The professors, researchers and graduate students attached to the PPGECsA aim to overcome methodological nationalisms and the disciplinary compartimentalization of the Social Sciences in order to face the new and more complex challenges of the American and the Caribbean societies.

The research at the PPGECsA is organized under three multidisciplinary and comparative axis in the Social Sciences and its specific subfields:

Development, Globalization and Migrations in the Americas

Processes of Development, Globalization and Regionalization: It studies the conditions of insertion of national societies in processes of development, globalization and regionalization and also its multiple dimensions (economic, social, political, cultural and scientific-technological). An emphasis is placed on topics of integration, variations of capitalism, dependency and imperialism; conflicts and disputes of hegemonic and counter-hegemonic models; roles and limits of national States, its alliances and internacional concertations; interactions between social actors and institutions (State, global governance, markets and civil society).

Internacional Migrations, Migratory Policies and Borders: It covers the transnational social practices (economic, political, religious, kinship, among others) of migrants through transnational social fields, as well as the multiple impacts of these practices on the societies of origin or the places of destination. It also analyses the migratory policies in the national and international contexts and its impacts on migratory flows. Laslty, it exams the specific policies of return and circularity of migrants inbetween countries and border areas.

Society, State and Politics in the Americas

State, Democracy, Ideology and Power: It studies the formation and dialectical development of nation-states, the values, beliefs and ideologies that characterize the political phenomena in the american societies, the caudillismos, the golpismos, revolutions, counterrevolutions and democratic processes. The focus of the analysis are the reciprocal relations between exploitation, power and domination, the superdetermination of politics of the economy in Latin America, the transformational dynamics and interactions of State-civil society, reform-revolution, left-right in the societies of the american continent.

Institutions and Public Policies: It approaches the relations between public policies and the institutions of the State, civil society and the market in its national and international dimensions. The focus of the analysis is to understand/criticize to what extent the public policies actually help to transform societies in terms of social and political inclusion, citizenship and democratization covering diverse social problematics of our times.

Ethnicity, Race, Class and Gender in the Americas

Social Stratifications, Unequalities and Domination: It studies the structuration of unequalities in contemporaneous societies emphasizing the collective action and agency of social minorities in regional, national and global contexts. It's analysis focus the State and interstate actions to govern interethnic, racial, gender and class conflicts that are correspondent to these contexts and that conform shared sociological problems.

Interculturality, Multiculturalism and Gender Relations: It covers social and cultural politics and its impacts on identity movements and political/institutional processes that generate ethnic, racial or gender classifications. The focus of this research axis is to study interhetnic, racial and dender relations and its effects for the attainment of equity, redistribution and recognition.

→ The admission exams are annual and officially announced at the website of ELA.

The Graduate Program also admits foreign students annually for its Master's of Science and Doctorate programs. There are exclusive scholarships for foreign students provided by the Brazilian government. For more information visit the following website (in Portuguese): http://www.capes.gov.br/cooperacao-internacional/multinacional/pec-pg

3. Academic Administration

Dr. Elaine Moreira

Head of Department