The Graduate Program in Ethnic Relations and Contemporaneity (PPGREC) is part of the Office of Education and Ethnic Relations (ODEERE), currently a supplementary body of State University of Southwest Bahia which was founded in 2005 based on studies carried out by the research group ‘Education and Ethnic Relations: Knowledge and Practices of African, Indigenous, and Quilombola Legacies’ under the coordination of Professor Marise de Santana, Ph.D.

Since its establishment, ODEERE has become a space for the production of knowledge on ethnic relations and, subsequently, also on gender and sexual diversity. Noteworthy initiatives include research projects developed by faculty members affiliated with the Office and a wide range of extension courses, such as Education and Afro-Brazilian Cultures, Indigenous Education, Gender, Race, and Sexual Diversity, Quilombola Education, and Afro-Brazilian Population Health. The extension-oriented mission of both ODEERE and PPGREC is evidenced by the annual qualification of dozens of individuals from the region, with particular emphasis on teacher education, whose participants adhere to the proposals and engage actively in their implementation.

The proposal for PPGREC emerged from the work already developed by ODEERE, which encompasses a set of teaching, research, and extension activities in the field of ethnic-racial issues. The proposal was prepared by a committee composed of three faculty members from UESB Professor Marise de Santana, Ph.D. (Chair), Benedito Gonçalves Eugênio (Vice-Chair), and Marcos Lopes de Souza, Ph.D. (Member), as well as one faculty member from UEFS, Edson Dias Ferreira, Ph.D. (Member). The project took into account prior experience in academic advising in undergraduate and specialization programs, in addition to the research and extension activities already undertaken.

In May 2014, the PPGREC proposal was approved by the Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (CAPES), and the program officially began on August 1, 2014. PPGREC has offered a Master’s Degree program since 2014 and a Doctoral Degree program since the second semester of 2025. Both programs are structured around the same research lines, each encompassing a set of studies within the Program’s fields of knowledge.

Since its foundation in 2005, ODEERE and, from 2014 onward, PPGREC have organized a major annual event entitled Afro-Brazilian Belonging Education Week (Original name in Portuguese: Semana da Educação da Pertença Afro-Brasileira). This event has grown stronger each year, mobilizing the city of Jequié every November. Evidence of this consolidation can be seen in the incorporation of additional titles and audiences, particularly from 2018 onward, with events such as the International Colloquium on Education and Ethnic Relations, the Meeting of African indigenous Religions, the Education Forum: Laws 10,639/03 and 11,645/08, Gender and Sexual Diversity, and the State Meeting on Education and Ethnic Relations. Another event with significant local and regional impact is the Meeting to Combat Ethnic Discrimination, held annually in March since 2006. This event now incorporates the Seminar of the Graduate Program in Ethnic Relations and Contemporaneity, in which alumni and current students present their academic work, in addition to thematic panels related to the Program’s research lines and program evaluation. This event marks the official opening of the academic year for both extension courses and graduate studies.

It is also noteworthy that, since 2016, the Program PPGREC has published the journal ODEERE: Journal of the Graduate Program in Ethnic Relations and Contemporaneity (ISSN 2525-4715), a quadrimestral publication of the State University of Southwest Bahia. The journal disseminates original and unpublished works addressing discussions on ethnicity, ethnic relations, gender, and sexual diversity across different times and spaces and focusing on diverse social groups, such as Indigenous peoples, Black populations, Africans, Nomadic Communities/group, among others. In the most recent evaluation, the journal achieved a Qualis B1 (Scientific Journals Classification System of the Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel- CAPES) classification and demonstrates strong growth potential, representing an advance in the Program’s dialogue with other research networks, particularly through the publication of thematic dossiers.

In the most recent four-year evaluation (2017–2020), PPGREC received a score of 4, with significant results across all three evaluation criteria: Program (Very Good), Training (Good), and Social Impact (Very Good). The evaluation report highlighted the strong articulation and alignment between the areas of concentration, the research lines, and the projects developed by the faculty; the adequacy of the infrastructure for carrying out program activities; the high quality of intellectual production by faculty, students, and alumni; and the substantial social and cultural impact of the research, characterized by innovation and medium complexity.

The scarcity of qualified researchers and faculty members for teaching and research in ethnic relations, gender, and society in the Southwestern Region of Bahia, as well as in other regions of the state, is a demand that PPGREC seeks to address. The Program’s area of concentration, Ethnic Relations, Gender, and Society, focuses on the themes of ethnic relations and, when relevant, their interface with gender and sexualities across different spatiotemporal contexts, drawing on multiple theoretical and methodological fields. This approach reinforces the Program’s interdisciplinary character. Within this area of concentration, PPGREC offers two research lines, and the Program’s faculty members have experience in research aligned with one of the following lines: (1) Ethnicity, Memory, and Education; (2) Ethnic Groups, Gender, and Sexual Diversity.

The objectives of the Graduate Program in Ethnic Relations and Contemporaneity are:

I. To train researchers capable of questioning and critically reflecting on theoretical and practical issues in the field of Ethnic Relations and its interfaces, producing knowledge and contributing to micro-regional and macro-regional development and, in the long term, to national development;

II. To qualify professionals from diverse fields of knowledge for interdisciplinary research in Ethnic Relations, enabling them to work in higher education and basic education in both public and private institutions;

III. To encourage interdisciplinary research and studies in Ethnic Relations and its interfaces with education, memory, religiosity, gender, sexualities, health, families, among others;

IV. To analyze and contribute to the development and strengthening of public policies aimed at different ethnic groups, especially Black, Quilombola, Indigenous, and Nomadic Communities, implemented primarily in the State of Bahia and the Northeast Region;

V. To develop a broad body of knowledge on Ethnic Relations articulated with the Program’s research lines and with relevant theoretical and methodological research approaches for this field of study in different social contexts;

VI. To provide graduate students with critical mastery of knowledge production in the Program’s area of concentration (Ethnic Relations, Gender, and Society), while fostering their academic and professional development and practice.

Thus, PPGREC has established itself as a program committed to academic excellence, expanding and strengthening research aimed at improving scientific knowledge production in the interdisciplinary field, training new researchers in themes related to ethnic relations and their interfaces, while recognizing the social relevance of these issues and fostering strong connections with Undergraduate Education and Basic Education. The Program’s role in the region is evident, as is its social impact and strong extension-oriented mission in qualifying individuals to address ethnic-racial issues.