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POST GRADUATION IN POLITICAL SCIENCE IN UFMG - HISTORY TOLD BY THE COURSES OFFERED
The courses offered say a lot about the characteristics which marked the different moments of postgraduate studies in Political Science (PPGCP) at UFMG.
Although the first official group was in 1967, life was already bubbling before that opening. It is possible to state this for there are records showing that the teaching activities of the Master's in Political Science started in the second semester of 1966, with a diversified offer of methodological courses, such as 'Methodology', 'Statistics' and 'Research Techniques: Research on Political Behavior in Belo Horizonte', in addition to mandatory disciplines such as 'Political Theory', and others with a more specific scope such as 'Theory of Political Development'. Investment in methodological training was one of the main characteristics of the first operating years of the Master's Degree in Political Science, as was the presence of foreign scholars from the very first classes on - such as Professor Janice Perlman (UC Berkeley), Professor Jorge Alberto Capriata (Universidad Católica do Peru), or Professor Jerry Medler (University of Oregon); or even from other departments at UFMG, such as Professor Júlio Barbosa (FACE/UFMG). On the other hand, still in this period, professors Fábio Wanderley Reis, Antônio Otávio Cintra, Carlos Filgueira (Uruguay), Lincoln Bernardes Prates dos Santos, and José Murilo de Carvalho were the ones who concentrated the highest numbers of disciplines offered.
From 1973 on, the Master's training in Political Science started providing disciplines offered by its former students. The discipline 'Brazilian Politics' was offered by Professor Malori José Pompermeier - who was one of the first graduates in 1970 at the DCP, followed the next year by Professor Ronaldo de Noronha (Department of Sociology - UFMG) with the discipline 'Research Techniques', and several others in consecutive classes. On the other hand, diversifying the methodology courses gradually gave way to a variety of optional disciplines focused on Brazilian and Latin American problems, in addition to other areas of investigation.
The 'Comparative Politics' discipline became part of the mandatory curriculum in the 1980s, and various disciplines on political thought also began to be offered on a regular basis. In this period, there was an increase in optional disciplines focusing on class, State, and power conflicts. The elective courses became even more diversified in the 1990s, with the admission of new faculty members in the Master's in Political Science and the creation of the PhD in Human Sciences - Sociology and Politics in 1994. It is clear that since the end of that decade there has been an effort to offer more disciplines focused on methodological training, in addition to the mandatory discipline of 'Methodology.'
From the 2000s onwards, the increasing thematic diversification of the disciplines reflected the consolidation of research subareas and the gradual expansion of the faculty of the Department of Political Science. The creation of the PhD program in Political Science in 2005 evinces this consolidation. It should also be noted that the first group of the Undergraduate Course in Public Management began four years later in 2009 - under the coordination of the Department of Political Science - which led to the expansion and stabilization of the Program's faculty. The Methodological drive was further strengthened, which led to the creation of Modus - Intensive Course in Research Methodology in Social Sciences - in 2017. Modus welcomes students of the Program and also students and researchers from other Programs.
This long trajectory of postgraduate studies in Political Science at UFMG can be synthesized by the set of disciplines offered throughout its history and which can be visited here by anybody. The information comes from UFMG's system, but also from documentary sources. Inconsistencies may be found in the latter case, which requires parsimony in the possible use of this information for research purposes or direct consultation with the PPGCP-UFMG Secretariat Archive.