The Graduate Program in Social Sciences (PPGCS), linked to the Humanities, Letters and Arts Center (CCHLA), of the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte (UFRN), originally appeared as a Masters in Social Anthropology, approved by the Decision 175/78-CONSEPE/UFRN, and began its operation in 1979.

In 1982, the program was transformed into a Masters in Social Sciences, approved by the Decision 224/82-CONSEPE/UFRN, with two fields of focus: "Anthropology" and "Sociology".

In 1988, its faculty opted for a new modification in the program: the Master’s degree in Social Sciences started to function based on a thematic identity, with a field of focus entitled "Regional Development".

In 1993, when professors of the Department of Social Sciences returned to UFRN after having completed their doctoral degrees and new professors with a doctoral degree were hired, the Master's degree program was expanded, starting to have two fields of focus: "Regional Development" and "Culture and Society. " From this period, research bases were created under the coordination of the program's professors, bringing together undergraduate, master’s and doctoral degree students and associate researchers from other Departments of UFRN and from other HEIs.

In 2001, the program decided to expand its field of practice by creating a doctoral degree program, transforming the MSc in Social Sciences into a Graduate Program in Social Sciences, with two fields of focus: "Culture and Representations" and "Regional development". This change occurred as a result of internal and external factors. The internal transformations include the growing qualification of its professors and the constant integration of new researchers in its permanent staff. So far as the external factors are concerned, we understand the new challenges posed to the Brazilian higher education and to the Graduate Programs, particularly in the areas of Sociology and Social Sciences.

In 2007, the full Collegiate body of the PPGCS approved a new reformulation of the fields of focus: it replaced "Regional Development" and "Culture and Representations" with "Politics, Development and Society" and "Social Dynamics, Cultural Practices and Representations" , respectively.

As soon as it was turned into a Graduate Program in Social Sciences, there is evidence that the Master's degree program gained momentum, as it was promoted an integration between doctoral and master’s degree students, through a new curricular structure ( with a common theoretical and methodological core of courses for the Master's degree and Doctoral degree programs) and academic support, mainly of formal discussion spaces (nuclei, research bases and ad hoc discussion groups by theme or by author, groups of advisees of a given professor), thus guaranteeing a greater circulation of ideas within the student body and between the student body and the teaching staff.

The Undergraduate Program also benefited from this new configuration of the Graduate Studies in that it was possible to encourage a greater integration between Graduate and Undergraduate students, mainly through the research activities that were being increased. One of the most positive impacts of the graduate activities in the Social Sciences Undergraduate program is the contribution of the scholarship recipients in the teaching internship. In addition, our graduate students have regularly participated in the examination committees of monographs of the Social Sciences Undergraduate Program of UFRN.

In December 2012, after a long and intense process of discussion, prompted by new external challenges and the hiring of new teaching staff, and recognizing that this new scenario has oxygenated our Program with new knowledge, themes and practices, the Full Collegiate Body of the PPGCS decided for the abolition of the fields of focus and approved the exclusive structuring in lines of research, which best fits the principle of a Multidisciplinary Program such as ours. Currently, the professors are associated to the following lines of research: COMPLEXITY, CULTURE, SOCIAL THINKING; SOCIAL DYNAMICS AND PRACTICES; TERRITORY, DEVELOPMENT AND PUBLIC POLICY; and STATE, GOVERNMENT AND SOCIETY.