The Rio de Janeiro State University, which was founded in 1950, went through a period of rapid, significant transformations in the 1980s, including the development of well-defined policies for postgraduate studies.

Thus in 1982, a lato sensu postgraduate program was established in the Institute of Letters (Instituto de Letras), initially   specializing  in Brazilian Literature. This experience would soon be extended to other academic disciplines, which included  English Language (1985), Linguistics (1987), Portuguese Language (1987), Portuguese Literature (1988), Literary Theory (1989), English Language Literatures (1993), Italian Language for Translation (1993), Spanish Language for Reading purposes (1994), French Language for Translation (1998) and Latin (1999).

In 1988, a strictu sensu postgraduate program was set up, namely a Master’s Degree in Brazilian Literature. In the first and second semesters of 1993, this program was extended to incorporate two further disciplines, namely, a Doctorate in Comparative Literature and a Master’s Degree in Portuguese Language. Since then, the program has been continuously expanded in order to include the following new areas of study:  master’s degrees in Linguistics (1999), English Language Literatures (2001), Portuguese Literature (2003), and Literary Theory and Comparative Literature (2009),  in addition to a doctorate in Portuguese Language (2002).

The first set of norms to regulate  this stricto sensu Postgraduate Program were set up by Statute 181/87, drawn up on October 19th, 1987, by the University Teaching and Research Council (Conselho Superior de Ensino e Pesquisa). In 1990, the Program would undergo a number of changes,  this time regulated by Statute  018/90, of December 18th, 1990.  A third document, Statute 011/92, on August 7th, 1992, would extend these norms to cater for both a Comparative Literature Doctorate and a Portuguese Language Master's degree. Later, this was partly revoked by Statute 040/94, on December 28th, 1994, which restructured  the curriculum for a Master's degree program in Brazilian Literature. In 1999, with the creation of the Master's degree in Linguistics, the Program was then regulated by Statute  022/99, dated May 31st, 1999. Then, in 2001, with the setting up of a Master's degree in English-language Literatures and a Doctorate degree in Portuguese Language, the program would be regulated by Statute 010/2001. In 2003, the setting up of a new Master's degree in Portuguese Literature meant that  the Program was brought under the umbrella of Statute 051/2003.This, in turn, was subsequently  substituted by Statute  022/2008, which  took effect when a master's degree in Literary Theory and Comparative Literature was established.

From 1988 to 1990, a Coordinating Committee formed by three branches (General, Administrative and Academic), was responsible for the stricto sensu Postgraduate Program. Throughout 1991, and in the first semester of 1992, this Committee consisted of  a General Coordinator and two Assistant Coordinators. From the second semester of 1992 up to the first semester of 1999, the Program was coordinated by the Faculty Collegiate, which consisted of a General Coordinator, a General Vice-Coordinator and Coordinators from each academic field, in addition to two faculty staff members and one student  from each academic field.

From the second half of 1999, the Program was coordinated by a Faculty Collegiate made up of permanent academic staff and affiliated members, in addition to two student representatives  from each academic field. The executive functions for this Program were supervised by a General Coordinator and a Vice-Coordinator together with Sub-Coordinators from each academic field. All these positions were voted in for a year´s mandate,  with the possibility of  an extension for a further year.

At present the coordination of the Program is structured as follows: a Coordinator and a Vice-Coordinator, who are elected by the Faculty and approved by the Departmental Council of the Institute of  Letters (Conselho Departamental do Instituto de Letras) and appointed by the Director of the Centre for Humanities and Education, in addition to Coordinators and Sub-Coordinators for each academic field, elected by their respective peers, approved by the Departmental Council of the Institute of  Letters and appointed by the Director of the Centre for Humanities and Education.

The course faculty Collegiate meets when summoned by the Coordinator or by the majority of its members, and their decisions are approved by majority vote.

In 1988, the First Coordinating Committee was created, consisting of Professors Dirce Côrtes Riedel (General Coordinator), Luiz Costa Lima (Academic Coordinator) and Marília Rothier Cardoso (Administrative Coordinator); the latter was later replaced by Professor Roberto Acízelo de Souza. The Coordinating Committee, in this form,  continued until the first half of 1992, although from 1991 on, the  posts of Administrative and Academic Coordinator would be merged into Assistant Coordinator.

From the second half of 1993, the posts of General Coordinators have been occupied  by the following academic faculty members:

1993	Ítalo Moriconi (coordinator) Laerte Carpena de Amorim (vice-coordinator)
1994	Heloísa Toller Gomes (pro-tempore coordinator)
1995	Heloísa Toller Gomes (coordinator) Maria Teresa Gonçalves Pereira (vice-coordinator)
1996	Maria Teresa Gonçalves Pereira (coordinator) Vera Figueiredo Follain (vice-coordinator)
1997	Valéria Coelho Chiavegatto (coordinator) Peônia Viana Guedes (vice-coordinator)
1998-1999	Peônia Viana Guedes (coordinator) Roberto Acízelo Quelha de Souza (vice-coordinator)
2000	Roberto Acízelo Quelha de Souza (coordinator) Maria Teresa Gonçalves Pereira (vice-coordinator)
2001	Gustavo Bernardo Krause (coordinator) João Cezar de Castro Rocha (vice-coordinator)
2002-2003	João Cezar de Castro Rocha (coordinator) Francisco Venceslau dos Santos (vice-coordinator)
2004	Gustavo Bernardo Krause (coordinator) Peônia Viana Guedes (vice-coordinator)
2005	Carlinda Fragale Pate Nuñez (coordinator) Maria do Amparo Tavares Maleval (vice-coordinator)
2006	Carlinda Fragale Pate Nuñez (coordinator) Ana Lúcia de Souza Henriques (vice-coordinator)
2007	Geraldo Pontes Júnior (coordinator) Carmem Lúcia Negreiros de Figueiredo (vice-coordinator)
2008-2009	José Luís Jobim de Salles Fonseca (coordinator) Sérgio Nazar David (vice-coordinator)
2010-2011	Maria Teresa Gonçalves Pereira (coordinator) Maria Teresa Tedesco Vilardo Abreu (vice-coordinator)
2012-2013-2014	Maria Teresa Tedesco Vilardo Abreu (coordinator) Maria Cristina Batalha (vice-coordinator)
2014-2015-2016-2017	Roberto Acízelo Quelha de Souza (coordinator) Marina Rosa Ana Augusto (vice-coordinator)

The Program has been continuously evaluated by CAPES. Its first evaluation, based on the Program´s original project, recommended that the Program be supported by funding agencies. These agencies  had already been supporting the Program since 1989, when the first scholarships were awarded. According to CAPES’ regulations at that time, because the Program was new, it was not subject to an assessment  grade for its first three  years of 1988/1989/1990. In the following three years (1991/1992/1993), however, a B assessment was awarded and in the subsequent two years (1994/1995), a C assessment was given to the Masters courses and a B assessment to the Doctorate programs.  The Program received an assessment grade 4, in relation to 1996-1997, according to the new score scale established by CAPES. The Program achieved an assessment Grade 5,  for the period of 1998-2000, and this grade was maintained for the following evaluations of 2001-2003, 2004-2006 and 2007-2009.

The first master´s dissertation of the Program, on Brazilian Literature, was defended on April 19th, 1992,  the title of which was “Ut pictura rhetorica: uma aproximação da sermonística vieiriana”, written by Ana Lúcia Machado de Oliveira, supervised by Professor Luiz Costa Lima.

The completion of  doctoral theses was initiated, within the field of Comparative Literature, on May 30th, 1995, by Gustavo Bernardo Krause´s work entitled “A traição pertinente”, supervised by Professor Roberto Acízelo Quelha de Souza.
In the field of Portuguese Literature, the first Master’s degree dissertation, entitled “O jogo do léxico em Malagueta, Perus e Bacanaço, de João Antônio”,  was defended  by Marlene Gonçalves Serra on July 30th, 1996, under the supervision of  Evanildo Cavalcante Bechara.

The first dissertation of the Master´s degree in Linguistics, was defended on December 18th, 2001. It was entitled “Um estudo de caso de afasia na infância: questões conceituais e parâmetros linguísticos”, and written by Cláudia Márcia Nacif Drummond Fonseca, who developed her research under the supervision of Professor Heloísa Toller Gomes.

The first dissertation within the Master’s degree course in Portuguese Literature was entitled “Morte e vida em Gil Vicente e João Cabral de Melo Neto”. It was defended by Danúbia Tupinambá Pimentel, on August 3rd, 2005, under the supervision of Professor Maria do Amparo Tavares Maleval.

The first dissertation of the Portuguese Language doctorate degree was entitled “Mário Quintana em verso e prosa: uma teoria do poético e da leitura”. It was defended on March 9th, 2006, by Marcos Xavier Borba, under the supervision of Professor André Crim Valente.

The newest academic field created before the reformulation of 2015, was the Master’s degree in Literary Theory and Comparative Literature. Its first defense was in January, 2011. The first dissertation was entitled “O mambembe: teatro rumo às luzes no país dos saltimbancos” by Gustavo Guenzburger, under the supervision of Professor Victor Hugo Adler Pereira.

In 2014, the Program was entirely reformulated and structured into fields and specialties. Since 2015, the Program has covered six specialties divided into two areas of concentration at Masters and Doctorate degrees. These  are, namely,  the Language Studies field, with Portuguese Language and Linguistics as specialties; and the Literary Studies field, with Brazilian Literature, Portuguese Literature, English language Literatures, in addition to Literary Theory and Comparative Literature.