Galician Institute for Celtic Studies

The Instituto Galego de Estudos Célticos (IGEC) (English: Galician Institute for Celtic Studies) is a Galician non-profit learned society established in 2009. The Institute's main goal is to promote multidisciplinary research in the field of Celtic studies in Galicia, northern Portugal and throughout Atlantic Europe, with a special emphasis on the so-called Celtic Countries and peoples of Celtic origin. The IGEC also promotes general knowledge of history, culture and society of Galicia, as well as academic and scientific exchange. Moreover, the Institute aims at recovering and preserving - on an educated basis - elements of Celtic culture present and visible in contemporary Galician society.

Logo of the IGEC, as it features on its official Facebook page (2011)

The IGEC came to the public fora by organising in April 2011 the Third International Congress on Celtic Culture[1] ('The Celts of Atlantic Europe'), in the Galician town of Narón. A number of delegates of the IGEC attended and presented communications later on that year at the XIVth International Congress of Celtic Studies[2] in Maynooth, Ireland.[3]

The Institute is self-governing and independent, although most of its members are linked to academia and often work as professionals in the areas of archaeology, history, geography, linguistics, consulting and social sciences.