Housed in the Faculty of Humanities and Humanities of Brest, the CRBC was born in 1969, almost at the same time as the University of Western Brittany (UBO) with the ambition to start looking for Breton origins in the process of disappearance. It was therefore initially an "ethnology of urgency", as recalled by the pioneering researchers of the Center. With little means at the beginning, the preferred method was the field survey; the strength of Brest residing in its large number of speakers in Breton.
A multidisciplinary laboratory (history, ethnology, sociolinguistic studies), the CRBC now brings together 34 professors and researchers from UBO and Rennes 2 University, as well as 33 doctoral students and about 100 associate researchers. The CBRC is also distinguished by its unique, one-of-a-kind, open-to-public, free library of 68,000 books and nearly 2,300 periodicals.
Its third function is finally that of publishing house. In fact, every year seven to ten scientific books are published. The idea of the programming designed for this anniversary, which has also been awarded the label "80 years of the CNRS" (also celebrated in 2019), is to make known the archives to a wide audience. How? Through thematic visits, meetings with researchers, but also exhibitions, including one entitled "The end fund of the CRBC. Riches of a Library ", which will be inaugurated next October and will showcase 50 iconic objects from the archives.
The structure aims to reach all audiences and make known the nuggets of the Breton heritage. Following the same idea, the CRBC has also created an open digital library accessible to all, regularly fed with new archives, accompanied by scientific insights to guide the reader.
The launch of this year of celebration begins on February and will spread until December.
List of events organized as part of the 50th anniversary of the Brittany and Celtic Research Center can be consulted on this website.
