The Institut d'Estudis Occitans (istiˈtyd desˈtyðiz utsiˈtas), or IEO, or Occitan Studies Institute, or Institute for Occitan Studies, is a cultural association that was founded in 1945 by a group of Occitan and French writers including Jean Cassou

Jean Cassou

Jean Cassou was a French writer, art critic, poet and member of the French Resistance during World War II.- Biography :Jean Cassou was born at Deusto, near Bilbao,...

, Tristan Tzara

Tristan Tzara

Tristan Tzara was a Romanian and French avant-garde poet, essayist and performance artist. Also active as a journalist, playwright, literary and art critic, composer and film director, he was known best for being one of the founders and central figures of the anti-establishment Dada movement...

, Ismaël Girard, Max Roqueta

Max Roqueta

Max Roqueta was one of the most famous contemporary Occitan writers. A physician, he was also an activist .-Prose:...

, Renat Nelli

Renat Nelli

Renat Nelli , who was born in Carcassonne, Aude in 1896 and died in 1982, was one of the major Occitan authors of the 20th century.In Vichy France, Nelli joined the French Resistance and in 1945 was one of the co-founders of the Institut d'Estudis Occitans...

, and Pierre Rouquette. It aims at both maintaining and developing the language and influence of Occitania

Occitania

Occitania , also sometimes lo País d'Òc, "the Oc Country"), is the region in southern Europe where Occitan was historically the main language spoken, and where it is sometimes still used, for the most part as a second language...

 through the supervision, harmonization and normalization of everything dealing with the Occitan life and culture. The IEO is divided into regional and departmental sections and local circles that cover the whole of the country from the cities (called in vernacular

Vernacular

A vernacular is the native language or native dialect of a specific population, as opposed to a language of wider communication that is not native to the population, such as a national language or lingua franca.- Etymology :The term is not a recent one...

 language) of Lemòtges

Limoges

Limoges |Limousin]] dialect of Occitan) is a city and commune, the capital of the Haute-Vienne department and the administrative capital of the Limousin région in west-central France....

 and Clarmont

Clermont-Ferrand

Clermont-Ferrand is a city and commune of France, in the Auvergne region, with a population of 140,700 . Its metropolitan area had 409,558 inhabitants at the 1999 census. It is the prefecture of the Puy-de-Dôme department...

 up north to Marselha, Tolosa

Toulouse

Toulouse is a city in the Haute-Garonne department in southwestern FranceIt lies on the banks of the River Garonne, 590 km away from Paris and half-way between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea...

 or Bordèu

Bordeaux

Bordeaux is a port city on the Garonne River in the Gironde department in southwestern France.The Bordeaux-Arcachon-Libourne metropolitan area, has a population of 1,010,000 and constitutes the sixth-largest urban area in France. It is the capital of the Aquitaine region, as well as the prefecture...

 down south. There is even one in Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

. What is the more, a number of carefully targeted activities are sponsored by groups and other associations affiliated with the Institute, or by members themselves. The IEO is the Occitan counterpart of the Institut d'Estudis Catalans

Institut d'Estudis Catalans

The Institut d'Estudis Catalans , also known by the acronym IEC, is an academic institution which seeks to undertake research and study into "all elements of Catalan culture"....

. Its motto is La fe sens òbras mòrta es (see picture) (Dead is faith without art).

History

A first Institute for Occitan Studies had been created around 1923 as a section of the League of Meridional Homeland (Ligue de la Patrie Méridionale), but had a short lifespan.
In 1930, occitanists created the Society for Occitan Studies (SEO).
At the end of World War II, as both the Felibrige and the SEO had been discredited by the involvement of some of their leaders in the collaboration, some occitanists decided to create a new institution, the IEO, with a clear message: the IEO is an offspring of the antinazi resistance.

Presidents of the IEO

President	From	To
Jean Cassou Jean Cassou Jean Cassou was a French writer, art critic, poet and member of the French Resistance during World War II.- Biography :Jean Cassou was born at Deusto, near Bilbao,...	1945	1952
Max Roqueta Max Roqueta Max Roqueta was one of the most famous contemporary Occitan writers. A physician, he was also an activist .-Prose:...	1952	1957
Pierre Azéma	1957	1959
Robèrt Lafont Robèrt Lafont Robèrt Lafont was an Occitan intellectual from Provence. He was a linguist, an author, an historian, an expert in literature and a political theoretician. His name in French reads Robert Lafont....	1959	1962
Pierre Bec Pierre Bec Pierre Bec , is an Occitan poet and linguist. Born in Paris, 1921, he spent his childhood in Comminges, where he learnt Occitan. He was deported to Germany between 1943 and 1945. After returning, he studied in Paris, where he graduated in 1959...	1962	1980
Patrick Choffrut	1980	1981
Alain Giacomo	1981	1986
Robert Marty	1986	1997
Philippe Carbonne	1997	2001
David Grosclaude	2001	2010
Pierre Brechet Pierre Brechet Pierre Brechet is an Occitan teacher, scholar, and activist, living in Marseille.Since 2010 he is the president of the Institut d'Estudis Occitans.-Publications:...	2010	Present

IEO nacionau

Ostal d'Occitània

11, carrièra Malcosinat

F-31000 Tolosa

Toulouse

Toulouse is a city in the Haute-Garonne department in southwestern FranceIt lies on the banks of the River Garonne, 590 km away from Paris and half-way between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea...

• contact: Pierre Brechet (president)

tel: 33 5 34 44 97 1

http://ieo.oc.free.fr/

IEO Aquitània

• 3 bis, avenue du Vallon

33600 Pessac

Pessac

Pessac is a commune in the Gironde department in Aquitaine in southwestern France.It is the second-largest suburb of the city of Bordeaux and is adjacent to it on the southwest. It is a member of the metropolitan Urban Community of Bordeaux...

Occitanie

France

• contact: Olivier Sirgue (president)

IEO Lemosin

• 2, chamin de la Codercha

19510 Mas Seren

Occitània

França

ieo.lemosin@free.fr

• contact: Joan-Maria Caunet, chairman of IEO Lemosin

http://ieo.lemosin.free.fr/

IEO Lengadòc

Lo Camèl
BP 4040

34545 Besièrs

Béziers

Béziers is a town in Languedoc in southern France. It is a sub-prefecture of the Hérault department. Béziers hosts the famous Feria de Béziers, centred around bullfighting, every August. A million visitors are attracted to the five-day event...

  Cedex

Occitània

França

• contact: Jòrdi Peladan

4, rue des Mésanges

30000 Nîmes

Occitanie

France

tel: +33 4 66 64 17 99

IEO Miègjorn-Pirenèus

• IEO Miègjorn-Pirenèus
• contact: Miquèu Taiac (president)

mtayac@aol.com

IEO París

• IEO Paris
  Paris
  Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
  
  

31, rue Vandrezanne

75013 Paris

France

• contact: ieo.paris@free.fr

http://ieo.paris.free.fr

IEO Provença

• Ostau de Provença

Pargue Jordan

8 bis, avenguda Jules Ferry

13100 Ais de Provença

Aix-en-Provence

Aix , or Aix-en-Provence to distinguish it from other cities built over hot springs, is a city-commune in southern France, some north of Marseille. It is in the region of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, in the département of Bouches-du-Rhône, of which it is a subprefecture. The population of Aix is...

 

Occitània

França

http://c-oc.org/ieo/provenca

• contact: Joan Saubrement (president)

jrpi@club-internet.fr

Affiliates

IEO-Ideco: Ideco is the publishing house and distribution network of the Institut d'Estudis Occitans. It is based in Puèglaurenç

Puylaurens

Puylaurens is a commune in the Tarn department in southern France.-References:*...

.

EOE: the EOE or Escòla Occitana d'Estiu is the Occitan summer school. It is one-week long and takes place every year in august in Vilanuèva d'Òlt

Villeneuve-sur-Lot

Villeneuve-sur-Lot is a town and commune in the Lot-et-Garonne department in south-western France. The commune was formerly named Villeneuve-d'Agen....

.

UOE: the UOE or Universitat Occitana d'Estiu is the Occitan summer university. It is one-week long and takes place every year in Nîmes

Nîmes

Nîmes is the capital of the Gard department in the Languedoc-Roussillon region in southern France. Nîmes has a rich history, dating back to the Roman Empire, and is a popular tourist destination.-History:...

.

Controversy

The IEO went through a number of crises throughout its history, the most serious of which in the late 1970s and early '80s

1980s

File:1980s decade montage.png|thumb|400px|From left, clockwise: The first Space Shuttle, Columbia, lifted off in 1981; American President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev eased tensions between the two superpowers, leading to the end of the Cold War; The Fall of the Berlin Wall in...

 when two ideologies clashed: the populist view, Ives Roqueta

Ives Roqueta

Ives Roqueta is an Occitan author. For a long time now, Roqueta has played a major role in the country's political and cultural movement. He was the president of the IEO for a number of years and his brother Joan, better known as Joan Larzac, is a writer and an Occitan activist as well...

's, and a more academic one, Robèrt Lafont

Robèrt Lafont

Robèrt Lafont was an Occitan intellectual from Provence. He was a linguist, an author, an historian, an expert in literature and a political theoretician. His name in French reads Robert Lafont....

's. This confrontation led to the eviction of Robèrt Lafont and his followers from the Institute, which nearly sealed the fate of all scientific projects at the IEO, with many researchers finding jobs in universities and the Associacion Internacionala d'Estudis Occitans (International Occitan Studies Association). Most linguists among them migrated also to the Gidilòc and the Conselh de la Lenga Occitana

Conselh de la Lenga Occitana

The Conselh de la Lenga Occitana or CLO is the body responsible for managing and developing the standard variant of the Occitan language. The council was founded in 1996—1997.- External links :* , on * on *...

(Occitan Language Council). Nevertheless, the IEO has remained to the day the leading organization in the field of cultural life and by far the most popular body among Occitan activists.

External links

• Official IEO site
• Mercator Media, in English
• Via occitana-catalana, in English