Welcome, one and all, to the ANS Special Interest Group (SIG), on teaching onomastics.
The idea for this SIG arose out of my desire to discover which tertiary institutions around the world offered courses or programs in onomastics, in particular toponomastics. I had very little success. Some of the institutions I found no longer offered such programs. My own institution, Macquarie University (in Sydney), was one such. I used to offer a 300 level unit in toponymy, but that became defunct after I retired at the end of 2014. However, recently, a colleague and good friend of mine, Paul Geraghty, has commenced offering a unit in Fijian onomastics. It is taught exclusively in Fijian! I hope to be able to swap teaching ideas with Paul in the future.
My initial search was also aimed at discovering program and unit outlines and structures, as well as useful reference materials. I was hoping to get in touch with the teachers of such units to share ideas on the teaching of onomastics and the resources they employed.
The ANS Resources webpage (https://www.americannamesociety.org/resources-journals/) is a good starting point for resources useful for teaching, but I’m sure we can enhance its coverage.
I am not sure of how to proceed from here with the SIG, so am therefore asking for ideas. For instance, should we just leave it open for ANS members to post questions, ideas and resources at one location? Or should we have designated topic areas, such as a Q&A section, a resources section, a section for posting unit/course outlines etc? And should the SIG be moderated? I await your responses.
Yours onomastically,
Jan Tent
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