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Call for Papers for the Modern Language Association (MLA) Conference, Washington, DC, January 6-9, 2022

“Washington DC” by barnyz is licensed with CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.

ANS Panel at the Modern Language Association Conference: Literary Onomastics: Theory and Practice

January 6-9 2022, Washington, DC

Literary onomastics is a burgeoning subject, still in the process of establishing its status, with very few book-length studies examining the discipline in detail. Notable 21st-century examples include Leonard Ashley’s Names in Literature (2003), Alastair Fowler’s Literary Names: Personal Names in English Literature (2012), and Martyna Gibka’s Literary Onomastics: A Theory (2019). Champions of the discipline often argue that it provides an additional lens that complements extant approaches to the language of literature, rather than making any claims for general theories of literary names and naming. Papers accepted for this panel will explore literary onomastics in theory and practice. Examples of themes that can be addressed include literary names and stylistics; literary onomastics and literary theory; literary names and social or cultural theory; socio-onomastics and literature.

For more information about the MLA, check out the official website.

Proposal submission process:

  1. Abstracts proposals (350 words) should be sent as an email attachment (PDF format) to Dr Maggie Scott (m.r.scott@salford.ac.uk)
  2. Proposals should include “MLA 2022 proposal” in the subject line of the email
  3. All submissions must include an abstract, title, full name(s) of the author(s), the author(s) affiliation(s), and email address(s) in the body of the email and NOT with the abstract
  4. DEADLINE: Proposals must be received by 8pm GMT on 29 March 2021. Authors will be notified about the results of the blind review on or by 5 April 2021
  5. Contributors selected for the thematic panel must be members of both MLA and ANS in order to present their papers, and members of MLA by 7 April 2021
  6. For further information, please contact Dr Maggie Scott (m.r.scott@salford.ac.uk).

A downloadable version of the Call for Papers can be found here.

More information about ANS and MLA conferences is available on the Conferences page of this website.

Last chance to register for the 2021 ANS Conference, Online, January 22-24, 2021

Registration is open for the 2021 ANS Conference. The ANS conference will take place on the Crowdcast platform from January 22-24, 2021.

You can register online here, or download a PDF of the Conference Registration Form and mail it to ANS Treasurer Saundra Wright, as per the instructions on the form.

The schedule is available here!

For more information about the ANS Conference, please visit our Conference Page.

We look forward to seeing you there!

ANS Panel at Modern Language Association (MLA) Conference, Toronto, Canada, January 8, 2021

ANS Panel at the Modern Language Association Conference (online)

Toponyms and Literaryscapes
Moderator: Luisa Caiazzo, Univ. of Basilicata

We hope to see you there!

The complete program can be found here.

For more information about the MLA, check out the official website.

 

Call for Nominations for the 2020 Names of the Year

Image by DarkmoonArt_de from PixabayThe American Name Society requests nominations for the “Names of the Year for 2020”. The names selected will be ones that best illustrate, through their creation and/or use during the past 12 months, important trends in the culture of the United States and Canada.

Nominations are called for in the five following categories:

  • Personal Names: Names or nicknames of individual real people, animals, or hurricanes.
  • Place Names: Names or nicknames of any real geographical location, including all natural features, political subdivisions, streets, and buildings. Names of national or ethnic groups would be included here.
  • Trade Names: Names of real commercial products, as well as names of both for-profit and non-profit incorporated companies and organizations, including businesses and universities.
  • Artistic & Literary Names: Names of fictional persons, places, or institutions, in any written, oral, or visual medium, as well as titles of art works, books, plays, television programs, or movies. Such names are deliberately given by the creator of the work.
  • Miscellaneous Names: Any name which does fit in the above four categories, such as names created by linguistic errors, names of particular inanimate objects other than hurricanes, names of unorganized political movements, names of languages, etc. In general, to be considered a name such items would be capitalized in everyday English orthography.

Winners will be chosen in each category, and then a final vote will determine the overall Name of the Year for 2020. Anyone may nominate a name. All members of the American Name Society attending the annual meeting will select the winner from among the nominees at the annual ANS meeting on January 24, 2021

Advance nominations must be received before January 21, 2021.

You can submit your nominations via this form: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/LVGCQRZ

Alternately, you can download the form and email it to Deborah Walker: debwalk@gmail.com

Nominations will also be taken from the floor at the Annual Meeting.

Thank you for your nominations!

 

Call for Nominations for the 2020 Names of the Year

Image by DarkmoonArt_de from PixabayThe American Name Society requests nominations for the “Names of the Year for 2020”. The names selected will be ones that best illustrate, through their creation and/or use during the past 12 months, important trends in the culture of the United States and Canada.

Nominations are called for in the five following categories:

  • Personal Names: Names or nicknames of individual real people, animals, or hurricanes.
  • Place Names: Names or nicknames of any real geographical location, including all natural features, political subdivisions, streets, and buildings. Names of national or ethnic groups would be included here.
  • Trade Names: Names of real commercial products, as well as names of both for-profit and non-profit incorporated companies and organizations, including businesses and universities.
  • Artistic & Literary Names: Names of fictional persons, places, or institutions, in any written, oral, or visual medium, as well as titles of art works, books, plays, television programs, or movies. Such names are deliberately given by the creator of the work.
  • Miscellaneous Names: Any name which does fit in the above four categories, such as names created by linguistic errors, names of particular inanimate objects other than hurricanes, names of unorganized political movements, names of languages, etc. In general, to be considered a name such items would be capitalized in everyday English orthography.

Winners will be chosen in each category, and then a final vote will determine the overall Name of the Year for 2020. Anyone may nominate a name. All members of the American Name Society attending the annual meeting will select the winner from among the nominees at the annual ANS meeting on January 24, 2021

Advance nominations must be received before January 21, 2021.

You can submit your nominations via this form: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/LVGCQRZ

Alternately, you can download the form and email it to Deborah Walker: debwalk@gmail.com

Nominations will also be taken from the floor at the Annual Meeting.

Thank you for your nominations!

 

Seeking New ANS Officers for 2021

Ever thought about getting more involved with the American Name Society but did not know how?  Here is your opportunity!  The American Name Society is currently looking for a few good people who are interested in joining the Executive Council, as well as the Editorial Board. Starting January 2021, new officers will be needed to fill the positions listed below.

To apply for one or more of these Executive Council positions, please fill out the application form on this page.

 

Information Officer (2021-2023)

The person elected to this position will be responsible for maintaining the ANS social media presence via our website as well as Facebook and Twitter. The main duties for this position include the following: updating the news page of the ANS website on a weekly basis; posting special alerts (e.g., conference announcements, calls for papers, ANS newsletters); responding to requests made via the Facebook and Twitter accounts; and adding books that are reviewed in NAMES to the ANS Amazon Wishlist. The person chosen for this position must not only be highly computer literate, but also an avid user of social media. Experience in using WordPress is desirable but not mandatory. Training will be provided. The new Information Officer must also have excellent writing and time-management skills as well as a high level of creativity. The Information Officer will work very closely with the ANS President and Vice President throughout the year.

 

Allied Conference Coordinator (2021-2023)

The person elected to this position is principally responsible for organizing the ANS session at the annual conference of the Modern Language Association. This activity involves issuing a call for papers, assembling a team of abstract reviewers, selecting three authors whose work will be presented at the MLA conference, and coordinating the presentation of the three winning abstracts with the MLA administration. In addition to these duties, as a voting member of the ANS Executive Council (EC), the Allied Conference Coordinator participates in the legislative decision-making of the Society. Although the term of service for this position is for two years, the holder of this office may be re-elected pending approval by the EC. Given the fact that this position requires close communication with the MLA, candidates who have a demonstrated expertise in literary onomastics will receive preference.

 

Member-at-large (2021-2023)

The person elected to this position will serve as a voting member of the Executive Council (EC) and is expected to participate actively in the legislative decision-making involved in resolutions and motions placed before the EC.  In addition to these duties, members-at-large serve on various auxiliary sub-committees to, for example, help with the nomination of new officers, coordination of the annual conference, and organization of allied conferences.  Officers in this position can renew their term of service twice.

Names Editorial Board

We are currently seeking new applicants to join the NAMES Editorial Board.  Although onomastic specialists in all areas of onomastic research are welcome to apply, we have a particular need for scholars with expertise in the following areas: toponymy, literary onomastics, anthroponymy, corpus/computer linguistics.  Interested applicants should be native or near native speakers of English, have published in onomastics, and be a member in good-standing of the ANS or an allied onomastic scholarly society (e.g. The Canadian Society for the Study of Names, the International Council of Onomastic Sciences, The Society fro Name Studies in Britain and Ireland, etc.).  Familiarity with a modern language other than English is also a bonus.  As a general rule, editorial board members will not be expected to review more than 2 manuscripts per month.  In addition, once a year, all members of the Editorial Board participate in the selection of the Best Article of the Year.  If you are interested in joining our team, please complete and return the application from found at the following link: https://nick662.typeform.com/to/P6dzaz.  If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact Professor I. M. Nick (nameseditor@gmail.com).

Seeking New ANS Officers for 2021

Ever thought about getting more involved with the American Name Society but did not know how?  Here is your opportunity!  The American Name Society is currently looking for a few good people who are interested in joining the Executive Council, as well as the Editorial Board. Starting January 2021, new officers will be needed to fill the positions listed below.

To apply for one or more of these Executive Council positions, please fill out the application form on this page.

 

Information Officer (2021-2023)

The person elected to this position will be responsible for maintaining the ANS social media presence via our website as well as Facebook and Twitter. The main duties for this position include the following: updating the news page of the ANS website on a weekly basis; posting special alerts (e.g., conference announcements, calls for papers, ANS newsletters); responding to requests made via the Facebook and Twitter accounts; and adding books that are reviewed in NAMES to the ANS Amazon Wishlist. The person chosen for this position must not only be highly computer literate, but also an avid user of social media. Experience in using WordPress is desirable but not mandatory. Training will be provided. The new Information Officer must also have excellent writing and time-management skills as well as a high level of creativity. The Information Officer will work very closely with the ANS President and Vice President throughout the year.

 

Allied Conference Coordinator (2021-2023)

The person elected to this position is principally responsible for organizing the ANS session at the annual conference of the Modern Language Association. This activity involves issuing a call for papers, assembling a team of abstract reviewers, selecting three authors whose work will be presented at the MLA conference, and coordinating the presentation of the three winning abstracts with the MLA administration. In addition to these duties, as a voting member of the ANS Executive Council (EC), the Allied Conference Coordinator participates in the legislative decision-making of the Society. Although the term of service for this position is for two years, the holder of this office may be re-elected pending approval by the EC. Given the fact that this position requires close communication with the MLA, candidates who have a demonstrated expertise in literary onomastics will receive preference.

 

Member-at-large (2021-2023)

The person elected to this position will serve as a voting member of the Executive Council (EC) and is expected to participate actively in the legislative decision-making involved in resolutions and motions placed before the EC.  In addition to these duties, members-at-large serve on various auxiliary sub-committees to, for example, help with the nomination of new officers, coordination of the annual conference, and organization of allied conferences.  Officers in this position can renew their term of service twice.

 

Name of the Year Coordinator (2021-2024)

The person elected to this position will be primarily responsible for coordinating and running the Name of the Year discussion at the Annual ANS Meeting. This involves working in tandem with the Secretary, Information Officer, Journal Editor-in-Chief, Journal Book Review Editor, and journal publisher to solicit nominations for the names of the year, both through email and an online survey. The Name of the Year Coordinator will receive all nominations and prepare official ballots for the Business Meeting where the Names of the Year will be decided by a majority of votes; they will chair the meeting, run the election, and announce the results at the American Dialect Society Meeting for “Word of the Year”. The Name of the Year Coordinator will prepare a press release about the nominations and winners, as well as written reports on the election process and results.

 

Names Editorial Board

We are currently seeking new applicants to join the NAMES Editorial Board.  Although onomastic specialists in all areas of onomastic research are welcome to apply, we have a particular need for scholars with expertise in the following areas: toponymy, literary onomastics, anthroponymy, corpus/computer linguistics.  Interested applicants should be native or near native speakers of English, have published in onomastics, and be a member in good-standing of the ANS or an allied onomastic scholarly society (e.g. The Canadian Society for the Study of Names, the International Council of Onomastic Sciences, The Society fro Name Studies in Britain and Ireland, etc.).  Familiarity with a modern language other than English is also a bonus.  As a general rule, editorial board members will not be expected to review more than 2 manuscripts per month.  In addition, once a year, all members of the Editorial Board participate in the selection of the Best Article of the Year.  If you are interested in joining our team, please complete and return the application from found at the following link: https://nick662.typeform.com/to/P6dzaz.  If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact Professor I. M. Nick (nameseditor@gmail.com).