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Stars – they’re just like us (in that we give them names)!

Star bright, star bright, first star I see tonight…every wonder how all of those heavenly bodies receive their official name? The International Astronomical Union provides detailed information about the star names and naming – including a long list of list of IAU-approved star names.

Hint: don’t try this at home.

The cataloguing of stars has seen a long history. Since prehistory, cultures and civilizations all around the world have given their own unique names to the brightest and most prominent stars in the night sky. Certain names have remained little changed as they passed through Greek, Latin and Arabic cultures, and some are still in use today. As astronomy developed and advanced over the centuries, a need arose for a universal cataloguing system, whereby the brightest stars (and thus those most studied) were known by the same labels, regardless of the country or culture from which the astronomers came.

Call for Papers: Language, place and periphery, Copenhagen, Denmark, Jan 18-19 2018

The University of Copenhagen will be holding a conference on Language, Place, and Periphery from the 18th to the 19th of January 2018. Interested presenters are invited to send in abstract proposals on one or more of the following topics: language ideology; dialect and migration; belonging and language, etc. More details about this event can be found at the conference website.

Abstract submission and registration opens 1st of September 2017. The deadline for submission of abstracts is 1st of October 2017. Abstracts should be no more than 300 words in length. Notification of acceptance: 15th of October 2017.

American Geographical Society Library Research Fellowships

Between 4 to 8 fellowships are being offered by the American Geographical Society for scholars to conduct research in the special maps collection of the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee Libraries. The fellowships range in time from two to four weeks. The library’s primary strengths are geography, cartography, and related historical topics. Interested applicants are encouraged to consult the fellowship descriptions and application process on the AGSL website. The deadline for applications is November 30, 2017.

Call for Papers: 17th International Conference of Historical Geographers 2018, Warsaw, Poland, July 15-20 2018

A call for paper proposals and sessions has been issued for the 17th International Conference of Historical Geographers (ICHG). The Conference is being sponsored by the University of Warsaw, the Tadeusz Manteuffel Institute of History, and the Polish Academy of Sciences. The Conference will be held at the University of Warsaw from the 15th to the 20th of July 2018. The deadline for proposal submissions is the 14th of October 2017. Information on submissions and registration can be found here. 

Papers and posters are welcome on any aspect of historical geography, including empirical, theoretical and historiographical aspects of the field and related disciplines, including the history of cartography, history of science and environmental history.

AGM: “Old English place-names and the Communication of Traditional Ecological Knowledge”, London, UK, Sept. 19 2017

On Tuesday, the 19th of September 2017, the English Place-Name Society will hold their AGM at the offices of the British Academy. Dr. Richard Jones from the Centre for English Local History will give a formal presentation, “Old English place-names and the Communication of Traditional Ecological Knowledge” before the meeting. This event is open to all. RSVP before 12 September 2017 to reserve your place. More on this event can be found at the website.

About Names: Once big, Deborah had a fall from grace

Debra Messing co-starred as Grace Adler on NBC’s “Will & Grace” from 1998 to 2006. Her name in all its forms — Deborah, Debra, Debbie, Deb — once dominated the baby boomer names lists. / Associated Press

Dr. Cleveland Evans writes about names for the Omaha World-Herald. In his August 15 column, he looks at the history of the name Deborah.

The name Debra is just as amazing. It’s an alternate spelling of Deborah, which is derived from the Hebrew word for “bee.” The name wasn’t used by Christians until after the Reformation. Then parents searching the Old Testament discovered it.

In England, Deborah first joined the top 50 names in 1610, peaking at 24th in the 1660s. The name was even more popular with Puritans and Quakers of colonial New England and Pennsylvania.

When yearly baby names data start in 1880, Deborah ranked 499th. It bottomed out at 892nd in 1912, and barely rose until 1928. What happened to Deborah after that? Read on to find out more about Deborahs in history!

 

Call for Papers: Faulkner and Slavery, Oxford, Mississippi, July 22-26 2018

From the 22nd to the 26th of July 2018, a conference on “Faulkner and Slavery” will be held at the Faulkner & Yoknapatawpha 2018 conference. Interested presenters are encouraged to send in abstract proposals for conference papers. The deadline for submission is January 31, 2018. Selected presentations will be included in an edited volume to be published by the University Press of Mississippi. All abstracts, inquiries, manuscripts, and proposals should be sent to Jay Watson, Department of English, The University of Mississippi, P.O. Box 1848, University, MS 38677-1848. E-mail: jwatson AT olemiss.edu. Decisions for all submissions will be made by March 15, 2018.

The call for papers can be found here.

A bar named Opium

The state of Maine has been hit hard by the nation’s opioid addiction crisis. About every 24 hours, another state coroner declares that someone’s son or daughter died from a drug overdose. Given that frightening statistic and the family tragedies related to it, many Maine residents are outraged when they heard that a new bar in Portland would be named “Opium”. While the bar owners’ argue that they picked the name as a “metaphor for relaxing and having a happy time”, activists and family members who have lost someone to drugs say the name is in very poor taste. More on this controversy can be found in this article at the Portland Press Herald.