Call for Papers: Journal of Nubian Studies Issue on “Nubian Place Names”

http://www.americannamesociety.org/call-for-papers-journal-of-nubian-studies-issue-on-nubian-place-names/


A call for papers has been issued by the Journal of Nubian Studies on the topic of “Nubian Place Names”. For this special issue, the term “Nubia” is being defined as including both the Middle Nile Valley (from Aswan to the Gezira) as well as the peripheral regions of Nubia (i.e. the Eastern Desert, Kordorfar, Dafur, etc.). Submissions may address macrotoponyms as well as microtopoynms. The deadline for abstract submission is the 31st of September 2016. For more on this call, contact either Robin Seignobos [robin.seignobos@orange.fr] or Alexandros Tsakos [atsakos@gmail.com].

Nubian Place Names ­

Place names in Nubia have only received limited attention. The need for such study leads us to dedicate a volume of Dotawo to Nubian place names and place naming in Nubia. Place names are from their nature dynamic and may shift‑ over the course of centuries. Therefore, toponymy is particularly appropriate for the diachronic study that Dotawo hopes to foster. Moreover, place names offer fertile ground for multi-disciplinary analyses. For these reasons we embrace the widest possible time frame (from the beginning of recorded history until today) and welcome contributions from all fields of Nubian studies, to promote the closer collaboration of specialists working with all sorts of theoretical and methodological tools on successive periods of Nubian history.

We invite submissions on Nubia in its widest definition, including both the Middle Nile Valley (from Aswan to the Gezira) and the peripheral regions in contact with Nubia, i.e. the Eastern Desert, Kordofan, Darfur etc. Submissions may address macrotoponyms (designating both Nubia and certain parts of it, including administrative districts as well as religious territorial units); microtoponyms (both rural – such as villages, local sanctuaries etc. – and urban – such as market names, streets etc.); elements of the natural landscape (streams of water, mountains, deserts, wadis etc.); and those linked with human activities (cultivated fields, pasturage fields, paths, ruins etc.). Possible topics cover a wide spectrum, from problems of identification and localisation in the tradition of historical geography, to approaches that take into consideration the input of social sciences, of cultural history and of anthropology.

Contact:

Robin Seignobos (robin.seignobos@orange.fr)

Alexandros Tsakos (atsakos@gmail.com)

DEADLINE: October 1, 2016