5th International Scientific Symposium
“How toponymy can contribute to reach the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)”
Programme
Italian Geographical Society
Villa Celimontana – Mattei Palace
Via della Navicella, 12 – Roma [Rome] – Italia
3rd – 5th June 2026
In close cooperation with
Italian Geographic Military Institute
and Joint ICA-IGU Commission on Toponymy
JUNE 3, 2026
Welcome and registration of participants* (9:30 am)
Opening session chaired by Claudio Cerreti, President of the Italian Geographical Society (Italia) (10:30
am)
Luigi Postiglione, General Commander of the Italian Geographic Military Institute (Italia)
Pierre Jaillard, Chair of the United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names (France)
Helen Kerfoot, Honorary Chair of the United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names (Canada)
Maria Paradiso, University of Napoli Federico II and Vice President IGU (Italia)
Egidio Dansero, on behalf of the Italian Geographical Associations (Italia)
Gianluca Casagrande, Chair, UNGEGN’s Romano-Hellenic Division (Italia)
Introduction to the 5th UNGEGN-RHD International Scientific Symposium
Andrea Cantile, (Honorary Chair, UNGEGN’s Romano-Hellenic Division. Italia)
Session 1 (11:15 am)
Chaired by Gianluca Casagrande, Chair of the UNGEGN’s Romano-Hellenic Division (Italia)
- Toponymy as historical evidence of hydrogeological risk in Basilicata. An integrated approach combining
the geo-historical dimension and satellite monitoring
Luisa Spagnoli (National Research Council. Italia)
- Hydronymic evidence of human-water interaction: water supply and driving force in the small Terzolle
Valley (Tuscany)
Andrea Cantile (IGMI and University of Firenze. Italia); Chiara Giuliacci (University of Firenze.
Italia)
- Toponymy and education in Italy. Textbooks, in-service training for teachers, national curriculum
guidelines for geography in schools: a critical balance
Stefano Piastra (University of Bologna. Italia)
- On boundaries, practices, and settlements: notes on hagiotoponymy as a source for historical geography
Angelo Besana (University of Trento. Italia), Nicola Gabellieri (University of Genova. Italia), Chiara
Lo Destro (University of Trento. Italia)
- Unlocking the interpretive power of toponymy. A long-term Cartography Seminar to reconnect with place
names and foster sustainable citizenship
Filiberto Ciaglia (Sapienza University of Roma. Italia), Riccardo Morri (Sapienza University of Roma.
Italia)
- Algerian odonymy: between strengthening national identity and the challenges of modernization and
socio-political changes
Malika Salhi (Centre de Recherche en Anthropologie Social et Culturelle. al-Jazāʾir)
Discussion
Free-lunch break (1:00 pm)
Session 2 (3:00 pm)
Chaired by Elena Dai Prà, Co-Chair of the Joint ICA-IGU Commission on Toponymy (Italia)
- Naming space: symbolic control in the territorialization process of Sub-Saharan Africa
Angelo Turco (Free University of Languages and Communication IULM. Italia)
- Vernacular neighbourhood names and residents’ spatial structuring of the city: the case of Turin (Italy)
Sara Racca (University of Torino. Italia)
- Toponymy, historical memory and political authority in the Kurdistan region of Iraq: policy implications
for sustainable development
Francesco Valacchi (University of Pisa. Italia)
- The memory of the territory: toponyms as indicators of environmental resilience
Lorenzo Bagnoli (Institute for Urban Variations and Architectural Systems. Italia)
- The geohistorical trail “Barili and the Cinque Ville”. An ongoing project to preserve memory through
place names
Annalisa D’Ascenzo (Roma Tre University. Italia)
- Place names to read the World. Giacomo Gastaldi’s toponymic tables as tools of mediation between past
and present
Denise Macciò (Roma Tre University. Italia)
Discussion
Souvenir photo of participants (4:45 pm)
(Online participants are kindly invited to turn on their webcam if they would like to appear in the photo)
Inauguration of the exhibit: “Place names and odeporical sources. Socotra and its liminal geohistories –
Toponomastica odeporica. Socotra e le sue geostorie liminari”, edited by Annalisa D’Ascenzo, Roma Tre
University, Laboratorio geocartografico “Giuseppe Caraci”, Italia (5:00 pm).
Closing (5:30 pm)
JUNE 4, 2026*
Session 3 (9:45 am)
Chaired by Pierre Jaillard, Chair of the UNGEGN (France)
- Good health and well-being in the city of Rome
Cosimo Palagiano (Honorary Chair of the Joint ICA-IGU Commission on Toponymy. Italia)
- Stories of life and landscapes of memory: gender equality in the construction of territorial identity. The
case of Umbria
Annamaria Bartolini (University of Perugia. Italia), Giovanni De Santis (University of Perugia. Italia)
- Romanization and orthography: standardisation, cultural heritage and the SDGs
Catherine Cheetham (Permanent Committee on Geographical Names. United Kingdom)
- Lavis, Mezzocorona, Mezzolombardo, Roveré della Luna, Nave San Felice, Nave San Rocco: Trentino
settlement names and their relationship with water
Lydia Flöss (Autonomous Province of Trento. Italia)
- Orally transmitted toponymy as biocultural heritage: insights from the Atlante Toponomastico del
Piemonte Montano
Federica Cugno (University of Torino, Italia)
Discussion
Break (11:15 am)
* On June 4 and 5, the registration desk will open at 9:00.
All attendees are kindly requested to register and wear their official badge at all times.
Connection checks for remote speakers can be done 15 minutes before the start of the first session of the day
and during the breaks.
The programme time indications refer to Roma time zone (UTC + 2).
Session 4 (11:30 am)
Chaired by Andreas Hadjiraftis, Permanent Committee for the Standardization of Geographical Names of
Cyprus (Kýpros)
- Italians and the “Cold Coasts”, or: a story about cultural inclusiveness and the appropriateness of
toponymic standardisation
Gianluca Casagrande (European University of Rome. Italia), Roberta Rodelli (European University of
Rome. Italia)
- Geographical names on early nautical charts of the Adriatic Sea
Josip Faričić (University of Zadar. Hrvatska)
- From place names to sustainability: the role of touristic toponymy dictionaries in achieving the SDGs (a
case study of Tlemcen, Algeria)
Fatima Louati (Centre de Recherche Scientifique et Technique pour le Développement de la Langue
Arabe. al-Jazāʾir), Nourelhouda Benlakhdar (Abou Bekr Belkaid University,Tlemcen. al-Jazāʾir)
- What can be learned from the toponymy in Ottoman-ruled Croatia: preliminary insights
Ivana Crljenko (University of Zadar. Hrvatska), Dino Mujadžević (Croatian Institute of History.
Hrvatska)
- From icons to towns. Anthroponymic municipal renaming in Post-Unification Italy as a marker of
territorial identity
Elena Dai Prà (Co-Chair of the Joint ICA-IGU Commission on Toponymy. Italia), Federico Gestri
(University of Trento. Italia), Chiara Lo Destro (University of Trento. Italia)
Discussion
Free-lunch break 1:00 pm
Session 5 (3:00 pm)
Chaired by Catherine Cheetham, Permanent Committee on Geographical Names (United Kingdom)
- The preservation of linguistic and biocultural heritage through toponymic standardization: the case of
Slovenian place names in the Province of Udine in Italy
Aleksander Bruss (Autonomous Region Friuli-Venezia Giulia. Italia), Laura Sgubin (Autonomous
Region Friuli-Venezia Giulia. Italia)
- Toponymy, linguistic rights and community sustainability: legal perspectives
Guglielmo Cevolin (University of Udine and Historia LiMes Club Pordenone Udine Venezia. Italia)
- Toponymic palimpsests: a shift in standardisation models for Slovene endonyms in Friuli-Venezia Giulia
Andreja Kalc (Slovene Research Institute – Slovene Research Institute, Trieste. Italia; Science and
Research Centre Koper; University of Ljubljana. Slovenija)
- How toponymy in Cyprus can contribute to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
Andreas Hadjiraftis (Permanent Committee for the Standardization of Geographical Names of Cyprus.
Kýpros)
- Public naming of the Zadar cityscape
Lena Mirošević (University of Zadar. Hrvatska)
- Uninhabited but named: safeguarding the oral microtoponymy of Zannone Island as endangered bio-
cultural heritage
Arturo Gallia (Roma Tre University. Italia)
- Toponymy, art and memory: artistic practices as tools for the sustainable reinterpretation of place
Giorgia Ciolli (Niccolò Cusano University. Italia)
Discussion
Closing (5:00 pm) and Social dinner at Taverna dei Quaranta restaurant, Via Claudia, Roma (8:00 pm)
JUNE 5, 2026
Session 6 (9:30 am)
Chaired by Cosimo Palagiano, Honorary Chair of the Joint ICA-IGU Commission on Toponymy (Italia)
- Multilingual place names and sustainable governance in Friuli-Venezia Giulia
Franco Finco (Pädagogische Hochschule Kärnten – University of Teacher Education Carinthia.
Österreich)
- The problem of gender asymmetry in street naming
Peter Jordan (Austrian Academy of Sciences – University of the Free State, South Africa. Österreich)
- Naming patterns in the Algerian educational space from a gender equality perspective: a toponymic-
sociological approach
Assia Kessour (Center for Research in Social and Cultural Anthropology. al-Jazāʾir)
- Who gets a street? Gender equality, inclusive toponymy, and the politics of SDG 5
Valeria Pecorelli (University of Insubria. Italia), Giuseppe Muti (University of Insubria. Italia)
- The evolution of Albania’s toponymy in the last one hundred years as a case study
Genc Lafe (University of Salento. Italia)
Discussion
Break (11:00 am)
Session 7 (11:15 am)
Chaired by José Miguel Delgado Barrado, University of Jaén (España) and Annalisa D’Ascenzo, Roma
Tre University (Italia)
- Reconstructing territory through toponymy: the Enlightenment project of the Camino Real between
Andújar and Mestanza (Eighteenth century)
José Miguel Delgado Barrado (University of Jaén. España), Juan Manuel Castillo Martínez
(University of Jaén. España)
- Toponymy and the construction of contemporary identity: Frederick II of Prussia’s settlements in the
Warta River basin
Laura Partal Ortega (University of Jaén. España)
- Historical place names and urban sustainability: the urban nomenclature of La Carolina (Spain)
Francisco José Pérez Fernández (University of Jaén. España), Álvaro Moreno Martínez (University of
Jaén. España)
- Historical place names and rural heritage: evidence of the repopulation of the Sierra Sur and the Sierra
Mágina (Jaén, Spain) in the 16th century
Francisco Javier Illana López (University of Jaén. España)
- Toponymy as a tool for reconstructing Roman exploitation and settlement in Sierra Morena and the
Guadalimar Basin (Republic-Early Empire)
Antonio J. Ortiz Villarejo (University of Jaén. España)
Discussion and closing remarks
Closing (1:00 pm)
Free-lunch break (1:15 pm)
Guided cultural excursion to the Basilica of Santo Stefano Rotondo – free of charge (3:00 pm).