N E W S L E T T E R

Ljubljana, December 2023

Dear Distinguished Colleagues! I have the honor of chairing the Joint ICA/IGU Commission on Toponymy on behalf of the International Cartographic Association. I would like to thank my predecessor, the geographer Peter Jordan, who nominated me, and the delegates that elected me at the ICA General Assembly in Cape Town. I would also like to thank Peter Jordan for his past involvement in the work of this and other commissions and working groups, in which he has been or continues to be very active. I am also a geographer; I am employed at the Anton Melik Geographical Institute of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts Research Center, where my work mainly focuses on issues related to geographical names. There will be no major changes in the activities of the commission. However, I have decided to publish a newsletter for members at least once a year, in which I will present past events our commission has participated in, planned events, new publications involving geographical names, and other interesting facts in this field. Please let me know if you are planning an event or have published a book or article on geographical names and would like to share it with the members of the commission. I would also like to encourage you to think about joint research projects. Some initiatives in this area have already been taken or are under way,mainly in the form of articles and books. However, I have the impression that there are also several untapped opportunities in calls for proposals. In Europe, several programs allow the submission of projects at both the European level (e.g., Interreg or COST, cross-border programs, bilateral programs, and others) and beyond. Calls for proposals from national research agencies should not be forgotten. In Slovenia, a call for proposals for research projects has just been launched, and our agency has signed contracts with research agencies in Austria, Poland, Switzerland, Flanders, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Luxembourg, and Hungary. This allows researchers to apply for research projects together with colleagues from other countries. I am not very familiar with project programs in other countries and continents, but they certainly exist. I would consider it a great success if we were able to apply for at least one joint research project in the next four years.If you have any ideas and would like to collaborate in this area, please do not hesitate to contact me. I would also like to hear from you about the congresses you are planning, your publications, reports on past events, and other interesting news in toponymic research.

I look forward to working with you!
With best regards from Slovenia,
Matjaž Geršič

Download the December Newsletter here