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Tag: placenames

A Failure in Translation

A Failure in Translation

This blog post is, essentially, a cautionary tale. It’s about automatically assuming that we understand a word or a concept, rather than questioning our assumptions—even the most basic of these–and then digging deeper to find an “Aha!”. Let me explain this through the place name Ottawa. Ottawa is an important place for a lot of reasons. For me, personally, it is the location of the school that I attended, my work location, and the location of friends and family members….

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Thinking about Place and Place Naming

Thinking about Place and Place Naming

“To be at all— to exist in any way —is to be somewhere, and to be somewhere is to be in some kind of place. Place is as requisite as the air we breathe, the ground on which we stand, the bodies we have” (Casey, 2013). We are born into place and our lives are filled with it. From the time that we take our first breath, everyday life consists of place: our movements throughout the day (or night) are…

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What is the O’nonna? Explaining the Theory

What is the O’nonna? Explaining the Theory

With my PhD officially in hand, one of the biggest projects left to do is to make sure that the dissertation itself is accessible. While it can be found here, what I really means is that in this space I will take some time to “translate” it into non-technical terms. Because it is a rather lengthy document (around 250 pages), blog posts won’t necessarily match up with each chapter; rather I will take the main ideas and concepts and break…

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