Overview
The INS was established as an umbrella organisation for the research activities of the EPNS and name-studies scholars at the University of Nottingham.
Current Research
Travel and Communication in Anglo-Saxon England
The Travel and Communications project is a three-year interdisciplinary research project funded by the Leverhulme Trust investigating travel and communications in Anglo-Saxon England.
The project, a collaborative venture between the Institute of Archaeology at University College London and the Institute for Name-Studies at the University of Nottingham, runs from November 2014 and teams archaeologists, historians, and place-name scholars. The project team are working to reconstruct Anglo-Saxon England’s overland route-system (and its intersections with the riverine route-system) using textual, landscape archaeological, and onomastic evidence.
Despite its evident importance for understanding several aspects of Anglo-Saxon society, including warfare, commerce and polity formation and extent, the Anglo-Saxon routeway network has not previously been investigated in detail at the national level. There is therefore much that is uncertain about the routeway network during the period.
It has often been assumed that the Roman road network remained in use throughout the Anglo-Saxon period; consequently, travel in Anglo-Saxon England is often discussed in relation to the Roman road network. However, as the majority of the known Roman roads did not survive into use in the early modern period, it is highly likely that some of these roads went out of use during the Anglo-Saxon period. Conversely, some of the non-Roman roads in use by the early modern period may have come into usage during the Anglo-Saxon period.
By combining archaeological, place-name and charter evidence, the project will shed light on the routeways that were in use during the Anglo-Saxon period. This will be made publicly available in a GIS-generated Online Atlas of the Anglo-Saxon route-system.
The Staffordshire Place-Name Project
Work has recently begun to restart the county place-name survey for Staffordshire. The first volume of the English Place-Name Society survey was published in 1984 but its editor, J. P. Oakden, unfortunately passed away before any further volumes were completed.
The INS is now running a volunteer study group, based at the Staffordshire Record Office, which is collecting historic place-name forms from documents held in Stafford.
The project has been running since February 2017, with a regular group of volunteers meeting on a weekly basis at the Staffordshire Record Office. The project was launched with a study day on 4 February, and a second study day is planned in July. Data collected during the project will be used in the completion of the EPNS survey of Staffordshire.
The project has a website, Twitter feed and Facebook page which are regularly updated with news and information.
Study With Us
Interested in name-studies? The INS at the University of Nottingham is a leading specialist in the study of place-names and personal names.
Students can specialise in name-studies at undergraduate,
masters, and doctoral level
Events
Please visit us again soon for more upcoming events.
News
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- Dr Rebecca Gregory, former PhD student and researcher at the Institute for Name-Studies, will be giving one of the guest lectures at the Minor Placenames Workshop organised by logainm.ie (17–18 May 2018).
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- Dr Eleanor Rye gave a talk based on her PhD research, completed at the Institute for Name-studies in 2016, at the Northern Names event organised by the Regional Heritage Centre, Lancaster University.
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- Dr Rebecca Gregory's new book Viking Nottinghamshire, written as part of the 'Bringing Vikings back to the East Midlands' project, is now out.
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- Volume 48 of the Journal of the English Place-Name Society has been published. EPNS members receive the Journal free of charge, and individual volumes can be purchased directly from the Society. Contents of this and previous volumes can be viewed on the Journal web pages.
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- Enjoy our Viking events in the flesh or virtually!
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- To celebrate 50 years of the EPNS in Nottingham, many EPNS publications are available, for a limited time only, for as little as £5 when bought directly from the Society. Please contact us at namestudies@nottingham.ac.uk, providing a list of any publications you are interested in purchasing, and quoting the offer code "EPNS50".
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- Booking now open. Find out more about our courses, meet staff and students, explore funding and tour our fantastic facilities and campus!
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- Many Viking events to look forward to in 2017-18.
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- Up to 80 open awards and 6 collaborative awards available. Deadline 15 January 2018.
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- The first winner of the Alfred Oscroft Essay Prize for undergraduate work on place-names has been announced. Congratulations to Ruut Korpinen (Nottingham), who won this year's prize for her project on Suffolk place-names!
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- University of Nottingham graduates earn above average salaries according to new data.
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- The English Place-Name Society is pleased to announce the launch of a new series of place-name books: the Your City's Place-Names series
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- The Society for Name Studies in Britain and Ireland is seeking contributions to its annual spring conference, to be held in Blackwaterfoot, Arran, from 6–9 April 2018.
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- ?Members of the Institute for Name-Studies gave papers at the International Congress of Onomastic Sciences, which was held in Debrecen, Hungary from 27 August to 1 September 2017.
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- CSVA members Judith Jesch, Christina Lee and Eleanor Rye will be presenting at the 18th Viking Congress in Copenhagen and Ribe, Denmark, in August.
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- Congratulations to Jess Treacher, who has been awarded the INS studentship for the duration of her PhD research which begins next academic year.
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- ?Congratulations to Josh Neal, who will be beginning a PhD project next academic year funded by the AHRC Midlands3Cities Doctoral Training Partnership.
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- Take a look at all the best moments of this year's (2017) student English Showcase. A huge well done to everybody who took part! #ShowOff17
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- On Thursday 11th May, some of our PhD students took up the opportunity to present their research to fellow colleagues and academics. Visit our media gallery to see how the day went. Well done to all our research students who took part and presented at the PGR Symposium!
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- The English Place-Name Society is delighted to introduce the Alfred Oscroft Essay Prize for undergraduate work on place-names. A prize of £250 will be awarded annually for the best submission, and £100 for the runner-up.
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