How are places named and who gets to name them? When place names are offensive, how can they be renamed? Who and what is represented or excluded in Canada’s differing naming traditions? Can names help you find your way or do they commemorate historical injustices? What happens if someone wants to change the name of a place important to your own past?

Please join Concordia University Press, the Social Justice Centre, and Lauren Beck as she discusses the naming and renaming practices that are critically examined in her book Canada’s Place Names and How to Change Them.

Lauren Beck joins editor Ryan Van Huijstee in a conversation about various kinds of names, the history of naming places, recent and past efforts to rename places, and ways that names could better include underrepresented groups and traditions in Canada’s First Nations, federal lands, provinces, cities, and institutions. A “name game” and question and answer period with the audience will follow.    

How can you participate? Join us in person or online by registering for the Zoom Meeting or watching live on YouTube.

Have questions? Send them to info.4@concordia.ca

Lauren Beck

Lauren Beck is professor of visual culture and Canada Research Chair in Intercultural Encounter at Mount Allison University.

Ryan Van Huijstee

Ryan Van Huijstee is the acquisitions editor at Concordia University Press.