The International Council of Onomastic Sciences (ICOS) will organize its first Summer School in Helsinki, Finland from 26 to 30 August 2019. The idea of an ICOS Summer School is to bring together young onomastic researchers from all over the world, to help them network and expand their onomastic knowledge.

The theme of the Summer School 2019 is Methods of Onomastics. The fast technological development – especially new tools and large datasets – are changing the nature of onomastic research. The course gives students an overview of the most crucial current methodological issues on various sub-areas of onomastics (e.g. toponomastics, anthroponomastics, literary names, commercial names, and socio-onomastics). The course will be held in English.

The course program includes several types of teaching methods, e.g. lectures given by the teachers responsible for the course and other onomastic experts, a text workshop where students comment on each other’s manuscripts, preparing a 3 minute thesis presentation, and short excursions to some onomastically interesting locations in Helsinki area. There will also be informal leisurely activities.

The teachers responsible for the course are Terhi Ainiala (University of Helsinki) and Paula Sjöblom (University of Turku). They are both authors of Names in Focus: An Introduction to Finnish Onomastics (2012) as well as contributors to The Oxford Handbook of Names and Naming (2016). Most recently, they have authored an article about onomastic methodology (in Finnish, to be published in late 2018). Sjöblom is the current President of ICOS.

The course is targeted especially to PhD students, but Master’s students intending to continue to PhD level are also welcome. Please note that the course is only for ICOS members. If you are not a member currently, you can become one simply by filling in the course application form. The maximum intake for the course is 25 students. Participants will be awarded with 5 ECTS (study points) and a diploma.