Assignment Paper

Project Context:
The Assignment:
Students are responsible for carrying out the online research to gather historical evidence
about 8-10 people who have been honoured through a monument, street, building, bridge,
memorial, public art feature, school, or other public structure in their hometown. Using a
variety of research tools and online historical resources at their disposal, including the Irish
Historical Towns Atlas, Ordnance Survey, Archiseek, PublicArt.ie, Irish Historical Newspapers
databases, academic articles, Google searches, Google Translate, Google Maps, and any
other sources, they will collect, organise and annotate the data on two templates, and map
the data on Google Earth Pro.
Researching and Mapping Toponyms Named After People at Home
To understand what stories are told through placenames and who we honour in our landscapes,
we first have to document these names, types of places, their histories, and their relative
locations. Part 1 of SJ@Home brings historical and locational data together by identifying
placenames, documenting brief histories and sources about these, and mapping places.
As part of the work in the Department of Geography to advance spatial justice, our class will
conduct this research as a pilot study. As far as we know, this is the first project conducting an
inventory of toponyms in Ireland that honour individuals with the goal of possibly becoming a
crowd-sourced/open-source map. (The Irish Placenames Database of the Ordnance Survey
focuses on toponyms not necessarily tied to particular individuals.) If our research goes well, the
collated historical, landscape and geospatial data will be made available online and in one
format, which will realise the value of being accessible to a general public. The resulting
annotated map will document who we honour in our landscapes so that we can begin a
conversation to consider publicly who should be acknowledged as deserving (or not) of this
honour. Our collective work may also contribute to other international mapping projects that
seek to ‘decolonise’ our everyday geographies and in doing so, advance the work of racial,
gender, sexual, disability, class-based, migrant and other more inclusive forms of spatial justice.
The Challenge
There are several challenges with historical online data holdings. While the Irish Historical
Towns Atlas is the most comprehensive source, not all towns are mapped. When we look for
other forms of data about placenames and their histories, the data may be incomplete, the data
sources unreliable, or the geographic location of the places not obviously available on Google
Maps. Your research will be the first to check and bring various online historical and locational
sources together and map them using Google Earth Pro. We are building a new set of data
about Irish placenames that will be ultimately be made available to a general public.
Good luck! We can collectively work together as citizen geographers to begin the first steps of
realising spatial justice at home.Each student will conduct research in their town to find placenames honouring 8-10
DISTINCT individuals and conduct research about their histories. Eacg toponym should be
named after a person, so please do not include mythical figures. Only if you cannot find
more than 8 people should you include common names (such as St Mary or Joseph or other
saint names). If you can only find 8, you must indicate/justify this at the beginning of your
Table 1 Word Template (under your name and ID number for example on p. 1). Also,
please note that if there are many places named after one individual, we recommend you
map these to see if there is an interesting spatial pattern. But this would count as one
distinct placename only.
You will list the results of your historical research with correct in-text citations and
quotations, along with sources and complete bibliographic references, in the Table 1 Word
Template. See The Reference Point for details about referencing. When you do your
research, keep good notes. Look for any information about that person, why the person was
honoured in the town, why the place is where it is, how the person is honoured (type of
place and other details), and any additional information about the historical and
geographical contexts associated with that placename and type of place. Write down the
details of your historical research (where you did your research) and your
references/sources of data in the ‘Other Relevant Information’ section of the Table 1 Word
Template; your findings can go in the ‘Brief Description’ and ‘Other Relevant Information’
sections.
An annotated version of the historical research will be transferred to an Excel template.
Critical data that is needed for the placenames to be mapped include: the placename, type
of place, and street address using Google Maps. In addition, you will include information
about the town, brief historical description and status of the place, along with one online
reference for the Excel Template and Google Earth Pro map. Please see the SJ@Home Part 1
Resources folder for more information about the project and the blank templates
SJ@Home Part 1 Deliverables:
• A detailed Word template with information about the 8 to 10 placenames, including
full references and listing possible images
• Figures (uploaded as .JPG or JPEG files)
• An annotated Excel template (.xls file)
• An annotated Google Earth Pro map.
Marks for the completed templates (.doc, .docx, and .xls files) and Google Earth Pro map will
be based on identifying a total of 10 distinct placenames (honouring different people), with
a maximum of two saint or other names, and providing detailed historical supporting
information with references. If you want to map more than 10 please do! The total mark for
the SJ@Home Part 1 will constitute 15% of your overall mark for GY239.
Marking Guidance for Each Placename:
A mark of 10 for each placename would require that: the student conducted historical
research about the history and related geographical contexts of a placename and type ofplace; demonstrated this in their Word template through references and other evidence;
sought to verify the location of a place by street address using a Google Map and/or Google
Earth search; and provided comments in the ‘Brief Description’ and ‘Other Relevant
Information’ that support the selection of the placename and type of place, and provided
relevant citations and references. For instances of multiple toponyms named after the same
person, marks should be awarded if a spatial pattern is identified and commented upon. A
maximum of two toponyms can be used after saints, but the student can include additional
toponyms of this type if they wish (i.e. in addition to the 10). If a student could only identify
eight toponyms named after a person, evidence must be provided at the beginning of the
Table 1 Word Template that the student could not find toponyms named after 10 different
people. Full marks indicate: clear evidence of a logical and systematic approach to
conducting historical research using the sources suggested (and possibly others); clear,
detailed and referenced and correctly cited comments proving a historical description of the
person and context for the placename and type of place; associated web links, academic
and/or other sources; consistent data across all the categories for each toponym identified;
correct formatting (for Excel and Google Earth); providing figures when possible. The
information provides enough information so that the steps taken to find the historical and
geographical data are reproducible.
Marks ranging from 7-9 for each placename would require that a name and type of place
has been found, but the supporting historical information (per above) is limited or
incomplete. Key points: A placename may/may not have been found, but: the evidence of
historical research is limited; related comments could have been more detailed and/or
comprehensive; web links may be missing; untrusted sources used; and/or formats are
incorrect or inconsistent.
Marks from 4-6 for placenames where there is: incomplete or inaccurate data provided;
little to no attempt to conduct historical research; or incomplete information for the
categories. Key points: Evidence of some to minimal effort but misplaced and/or in error;
insufficient effort; lacks detail in description of historical research and/or sources provided;
logic of approach not clear/evident; not possible/difficult to reproduce the steps taken due
to insufficient level of detail provided; obvious errors; use of untrusted sources; formats are
not standard for the Excel template and map.
Marks 0-3 where placenames are found but minimal to no evidence is provided that
historical, academic or trusted online sources have been used, i.e., the steps provided to
students to conduct online historical research and to complete the templates and map are
not followed and/or supported by the comments provided. Typically associated with a
student: finding a placename from an untrusted source or on Google Map, and not doing
any or very little historical resource to find the relevant history/geography of that
placename; the street address is not in the prescribed format; no justification or explanation
is provided in the comment section; the type of place and brief description is inaccurate; no
citations are provided; information for some categories is missing. Key points: Little to no
evidence of conducting historical research about a placename and/or lacking evidence of a
logical or systematic approach to conducting research; not locating a street address;
provides insufficient detail to judge effort; evidence of limited/no effort to complete all the
steps in the project outlined above.