Soni Dasmohapatra, assistant professor and City of Edmonton Naming Committee member, challenged her students to give input on why, what and who to consider when engaging in municipal cultural policy creation.

One year ago, Edmonton city council accepted a new name for the Oliver community: Wîhkwêntôwin. Pronounced We-Kwen-To-Win, the Cree word means Circle of Friends.

Now the City of Edmonton Naming Committee is in the process of conducting a systemic review of the naming policy for the city. MacEwan University Assistant Professor Soni Dasmohapatra is a committee member of the municipal agency, board and commission.

The Arts and Culture Management program is situated in the Bachelor of Fine Arts. The program’s purpose is to bridge the spaces where arts and business intersect. As an instructor within the program, Ms. Dasmohapatra’s scholarship involves expanding heritage and cultural policy and developing an equity lens in archival work. She is also an active member of the South Asian Community Archive Committee with the City of Edmonton Archives.

She has been able to bring the conversations about revamping the city’s naming policy from the committee table into her classroom and vice versa.

“My students completed a class project where they gave input about why and what and who we need to consider for engagement in municipal cultural policy creation. Students gave their recommendations to inform a renewed policy process. They presented the recommendations in December 2024 to the Naming Committee,” she shares.

Soni Dasmohapatra (far right) with class project participants and City of Edmonton representatives

In turn, municipal representatives have spoken to classes about cultural policy development and implementation, urban planning, placemaking and Indigenous relations. “It’s not like you’re just learning theory, they’re actually applying it to their studies and the way that they’re viewing this policy that it is a living document, it’s not just a policy sitting there,” the instructor says. As the work continues, Ms. Dasmohapatra says she hopes the result is a naming policy and process that is accessible and more reflective of the diversity of the city, an outcome both she and her students will have played a role in.