Improving Wikipedia’s coverage of racial justice
Wikipedia remains the product of the world in which it is created. A recent survey of US-based contributors to the English Wikipedia found that only 0.5% of editors identified as Black or African American. Making the contributor base more closely resemble the world at large is an important step toward a more equitable Wikipedia. And … Continued
Adding women chemists to Wikipedia
Chemist Maggie Tam had never edited Wikipedia before taking one of our recent 500 Wiki Women Scientists courses — in fact, she didn’t even know you could. “I used to think that each Wikipedia article was written by a single author,” Maggie admits. “I didn’t realize that anyone can edit and make changes to articles. … Continued
How museums can move toward a more equitable future — via Wikipedia
As a fourth generation Japanese American, Nina Nakao says she was drawn to study more about the history of her family and community. As a college student, she studied intergenerational trauma within the Japanese American community, and upon graduation, began to work at the Japanese American National Museum. The COVID-19 pandemic shifted her role to … Continued
Telling the story of Canada’s First Nations nutrition experiments
Joseph Wahba’s interest in health sciences was sparked in high school — but it wasn’t until he was in his third year of his Health Sciences program at McMaster University that he began to question how we know and understand topics of health. That line of inquiry was prompted by a course he took, taught … Continued
Using Wikidata to promote epistemic equity
As a cataloguer for the University of Toronto Scarborough Library, Thami Jothilingam sees infinite possibilities for Wikidata. That’s why she signed up to take Wiki Education’s Wikidata Institute course. “Metadata is foundational to knowledge creation, as it forms the building blocks of knowledge infrastructure,” Thami says. “Historically, the form and process of this knowledge creation … Continued
How 500 Women Wiki Scientists are working to change the face of science
“So often, we hear that girls in science need more role models and inspiration. We’re asked, ‘Where are the women in science?’, as if we’re not already here.” Dr. Maryam Zaringhalam and Dr. Jess Wade, Nature 500 Women Wiki Scientists is a project between Wiki Education and 500 Women Scientists to increase visibility of … Continued
Communicating physics through Wikipedia
Roxanne Hughes uses Wikipedia all the time. So when Roxanne, the director of the Center for Integrating Research and Learning at the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory, saw a call from the American Physical Society to take one of our Wiki Scientists courses aimed at improving biographies of underrepresented physicists on Wikipedia, she signed right … Continued
Improving Asian American journalists’ biographies
Wiki Education recently collaborated with the Wikimedia Foundation and the Asian American Journalism Association (AAJA) to host a 6-week training course in order to give AAJA members and others the time and space to learn how to add Asian American and Pacific Islander journalists’ biographies to Wikipedia. One course participant was Pamela Ng, homepage editor … Continued
How writing for Wikipedia helps journalists
Yiwen Lu is a student journalist based in Chicago and the Communications Director of the Asian American Journalists Association (AAJA). She was a participant in Wiki Education’s recent AAJA Wiki Scholars course, which was made possible by the Wikimedia Foundation. In the course, AAJA’s members worked together to increase Wikipedia’s coverage of Asian American and … Continued
Adding inclusive historical biographies to Wikipedia
Serene Williams is a full-time high school teacher and an independent public historian who documents the women’s suffrage movement. For 20 years, she has been teaching U.S. history, women’s history, and political science courses at both the high school and college level. Williams recently participated in Wiki Education’s LGBTQ+ Wiki Scholars Course, making it the … Continued