![]() | |
When and Where | |
---|---|
Date | Sunday, March 5, 2017 |
11:00 am – 5:00 pm, EST | |
Address |
Spelman College Camille Olivia Hanks Cosby Academic Center 440 Westview Drive SW |
City/State | Atlanta, GA 30310 |
Spelman College is hosting the first-ever Atlanta University Center (AUC) Black Women's Herstory Wikipedia Editathon, which will take place alongside dozens and dozens of other similar events as part of a collective effort called Art + Feminism--a distributed global event designed to diversify Wikipedia's coverage of women. The vast majority (at least 85%) of Wikipedia's editors are (white) males. (See See Gender bias on Wikipedia) Although Wikipedia is among the top five most visited websites online, its content reflects the knowledge of its editors. [1] This exciting event presents a unique opportunity to collaborate and work towards a great cause. We, in the AUC, have the power to diversify Wikipedia coverage by improving and adding more articles about notable black women, significant events involving black women, and sites of black women's intellectual and cultural contributions.
Wikistorming Wikipedia, or crowding the space to edit its pages with more diverse content about gender, has been a popular practice among feminists since the first Art+Feminism Editathon in 2009. [2] This global event, as well as Howard University's Black History Editathon in 2015 and AfroCROWD and the Schomburg's third upcoming editathon NYC/AfroCrowd/Schomburg_Black_Power, were part of the inspiration for organizing this event in the AUC. [3] The organizers of this event have drawn on their comprehensive organizational resources to assist our participants and partners with wikipedia editing.
Important Note: This event was deliberately organized to take place during the last week of February and first week of March to honor the limbo space that black women are often in when the public commemorates both black and women's history months.
The Editathon will take place throughout designated areas of the 3rd floor in the Camille Olivia Hanks Cosby Academic Center. For directions to the campus, please visit [1] on the Spelman website.
No Wikipedia editing experience necessary; as needed throughout the event, tutoring will be provided for Wikipedia newcomers. An intensive training will be provided from 11:00-12:00 p.m. to accommodate new editors. You are highly encouraged to attend this training if you are especially anxious about editing Wikipedia.
All students, faculty, and staff in the AUC, especially black women and students representing diverse gender expression, are encouraged to attend. We are also looking forward to hosting interested participants from Emory and Agnes Scott. However, please know that all are welcome! If you are unfamiliar with Wikipedia, you can get a head start with this this training module.
Learn more about Wikipedia's gender gap at WikiProject Women. More about Art+Feminism campaign on their page. Learn more about the racial gap at WikiProject African diaspora and the race/gender gap at Wikipedia:WikiProject Women in Red/Black history
Too much or too little information about a person, event, or site of black women's herstory might make it seem difficult to research the kind of data that could improve a page. However, we must remember that traditional research methods tend to be very gendered in ways that cause us to overlook sources of knowing. Therefore, consider the following tips as you attempt to work on your articles:
1. Begin by looking up her name in the black press. We must remember that if we are researching U.S. black women that the U.S. media has always been segregated. Therefore, we must look towards the black press for evidence of notability in many cases--especially when dealing with herstories from the last couple of centuries. Examples of major black press accessible through our AUC library databases include: Chicago Defender, Baltimore Afro-American, and Atlanta Daily World. The book Split Images contains more detailed information about the African-American newspapers, which includes several tables about African-American media, as well as involvement of African Americans in media. [4].
2. In what organizations was the woman active? History tends to be a matter of linear "ones" that trek through space as entities distant from a social scene. This is why it we tend to only look up information by "name" (e.g. Christopher Columbus, George Washington) or by some attribution of dominance (e.g. The Founding Fathers). In fact, meta-data may not even be coded to include a woman's first and last name. This is especially the case if a woman is known as someone's mother, wife, or daughter. To discover herstory, we must go where she is spending most of her time. Notable women tend to almost always spend their time in political/social organizations. Black women's social organizations, of course, were almost always political because most of our organizations--social, religious, educational--were created as a response to exclusion. The foundation of our national social organs, then, offers a rich source of discovering how "notable" a woman might have been through her leadership as an active member of the group, or as a founder.
3. What are her associations and who was in her social circle? If you find one notable woman, you will probably find many other notable women. Although we are rightfully offended when we see women described in terms of being wives, daughters, and sisters--we may sometimes find out more about a woman's life by the mere trace of her associations. For example, Rosetta Douglass certainly warrants more attention as the daughter of Frederick Douglass, but we may not find her if we don't consider that she became Rosetta Douglass Sprague. We may also recognize a notable mother by her notable mother, even if her mother became notable through association with a very notable man. Without Anne Murray Douglass, would Rosetta Douglass Sprague have written, Anne Murray Douglass, My Mother as I Recall Her. [5] The address, which was delivered at published by the National Association of Colored Women.
As a Woman in Red (see Wikipedia:WikiProject Women in Red/Black history), few know about Rosetta's life. Are we even sure we know her name. We thought she was "Rosetta Douglass," but then we realized she was "Rosetta Douglass Sprague." On the published address, "Anne Murray Douglass: My Mother as I recall Her," we also see the signature, " Fredericka Douglass Sprague Perry." Fredericka Douglass Sprague Perry was Rosetta's daughter, who remained as active as her mother in service--but with a higher amount of visibility in the black media. This link makes me wonder what else the N.A.C.W. published and whether or not they serve as a "secondary source" that would be considered notable by Wikipedia's community policies. When daughters publish mothers, we know we are reading a great Herstory--each accomplishment made more visible by the affordances of technology, its expanding publics and their effect on an individual's visibility. For example, the news articles about Fredericka contain her photograph whereas articles about her mother do not. This likely represents the ways in which emerging media were affecting documentation practices. Nevertheless, Fredericka is another Woman in Red--like her mother.
We must consider making arguments about notability based on an entire eco-system of black women's lives. With the Internet, we now have more ways of seeing them and recognizing when we don't see them. Pay attention to the entire surroundings of the black woman to learn more about her. Was she a "co-founder?" Chances are that her and her other co-founders did notable things. What organizations link the women? What cities? What major events? Which notable people? Did someone she was close to pass away? Will looking at coverage of their death help us find out more information about our notable woman in question?
4. In what cities was the woman active? Investigating local newspapers, and especially black press (e.g. Chicago Defender) will be instrumental in finding the woman. You may not be able to look for her specifically by name. You may need to simply research organizations in which she was active to locate her in coverage.
5. What was her rhetorical/artistic activity? What did she compose to the public? Did she give speeches? Write texts? Produce or direct films and/or plays? Was she in films? Books like Shirley Wilson Logan's With Pen and Voice, which examines 19th century black women's speeches, offer clues as to how to document black women's rhetorical life. [6] Several other texts are worth mentioning here, as well. For example, Traces of a Stream by Jacqueline Jones Royster and Words of Fire by Beverly Guy-Sheftall.
6. What was her professional and social relationship to media and emerging media technologies (e.g. phonograph, radio, television, etc.)? If we take for granted that the last centuries explosion of media did not involve black women, we will overlook notability. Black visibility in media functions as a major site and source of resistance. "Breaking through," as Etta Moten Barnett did in her role as "Bess" in Porgy and Bess, of course, constitutes notability. However, many notable women may not have been break throughs, even though they may have still heavily influenced their cities and our government's response to civil rights. In fact, even our breakthroughs end up being reduced to the one event despite their complex political and media involvement. This is why the black press is a critical secondary source for our effort here. Through major black press, especially if the black woman is from a major city, we may discover that she was in more organizations than are listed on her Wikipedia article. For example, Etta Moten Barnett was the director of Community Services for WYNR, a Chicago radio station. However, none of her page references this particular notable activity.
7. What, if any, educational institutions was the woman affiliated with? Their institutional digital archives or media might offer a key source for learning more about her "notable" activity on-campus and in the local campus community.
8. Did she ever visit Washington? Chances are, you may be able to find her in the national archives or local Washington newspapers--especially if she the "first" to go to the White House.
Definition of Open Access [7]
Most of the library's digital resources will connect automatically if you are on campus. If you are asked to login, use your campus login (for Spelman, Morehouse, CAU, ITC). For example: [yourusername]@spelman.edu along with your Spelman password.
AUC Woodruff Library Resources:
ProQuest Historical Newspapers:
Other Libraries' Resources:
This is a crowd-sourced list. Please help us by adding appropriate articles
Black Women in the Arts, Media, and Advocacy
Musicians
Philosophers
Rhetors and Writers
Inventors/Scientists
Genres and Companies
Fashion
Laws
Places
Black Women's Participation in Political Organization's and Social Movements
Movements and Organizations
Activists
Arts Organizations and Awards
Black Press
It was "one of the earliest and most influential black newspapers."
Scholarly Journals
See also:
Work on improving existing articles before starting a new page.
Use #artandfeminism on social media to connect with edit-a-thons around the world! see #noweditingaf for what's being edited.
For our distinctive event, we recommend the hashtags #artandwomanism, #noweditingAF, #blackwomenherstory, #artandwomanism
The Spelman College English Department will be providing updates via their Facebook and Twitter pages
Articles that participants have created or worked to improve.
Sign-Up Here, In Advance of the Event.
This event has been organized by two faculty at Spelman and Morehouse Colleges with the generous support of the following organizations/programs:
Open Access provides the means to maximise the visibility, and thus the uptake and use, of research outputs. Open Access is the immediate, online, free availability of research outputs without the severe restrictions on use commonly imposed by publisher copyright agreements. It is definitely not vanity publishing or self-publishing, nor about the literature that scholars might normally expect to be paid for, such as books for which they hope to earn royalty payments. It concerns the outputs that scholars normally give away free to be published – peer-reviewed journal articles, conference papers and datasets of various kinds.
![]() | |
When and Where | |
---|---|
Date | Sunday, March 5, 2017 |
11:00 am – 5:00 pm, EST | |
Address |
Spelman College Camille Olivia Hanks Cosby Academic Center 440 Westview Drive SW |
City/State | Atlanta, GA 30310 |
Spelman College is hosting the first-ever Atlanta University Center (AUC) Black Women's Herstory Wikipedia Editathon, which will take place alongside dozens and dozens of other similar events as part of a collective effort called Art + Feminism--a distributed global event designed to diversify Wikipedia's coverage of women. The vast majority (at least 85%) of Wikipedia's editors are (white) males. (See See Gender bias on Wikipedia) Although Wikipedia is among the top five most visited websites online, its content reflects the knowledge of its editors. [1] This exciting event presents a unique opportunity to collaborate and work towards a great cause. We, in the AUC, have the power to diversify Wikipedia coverage by improving and adding more articles about notable black women, significant events involving black women, and sites of black women's intellectual and cultural contributions.
Wikistorming Wikipedia, or crowding the space to edit its pages with more diverse content about gender, has been a popular practice among feminists since the first Art+Feminism Editathon in 2009. [2] This global event, as well as Howard University's Black History Editathon in 2015 and AfroCROWD and the Schomburg's third upcoming editathon NYC/AfroCrowd/Schomburg_Black_Power, were part of the inspiration for organizing this event in the AUC. [3] The organizers of this event have drawn on their comprehensive organizational resources to assist our participants and partners with wikipedia editing.
Important Note: This event was deliberately organized to take place during the last week of February and first week of March to honor the limbo space that black women are often in when the public commemorates both black and women's history months.
The Editathon will take place throughout designated areas of the 3rd floor in the Camille Olivia Hanks Cosby Academic Center. For directions to the campus, please visit [1] on the Spelman website.
No Wikipedia editing experience necessary; as needed throughout the event, tutoring will be provided for Wikipedia newcomers. An intensive training will be provided from 11:00-12:00 p.m. to accommodate new editors. You are highly encouraged to attend this training if you are especially anxious about editing Wikipedia.
All students, faculty, and staff in the AUC, especially black women and students representing diverse gender expression, are encouraged to attend. We are also looking forward to hosting interested participants from Emory and Agnes Scott. However, please know that all are welcome! If you are unfamiliar with Wikipedia, you can get a head start with this this training module.
Learn more about Wikipedia's gender gap at WikiProject Women. More about Art+Feminism campaign on their page. Learn more about the racial gap at WikiProject African diaspora and the race/gender gap at Wikipedia:WikiProject Women in Red/Black history
Too much or too little information about a person, event, or site of black women's herstory might make it seem difficult to research the kind of data that could improve a page. However, we must remember that traditional research methods tend to be very gendered in ways that cause us to overlook sources of knowing. Therefore, consider the following tips as you attempt to work on your articles:
1. Begin by looking up her name in the black press. We must remember that if we are researching U.S. black women that the U.S. media has always been segregated. Therefore, we must look towards the black press for evidence of notability in many cases--especially when dealing with herstories from the last couple of centuries. Examples of major black press accessible through our AUC library databases include: Chicago Defender, Baltimore Afro-American, and Atlanta Daily World. The book Split Images contains more detailed information about the African-American newspapers, which includes several tables about African-American media, as well as involvement of African Americans in media. [4].
2. In what organizations was the woman active? History tends to be a matter of linear "ones" that trek through space as entities distant from a social scene. This is why it we tend to only look up information by "name" (e.g. Christopher Columbus, George Washington) or by some attribution of dominance (e.g. The Founding Fathers). In fact, meta-data may not even be coded to include a woman's first and last name. This is especially the case if a woman is known as someone's mother, wife, or daughter. To discover herstory, we must go where she is spending most of her time. Notable women tend to almost always spend their time in political/social organizations. Black women's social organizations, of course, were almost always political because most of our organizations--social, religious, educational--were created as a response to exclusion. The foundation of our national social organs, then, offers a rich source of discovering how "notable" a woman might have been through her leadership as an active member of the group, or as a founder.
3. What are her associations and who was in her social circle? If you find one notable woman, you will probably find many other notable women. Although we are rightfully offended when we see women described in terms of being wives, daughters, and sisters--we may sometimes find out more about a woman's life by the mere trace of her associations. For example, Rosetta Douglass certainly warrants more attention as the daughter of Frederick Douglass, but we may not find her if we don't consider that she became Rosetta Douglass Sprague. We may also recognize a notable mother by her notable mother, even if her mother became notable through association with a very notable man. Without Anne Murray Douglass, would Rosetta Douglass Sprague have written, Anne Murray Douglass, My Mother as I Recall Her. [5] The address, which was delivered at published by the National Association of Colored Women.
As a Woman in Red (see Wikipedia:WikiProject Women in Red/Black history), few know about Rosetta's life. Are we even sure we know her name. We thought she was "Rosetta Douglass," but then we realized she was "Rosetta Douglass Sprague." On the published address, "Anne Murray Douglass: My Mother as I recall Her," we also see the signature, " Fredericka Douglass Sprague Perry." Fredericka Douglass Sprague Perry was Rosetta's daughter, who remained as active as her mother in service--but with a higher amount of visibility in the black media. This link makes me wonder what else the N.A.C.W. published and whether or not they serve as a "secondary source" that would be considered notable by Wikipedia's community policies. When daughters publish mothers, we know we are reading a great Herstory--each accomplishment made more visible by the affordances of technology, its expanding publics and their effect on an individual's visibility. For example, the news articles about Fredericka contain her photograph whereas articles about her mother do not. This likely represents the ways in which emerging media were affecting documentation practices. Nevertheless, Fredericka is another Woman in Red--like her mother.
We must consider making arguments about notability based on an entire eco-system of black women's lives. With the Internet, we now have more ways of seeing them and recognizing when we don't see them. Pay attention to the entire surroundings of the black woman to learn more about her. Was she a "co-founder?" Chances are that her and her other co-founders did notable things. What organizations link the women? What cities? What major events? Which notable people? Did someone she was close to pass away? Will looking at coverage of their death help us find out more information about our notable woman in question?
4. In what cities was the woman active? Investigating local newspapers, and especially black press (e.g. Chicago Defender) will be instrumental in finding the woman. You may not be able to look for her specifically by name. You may need to simply research organizations in which she was active to locate her in coverage.
5. What was her rhetorical/artistic activity? What did she compose to the public? Did she give speeches? Write texts? Produce or direct films and/or plays? Was she in films? Books like Shirley Wilson Logan's With Pen and Voice, which examines 19th century black women's speeches, offer clues as to how to document black women's rhetorical life. [6] Several other texts are worth mentioning here, as well. For example, Traces of a Stream by Jacqueline Jones Royster and Words of Fire by Beverly Guy-Sheftall.
6. What was her professional and social relationship to media and emerging media technologies (e.g. phonograph, radio, television, etc.)? If we take for granted that the last centuries explosion of media did not involve black women, we will overlook notability. Black visibility in media functions as a major site and source of resistance. "Breaking through," as Etta Moten Barnett did in her role as "Bess" in Porgy and Bess, of course, constitutes notability. However, many notable women may not have been break throughs, even though they may have still heavily influenced their cities and our government's response to civil rights. In fact, even our breakthroughs end up being reduced to the one event despite their complex political and media involvement. This is why the black press is a critical secondary source for our effort here. Through major black press, especially if the black woman is from a major city, we may discover that she was in more organizations than are listed on her Wikipedia article. For example, Etta Moten Barnett was the director of Community Services for WYNR, a Chicago radio station. However, none of her page references this particular notable activity.
7. What, if any, educational institutions was the woman affiliated with? Their institutional digital archives or media might offer a key source for learning more about her "notable" activity on-campus and in the local campus community.
8. Did she ever visit Washington? Chances are, you may be able to find her in the national archives or local Washington newspapers--especially if she the "first" to go to the White House.
Definition of Open Access [7]
Most of the library's digital resources will connect automatically if you are on campus. If you are asked to login, use your campus login (for Spelman, Morehouse, CAU, ITC). For example: [yourusername]@spelman.edu along with your Spelman password.
AUC Woodruff Library Resources:
ProQuest Historical Newspapers:
Other Libraries' Resources:
This is a crowd-sourced list. Please help us by adding appropriate articles
Black Women in the Arts, Media, and Advocacy
Musicians
Philosophers
Rhetors and Writers
Inventors/Scientists
Genres and Companies
Fashion
Laws
Places
Black Women's Participation in Political Organization's and Social Movements
Movements and Organizations
Activists
Arts Organizations and Awards
Black Press
It was "one of the earliest and most influential black newspapers."
Scholarly Journals
See also:
Work on improving existing articles before starting a new page.
Use #artandfeminism on social media to connect with edit-a-thons around the world! see #noweditingaf for what's being edited.
For our distinctive event, we recommend the hashtags #artandwomanism, #noweditingAF, #blackwomenherstory, #artandwomanism
The Spelman College English Department will be providing updates via their Facebook and Twitter pages
Articles that participants have created or worked to improve.
Sign-Up Here, In Advance of the Event.
This event has been organized by two faculty at Spelman and Morehouse Colleges with the generous support of the following organizations/programs:
Open Access provides the means to maximise the visibility, and thus the uptake and use, of research outputs. Open Access is the immediate, online, free availability of research outputs without the severe restrictions on use commonly imposed by publisher copyright agreements. It is definitely not vanity publishing or self-publishing, nor about the literature that scholars might normally expect to be paid for, such as books for which they hope to earn royalty payments. It concerns the outputs that scholars normally give away free to be published – peer-reviewed journal articles, conference papers and datasets of various kinds.