Wikipedia:WikiProject Women's Classical Committee/Impact
Welcome | Aims | Discuss | Tools and guides | Events & Workshops | Impact | Resources | Event details |
Impact of #WCCWiki
- 2022 Wikimedia UK Partnership of the Year: #WCCWiki
"For six years, the Women's Classical Committee have been working to improve Wikipedia's coverage of women in the classics. They created the #WCCwiki initiative, with classicists meeting regularly to close Wikipedia's gender gap in their field. The group have organised training events, have widely shared their work to encourage other to participate, and shared their experience with their peers. Collectively, they have transformed Wikipedia's coverage of classicists and are an outstanding example of how sustained work with a community can create change on Wikipedia." https://wikimedia.org.uk/wiki/UK_Wikimedian_of_the_Year_2022
- 2022 UK Wikimedian of the Year: #WCCWiki member Lucy Moore
"Last year's Up and Coming Wikimedian of the Year, Lucy Moore is a skilled Wikipedian and outstanding advocate for the Wikimedia movement. As an editor she works with WikiProject Women in Red, supporting their initiatives, and works to improve Wikipedia's diversity and inclusion as a platform, across class, gender, disability and race. As well as contributing to Wikimedia projects directly, Lucy engages with Wikimedia in professional and academic contexts, organising events, advocating for engagement with Wikimedia, and supporting others in their efforts. She has shared her insight and knowledge with Wikimedia UK staff in support of our work with the heritage sector, which is very much appreciated." https://wikimedia.org.uk/wiki/UK_Wikimedian_of_the_Year_2022
- One of our #WCCWiki members, Lucy Moore, was awarded 2021 Up and Coming Wikimedian of the year! https://wikimedia.org.uk/wiki/UK_Wikimedian_of_the_Year_2021
- Victoria Austen-Perry: "I am forever grateful for the #WCCWiki project for introducing me to editing - if you want to hear more about this work, I did a little open access talk last year ... Participating in the #WCCWiki project has also given me the confidence to run a @WikiEducation assignment in my @UWinnipeg_CLAS Roman Britain class this semester - we are now on week 4 and our dashboard is already seeing a lot of action!" https://twitter.com/tigerlilyrocks/status/1354519306017509378
- Hannah Rothmann, 'Internship Blog #3: #WCCWiki Colloquium 2020': https://thinking.is.ed.ac.uk/wir/internship-blog-3-wccwiki-colloquium-2020-by-hannah-rothmann/
- Dr. Stephennie Mulder at University of Texas at Austin has integrated Wikipedia editing for assignments into two of her Islamic art history courses (2018 and 2019): https://twitter.com/stephenniem/status/1073289989973250048. Dr Mulder cites the Guardian article on #WCCWiki. Read more here: https://wikiedu.org/blog/2020/02/28/trying-something-new-in-an-already-popular-class/
- Ellen Muehlberger, Professor of History and Middle East Studies at the University of Michigan, will be integrating Wikipedia editing in her survey class covering Judaism, Christianity and Islam in autumn 2020, partly inspired by #WCCWiki: https://twitter.com/emuehlbe/status/1233776054109601792
- #WCCWiki integrated into undergraduate teaching at the University of Warwick: 'getting materials together to teach my Intro to Roman History seminar next Thursday, which will be a #WCCWiki @womeninclassics based computer lab. I've got 48 students standing by ready to make Wikipedia more 'woke'. ;-) Making the history we want to see @ClassicsWarwick'. Twitter, 7 January 2020: https://twitter.com/ancient_tokens/status/12
14572801446875143. Token Communities is a Project at the University of Warwick: https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/classics/research/dept_projects/tcam/.
- #WCCWiki featured on the blog and video 'Closing the Gender Gap', produced by Wikimedia UK, 30.12.2019: https://blog.wikimedia.org.uk/2019/12/wikimedia-uk-publishes-closing-the-gender-gap-video/ and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P9CzjIL-A1Q
-'How Do We Record the History of Women in Classics?', led by Claire Catenaccio for the Society for Classical Studies (SCS): https://classicalstudies.org/scs-blog/claire-catenaccio/blog-how-do-we-record-history-women-classics
- "...Zena Kamash’s Public Engagement Showcase and the Women’s Classical Committee UK’s Wikipedia Editathon, both of which provided excellent examples of public-facing Classics that seeks to make a difference beyond the walls of the academy." Katherine Harloe, Classical Association News, September 2019, Number 61, ISSN 963-4789, p. 3.
- On 16 March 2019, WCCWiki received an entry in the Springer Encyclopedia of Global Archaeology, authored by Claire Millington. https://link.springer.com/referenceworkentry/10.1007%2F978-3-319-51726-1_3432-1
- In December 2018 Victoria Leonard published an article in The Guardian: ‘Female scholars are marginalised on Wikipedia because it's written by men’ (https://www.theguardian.com/education/2018/dec/12/female-scholars-are-marginalised-on-wikipedia-because-its-written-by-men).
#WCCWiki Events
- In March 2021, Victoria Leonard recorded an interview with Wikimedia UK for International Women’s History Month about #WCCWiki: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5jkOpIodMM. This was part of a series featuring Kira Wisniewski from Art+Feminism, Rebecca O’Neill, Project Co-ordinator at Wikimedia Ireland, Alice White from Wellcome Collection
- Katie Shields led an online workshop at Birmingham University organised by Hannah Cornwell for postgraduate students, ‘Wikipedia Editing and Gender Equality’. The event took place on Tuesday 16 March 2021. The event trained students in Wikipedia editing and provided the skills needed to tackle the marginalisation of women in history through Wikipedia. https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/wikipedia-editing-worskhop-tickets-143311036167#.
- On 11 March 2021, Kate Cook participated in the Women in Archaeology Wikithon at the Archaeology Department, York University. The event was organised by Stephanie Wynne-Jones. Kate spoke about her involvement in the #WCCWiki project.
- On 7 February 2020, Victoria Austen-Perry presented on '#WCCWiki: Using Wikipedia for Public Engagement and Social Change' as part of the New Directions in Classics seminar at the University of Winnipeg, Canada. For more information about the presentation, see here: https://www.uwinnipeg.ca/classics/new-directions-in-classics.html. Her presentation was live-streamed and then archived here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c_66JBQjDAg&feature=youtu.be.
- On 10 February 2020, Victoria Austen-Perry ran a '#WCCWiki Wikipedia Editing Workshop' at the University of Winnipeg, Canada. This built on the issues raised in the New Directions in Classics talk (#WCCWiki: Using Wikipedia for Public Engagement and Social Change). In this practical workshop and 'editathon', participants were guided in how to become a Wikipedia editor and allowed time to contribute to the #WCCWiki project. For more information, see here: https://www.uwinnipeg.ca/classics/events/2020/02/wccwiki-wikipedia-editing-workshop.html.
- '#WCCWiki - Women's Classical Committee Wikipedia Editathon', Classical Association/FIEC Conference 2019, University of London, Friday 5 July 2019. Directed by Anna P. Judson. Generously supported by the Institute of Classical Studies and the Classical Association. https://www.fiec2019.org/wccwiki-womens-classical-committee-uk-wikipedia-editathon/
- '#MedievalWiki: Editing Women in Wikipedia', Cohen Cluster, 14:00 - 16:00, 2nd July 2019, International Medieval Congress, University of Leeds. Directed by Kate Cook. Generously supported by the IMC. https://www.imc.leeds.ac.uk/imc2019/events/workshops/ and https://www.imc.leeds.ac.uk/imc-2019-materialities-in-pictures/.
- In May 2019 Victoria Austen-Perry presented on #WCCWiki at the Classical Association of Canada Conference.
- In May 2019 Anna Judson organised a #WCCWiki training and editing workshop at the University of Cambridge.
- In March 2019 the Classics Department at Durham University ran their own WCC Wikipedia Editing Session, organised by Stuart McKie.
- In March 2019 Jane Draycott presented at the University of Glasgow on #WCCWiki at ‘Feminism in the Humanities’
- In January 2019 Lisa Lodwick and Claire Millington organised a Wikipedia editing event in the School of Archaeology at Oxford University, attended by 16-18 people, including Clare Rowan who subsequently introduced Wikipedia editing to undergraduate teaching at Warwick University (see above).
- In November 2018 Emma Bridges presented at the online Sunoikisis Digital Classics Seminar about Wikipedia editing and WCCWiki, ‘Digital Cultural Heritage and Public Engagement’: https://github.com/SunoikisisDC/SunoikisisDC-2018-2019/wiki/Session-5.-Digital-Cultural-Heritage-and-Public-Engagement)
- September 2018, Emma Bridges, Claire Millington and Kelly Foster presented on #WCCWiki and ran training at a workshop and editathon at University College London, organised by Katharine Shields.
- July 2018, Emma Bridges and Claire Millington presented on ‘The Women in Classics Wikipedia Group', Institute of Classical Studies. Watch the presentation here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3MRPTQOklws
- 28 March 2018, Claire Millington presented #WCCWiki to 'Medieval Women, Women Readers', a wikithon to mark International Women's Day 2018 at King’s College London, organised by Fran Allfrey and Beth Whalley.See https://blogs.kcl.ac.uk/english/2018/04/18/medieval-women-modern-readers/.
Franchises of #WCCWiki
- August 2019, the Department of Classics and Ancient History, Warwick University said that they were integrating #WCCWiki into their introductory survey modules on Greek and Roman History for undergraduates: https://twitter.com/ClassicsWarwick/status/1161556775914655744
- In April 2019, Jane Sancinito, a classicist at Oberlin College, Ohio, organised an editathon directly inspired by #WCCWiki, ‘Classics and Women of Colour’. They attracted 23 editors and edited nine articles. Jane wrote: ‘I love the #WCCWiki project and everyone involved has been so welcoming and helpful. It really got my event off the ground and it was so nice to tell the students that they weren’t just following my whims, but were participating in a global effort.’ (https://twitter.com/JaneSancinito/status/1120714812902772737)
Milestones and Statistics
- In February 2020 Anna Judson's article on archaeologist Winifred Lamb was featured in the 'Did you know?' section of Wikipedia's front page (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winifred_Lamb); the page passed the 'Good Article' review in January 2020.
- In March 2018 Kate Cook’s article on classicist Grace Macurdy passed the ‘Good Article’ review (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grace_Macurdy) and in August made it on to Wikipedia’s front page in the ‘Did you know?’ section.
- Statistical analysis by Richard Nevell: "271 articles have been created about classicists on the English Wikipedia of which 116 (43%) are about women. That proportion is down largely to the work of WCC." https://richardthecastellan.wordpress.com/2019/12/06/how-many-biographies-of-classicists-does-wikipedia-have-december-2019-update/