Wikipedia:Wiki Ed/University of Chicago/Feminist Perspectives on Science (Fall 2020)
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- Course name
- Feminist Perspectives on Science
- Institution
- University of Chicago
- Instructor
- Parysa Mostajir
- Wikipedia Expert
- Ian (Wiki Ed)
- Subject
- Course dates
- 2020-09-29 00:00:00 UTC – 2020-12-18 23:59:59 UTC
- Approximate number of student editors
- 25
We will be learning about feminist scholarship on science, from the perspectives of history, philosophy, and anthropology. We are learning about the construction of knowledge (with a special focus on scientific knowledge), and various ways that values can influence the construction of knowledge, engaging with the large scholarly literature (especially from the late '80s to the present day) on feminist philosophy/anthropology/history of science. Two major topics of relevance are: the participation/exclusion/erasure of women and minorities from the production of knowledge throughout history; and the ways scientific knowledge can be susceptible to bias as a result of the values held by individuals. For that reason, I would like students to participate in WikiProject Women Scientists as a means of achieving the following learning objectives: to participate in research on women figures in the history of science; to understand the historical and current reasons these figures are missing from a major knowledge resource; to engage more broadly with issues of knowledge construction/transmission/erasure through WikiEdu's sourcing/editing training; to come to an understanding of objectivity as a social value that is at once necessary and susceptible to the influences of power.
Timeline
Week 2
- Course meetings
-
- Monday, 12 October 2020
- Assignment - Introduction to the Wikipedia assignment
Welcome to your Wikipedia assignment's course timeline. This page guides you through the steps you'll need to complete for your Wikipedia assignment, with links to training modules and your classmates' work spaces.
Your course has been assigned a Wikipedia Expert. You can reach them through the Get Help button at the top of this page.
Resources:
- Editing Wikipedia, pages 1–5
- Evaluating Wikipedia
- Assignment - Get started on Wikipedia
Create an account and join this course page, using the enrollment link your instructor sent you. (Because of Wikipedia's technical restraints, you may receive a message that you cannot create an account. To resolve this, please try again off campus or the next day.)
- Milestones
This week, everyone should have a Wikipedia account.
Week 3
- Course meetings
-
- Monday, 19 October 2020
- Assignment - Systemic Bias in Knowledge Resources
Read the talk pages on Wikipedia (here and here), in which the Wikipedia entries of two Black women psychiatrists were flagged for deletion based on their lack of “notability” (a standard for inclusion on Wikipedia). Also have a browse through this list of women's pages nominated for deletion from Wikipedia.
Write a short (200 word) reflective essay about the issues you see in the two talk pages, and anything that catches your eye in the list of women's pages nominated for deletion, relating to this week's readings (Keller and Schiebinger) on exclusion from the profession and erasure from official histories. Some questions you may consider: What are the positions expressed in the editorial disagreements? What are they based on? How might this be influenced by wider societal issues of gender and racial injustice? Do these issues echo anything described by Keller, Schiebinger, and Deegan (or any other of our class readings)? Do Wikipedia's editing guidelines and community processes contribute to or safeguard against systemic bias in their knowledge resources, and how?
- Assignment - Evaluate Wikipedia
Week 4
- Course meetings
-
- Monday, 26 October 2020
- Assignment - Review the rules for health topics
- Assignment - Choose Wikipedia Page Topic
Resource: Editing Wikipedia, page 6
For your Wikipedia article, I would like you to select an option from this list. However, if you would like to contribute to or clean up a topical page (e.g. on the Tuskegee experiments), or substantially contribute to a stub or poor-quality page about a woman scientist, then you can, but run it by me first. Also, if you want to write about a woman who is science-adjacent (e.g. a science journalist), that should be fine, but also run that by me. Beware of protected pages and highly contentious pages (as the training mentions). Once we all graduate from this class as Wikipedia-editing veterans, we can apply our skills and knowledge to these contentious pages!
Once you have made your decision, check the Regenstein catalogue for any academic sources on the person. If the sources are not available online, you should request Scan and Deliver immediately so you will receive it next week to help write your article. If you have any trouble or confusion around this process, reach out to me or Marc--that's why we're here.
- In class - Discussion
Week 5
- Course meetings
-
- Monday, 2 November 2020
- Assignment - Add to an article
- Assignment - Exercise
- Assignment - Start drafting your contributions
Resource: Editing Wikipedia, pages 7–9
Your contributions to Wikipedia have no minimum or maximum word limit, but will be graded on the basis of the overall quality of your work.
- Guide(s) for writing articles in your topic area
- Milestones
Everyone has begun writing their article drafts.
Week 6
- Course meetings
-
- Monday, 9 November 2020
- Assignment - Keep working on your article
Week 7
- Course meetings
-
- Monday, 16 November 2020
- Assignment - Peer review an article
- In class - Discussion
- Milestones
Every student has finished reviewing their assigned articles, making sure that every article has been reviewed.
Week 8
- Course meetings
-
- Monday, 23 November 2020
- Assignment - Respond to your peer review
You probably have some feedback from other students and possibly other Wikipedians. Consider their suggestions, decide whether it makes your work more accurate and complete, and edit your draft to make those changes.
Resources:
- Editing Wikipedia, pages 12 and 14
- Reach out to your Wikipedia Expert if you have any questions.
- Assignment - Begin moving your work to Wikipedia
Now that you've improved your draft based on others' feedback, it's time to move your work live - to the "mainspace."
Resource: Editing Wikipedia, page 13
- Assignment - Exercise
Week 9
- Course meetings
-
- Monday, 30 November 2020
- Assignment - Continue improving your article
Now's the time to revisit your text and refine your work. You may do more research and find missing information; rewrite the lead section to represent all major points; reorganize the text to communicate the information better; or add images and other media.
- Assignment - Polish your work
Continue to expand and improve your work, and format your article to match Wikipedia's tone and standards. Remember to contact your Wikipedia Expert at any time if you need further help!
Week 10
- Course meetings
-
- Monday, 7 December 2020
- Assignment -
- Assignment - In-class presentation
Prepare a 10 minute presentation on the subject of your Wikipedia article. You should discuss:
- the individual, her intellectual context, and her achievements
- what your research uncovered about her
- why she did not have a Wikipedia page (in your assessment)
- what issues you encountered in making her Wikipedia page (notability? finding acceptable sources?)
- anything else you find interesting, valuable, or relevant
Week 11
- Assignment - Final article
It's the final week to develop your article.
- Read Editing Wikipedia page 15 to review a final check-list before completing your assignment.
- Don't forget that you can ask for help from your Wikipedia Expert at any time!
- Milestones
Everyone should have finished all of the work they'll do on Wikipedia, and be ready for grading.