Wikipedia Editing as Pedagogy

Approximately 80% of Wikipedia editors are male and 77% of Wikipedia editors are white. As the world’s largest reference website these startling statistics reveal deeply entrenched inequities that continue to advance and promote particular voices and histories. Wikipedia edit-a-thons aim to counter this trend and train both students and faculty to add or edit Wikipedia pages in their home language, with an eye towards diversifying the kinds of information and editors available on Wikipedia; giving students concrete research, writing, and back-end editing skills with this online platform; and empowering students to contribute to wider intellectual discourse on both local and global scales.

Experimental Humanities has experience leading successful Wikipedia edit-a-thons that have been reimagined as multi-stage assignments for EH courses. During the 2019-20 academic year we collaborated with the Center for Curatorial Studies (CCS) at Bard Annandale to provide Wikipedia workshops for three EH courses: “Introduction to Media,” “American Indian History,” and “Introduction to Africana Studies.” Each one built in Wikipedia edit-a-thons as a substantial component of the course: groups of students in each embarked upon detailed research and writing assignments based on specific class subject matter to create new Wikipedia pages or expand existing ones. EH and CCS provided two in-class workshops prior to the Wikipedia editing itself, which:

• served to educate Bard students regarding the significant gendered, racial, ethnic, and cultural gaps in current Wikipedia entries and structure,
• provided training on how to contribute to Wikipedia and change this dynamic, digital encyclopedia, and
• taught best practices for editing.

As a result of such an EH intervention into a course, students learn not only about their course subject matter and how to use influential digital platforms, but also the politics of how knowledge is disseminated and mass culture is shaped. Prior to the Wikipedia edit-a-thon for the “American Indian History” course, for example, there was little, none, or only inaccurate information regarding Indigenous histories on local Hudson Valley town pages. Students meaningfully edited and expanded sections for five towns near Bard Annandale to make for fuller, more accurate pictures of the area’s Indigenous histories. “Intro to Media” and “Intro to Africana” courses added entirely new pages focused on influential Black filmmakers, media-makers, and artists not previously represented on Wikipedia in any way.

Rethinking Place Conference
The DRE: Disturbance, Re-Animation, and Emergent Archives
October 20-22nd, 2022

The inaugural fall conference of Rethinking Place: Bard-on-Mahicantuck, a Mellon Foundation Humanities for All Times project, considered the topic of archives from a range of humanistic perspectives, with keynotes showcasing methods in Native American and Indigenous Studies and African and African-American Studies, as well as offering the viewpoints of contemporary artists on these topics. EH again collaborated with CCS to offer Wikipedia workshops for the History course, “Stakes and Claims: A Social and Cultural History of Ownership.” Students then joined others attending the Rethinking Place conference for an edit-a-thon. 

Many thanks to Professor Drew Thompson and Professor Christian Crouch for partnering with EH to develop these workshops in 2019 as well as Professor Tabetha Ewing in 2022. A special thanks to Bronwen Bitetti and Krista Caballero for developing these workshops and Bronwen Bitetti for serving as the primary facilitator.

Wikipedia Training Session
Fall 2022

This workshop trained EH Media Corps so that they could serve as facilitators for EH classes and workshops. Taught by Bronwen Bitetti.

The Ethics & Aesthetics of New Technologies
Spring 2022

Professor Susan Merriam

Intro to Media
Fall 2025

Professor Krista Caballero