“I find immense satisfaction in knowing that I am improving an article with accurate and current scholarship,” said Dimitrova, an expert in late medieval and early Renaissance tapestries at the University of San Diego. “In many ways, serving as a Wikipedia editor is like being a super publisher – I can make significant changes instantaneously to a range of subjects and topics for which I have subject expertise – making measurable and meaningful content.”

For Dimitrova, the professional development course designed for pre-modern European art experts was a chance to connect with a new network of scholars, professors, museum curators, and librarians, and to engage with scholarship in a new, incredibly impactful way.

“I truly think that editing on Wikipedia (either editing a current article or creating a new article) is a form of public scholarship that has far-reaching influence, particularly to readers who are outside the walls of academia,” said Dimitrova. “Although I have published a co-edited volume in the field of medieval art history, my contributions to Wikipedia have the potential to make an even greater educational and scholarly impact, in part because the audience is larger and I can also create content on a relatively short timeline.”

Dimitrova’s assessment of Wikipedia’s scholarly impact is supported by research, including studies shared by recent Wiki Education Speaker Series panelist Neil Thompson which highlight how the site can influence the content in academic publications.  

To get started on Wikipedia, Dimitrova explored Stub-class to C-class articles from geographic regions that intersected with her research and teaching interests: Flanders, France, Spain, and Italy. As she began to edit the article on the Pastrana Tapestries, she quickly found herself “tumbling down a rabbit hole”, exploring other linked pages including one featuring 15th century leading tapestry dealer Pasquier Grenier, a name Dimitrova has repeatedly encountered throughout her three decades of research.

“I was dismayed by the sheer lack of sources and inaccurate information about him,” said Dimitrova, who changed course to enhance Grenier’s Wikipedia article. “I learned a lot of intriguing facts about him during my deep dive: he was a dealer not just in tapestries, but also in wine! Who knew!?”

Just as a hyperlinked page brought her to working on Grenier’s article, linked pages within the tapestry dealer’s article led her to editing other related articles, where she took pleasure in providing valuable and precise descriptions of works of art within her areas of expertise.

Although she has now completed her Wiki Scholars course, Dimitrova continues to work in her sandbox and edit on Wikipedia today, emphasizing its crucial role as a source of free, open access knowledge and underscoring the importance of Wiki Education trainings like Wiki Scholars courses and the Wikipedia Student Program for changing misperceptions of Wikipedia in academia.

“Academia’s long-propagated mistrust of Wikipedia as a viable academic source continues and students are still often advised not to use it,” Dimitrova explained. “However, I think that as more and more scholars and students alike become trained editors, they typically realize that Wikipedia’s system of ‘checks and balances’ is quite rigorous.”

Dimitrova expressed deep gratitude for Wiki Education’s Will Kent for his impactful instruction of the course, as well as for the course sponsor, the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, highlighting its vital support of pre-modern European art scholars as they work to contribute to the field.

For refugee resettlement expert Shyam Krishnan Sriram, participating in the panel, “Being a MPSA Wiki Scholar: Sharing Political Expertise on Wikipedia,”  was an opportunity to break from his typical engagement with the conference.

“The MPSA is an important conference and I have attended a dozen times in the last two decades,” said Sriram, assistant professor of political science at Canisius University. “When it was suggested to come together as a panel, I jumped at the chance because this professional development side of the conference is important to me – not just presenting original research.” 

Reflecting on their experience as participants of a recent Wiki Scholars course, each of the four scholars noted the importance of editing Wikipedia as a strategy to combat misinformation, particularly during the 2024 election year. Panelists also initiated conversations about the role Wikipedia can play in disseminating research, its relationship with artificial intelligence and large language models, and the challenges of biases against Wikipedia. 

“We agreed during the panel that the number one challenge was a vast amount of misinformation about Wikipedia and its legitimacy as an academic source,” noted Sriram. “We still have a lot of work to do!”

Panelist and doctoral student at the University of Georgia Yao Yao agreed, underscoring the importance of educating academics and students on the immeasurable value of Wikipedia.

“As a PhD student, I believe it’s crucial to challenge the notion that students should be discouraged from using Wikipedia,” said Yao, an American politics scholar. “Instead, we should educate them on how to leverage its benefits effectively.”

From her first day in the Wiki Scholars course, Yao was drawn to the “inclusive and collaborative nature” of the Wikipedia community, embracing the chance to question her assumptions, gain practical skills in content creation, and join the worldwide group of editors dedicated to sharing knowledge. 

“One aspect of the course that particularly resonated with me was its emphasis on overcoming bias and fostering confidence in editing Wikipedia,” said Yao. “I also appreciated the opportunity to learn the intricacies of article editing, even though some processes seemed complex initially. The course provided valuable guidance on editing various elements such as images and charts, which has expanded my skill set and deepened my understanding of content creation on Wikipedia.”

An idea championed by panelist Muhamad Hassan Bin Afzal, visiting professor in the Department of Political Science and Public Service at the University of Tennessee-Chattanooga, the group plans to collaborate on a writing project which will examine the topics they discussed at the conference.

“The participants were so fun, engaged, and curious, and we’re even in talks about developing a paper for publication,” said panel chair Jacqueline M. Keil, assistant professor of political science at Kean University.

Wiki Education staff also engaged with all MPSA conference attendees from our booth in the exhibition hall. Both Kent and Wiki Education’s Communications and Outreach Coordinator Colleen McCoy connected with political science experts from across the globe, sharing information about our upcoming Wiki Scholars & Scientists professional development courses and the opportunity to teach with Wikipedia in our Wikipedia Student Program.

To find her starting point, Allison assembled a comprehensive list of works in the museum’s collection that related to the course themes and then explored Wikipedia to discover which of the works were already featured as articles. Her search led to the Wikipedia article about “The Jewish Cemetery”, a 17th century oil painting by the Dutch artist Jacob van Ruisdael.

“I came across the article for the Jewish Cemetery and noticed that some of the information, especially around provenance, was not accurate or as clearly described as what we had in our database,” said Allison, Collections Database Manager. “I wanted to check the sources and make sure we could update the article to share a clearer timeline of how the painting made its way into our collection.”

Allison did just that and more, tackling the project head-on. During her participation in the Wiki Scholars course, she added nearly 3,500 words and 36 references to the article, completely transforming several existing sections and adding a new section featuring the exhibition history of the painting.

Allison, along with her colleagues, continues to engage with and learn about Wikipedia and Wikidata to understand how to make accurate and robust information about their collections more accessible to the public. She encourages other professionals across all disciplines to lend their unique expertise, noting how the awareness of and immediate access to sources can save significant research time.

“Wikipedia can be a really great source of information for users looking to know more on certain subjects, but the articles are only as good as the sources and information that someone is able to provide,” said Allison. “Having resources and professional knowledge on a subject and being able to share it in this way helps everyone.”

When reflecting on her participation in the course, Allison noted the fun of rediscovering practices she hasn’t employed since her time as an art history student.

“My favorite part about editing Wikipedia is getting to spend some time researching and writing about works in our collection and using skills I don’t often get to utilize since finishing school,” said Allison. “It is nice to slow down and learn more about a work and be able to turn that knowledge into something accessible and easy to read for the public so that they can learn more about the work as well, and maybe they’ll decide to come check out the collection in person.”

Funded by Samuel H. Kress Foundation and led by Wiki Education in fall 2023, the 10-week Art History Wiki Scholars course focused on training scholars in pre-modern European art and architecture how to add their expertise to this underdeveloped subject area on Wikipedia. The collective contributions of Allison and the other 19 course participants have been viewed on Wikipedia nearly 3 million times.

The Samuel H. Kress Foundation has awarded Wiki Education a $25,000 grant to lead a 10-week Wiki Scholars course in the upcoming year that will train scholars in pre-modern European art and architecture how to add their knowledge to a topic deeply underdeveloped on Wikipedia. The Foundation agrees it’s critical that Wikipedia provides accurate, expert, and comprehensive information on art history and architecture for the benefit of museum professionals and art history students, as well as the interested public.

This extensive course will not only disseminate research about pre-modern European art and architecture to a potential audience of millions, but will also train art historians in fundamental, valuable career skills to take forward into all they do in an increasingly digital world. We’ll collaborate with scholarly partners like the Detroit Institute of Arts and address information gaps on Wikipedia related to pre-modern European art and architecture from antiquity to 1830. The quality of these Wikipedia articles varies and there is a strong bias towards Western European work, while Central and Eastern European art and architecture are poorly covered. We aim to bring more balance and diversity to Wikipedia’s coverage in these areas.

Given Wikipedia’s global reach, art institutions are able to connect with audiences in languages and contexts they never could have imagined. Wikipedia has an unparalleled ability to reach audiences around the globe. Averaging 18 billion page views per month, the website is the 7th most visited in the world. Not only that, Wikipedia content has a measurable effect on whether or not tourists plan a visit. Wikipedia drives enjoyment of art as well as learning. And cultural institutions are taking notice.

Take the Met, for example. After adopting an Open Access licensing policy for their images and data, they began reaching 10 million more people per month through Wikipedia – 7 times the reach of their own website. The Smithsonian, SFMOMA, and the Art Institute of Chicago have followed suit with Wikipedia and Wikidata initiatives of their own. All of these incredible organizations have consulted Wiki Education’s expertise and guidance at some point along their Wikipedia/Wikidata journey. Art historians are seeking the skills they need to do this important open access work, and Wiki Education has a successful track record for facilitating experts’ entry into Wikipedia’s editorial world.

We’re currently looking for additional partners to do this exciting work, so if you or your organization is interested in being involved in this initiative, please reach out to jami@wikiedu.org. We’re excited to work with new organizations in this mission and are extremely grateful to the Samuel H. Kress Foundation for their generous support as we make Wikipedia better together, for all.

“As a scholar of Ethnic Studies, I am always eager to learn more about people who engage in different and creative forms of activism or organizing,” Dr. Barnd says. “I only write in Wikipedia in order to create new content that focuses on communities of color, Indigenous peoples, and topics related to social justice.”

After learning Wikipedia basics in our course, Dr. Barnd created a biography for María Urquides, who is often referred to as the “Mother of Bilingual Education” in the United States. Dr. Barnd hopes that readers of the biography reflect on how long communities and schools have been fighting to implement bilingual education, as well as to notice how much resistance persists.

“María Urquides got involved in bilingual education at a rather late age, after a long career in education. So, she provides an amazing role model for community engagement and grassroots efforts toward inclusion education,” Dr. Barnd shares. “Since my children are currently in a dual immersion program, I would also hope readers consider, or reconsider, the various and wonderful models for learning and student growth.”

María was featured in the “Did You Know?” section on Wikipedia’s mainpage on November 24th, so her story has already reached thousands of readers. When biographies of notable women exist, readers can look to them for inspiration and to learn about their important contributions to history. But if no one takes the time to write these articles, they won’t exist.

“The people working with and within Wikipedia have enormous potential to make interventions against systemic bias. The first step, of course is becoming aware of this reality of bias within Wikipedia and within our larger societies. The next step is to understand it better, and to take action.”

Since taking this Wikipedia training course with us, Dr. Barnd has implemented a Wikipedia writing assignment into his course at Oregon State University. He is an Associate Professor of Ethnic Studies and Native American Studies there. Students in the course wrote new Wikipedia articles and edited existing ones related to Native American activists. More than 20,000 Wikipedia readers have already been reading about the Liliʻuokalani Trust in a brand new article, Patricia Whitefoot‘s dramatically expanded biography, and new biographies about Mary Cornelius Winder, and Ramona Lubo, and more.

It’s not typical that instructors learn how to edit Wikipedia themselves before conducting a Wikipedia assignment. Wiki Education’s assignment templates and trainings offer them everything they need to cultivate a successful experience both on Wikipedia and in the classroom. And many of the instructors we support tell us they were delighted to learn about the platform alongside their students. But Dr. Barnd went a little more in depth with our Women in Red Wiki Scholars course. And he had a positive experience learning the in’s and out’s of Wikipedia alongside peers.

“As a professor, I am particularly involved with using the platform to help students become more media literate, as well as to help them understand how platforms like Wikipedia can be a force for good, or a tool for inequity. I want them to choose, and to do something about it. If we choose to do nothing, our inaction will not free of us responsibility. It simply sweeps us along the with the current.”

Learn more about incorporating an assignment like this into your course at teach.wikiedu.org. OR, if you’re curious about learning some Wikipedia editing skills yourself, check out our open courses at learn.wikiedu.org.

We regularly run Wiki Scholars courses throughout the year, but the way this course came to be was especially important to us. “We are so grateful to the estate of B.B. Clark for generously supporting this Wiki Scholars course,” said Andrés Vera, Wiki Education’s Equity Outreach Coordinator, who made this connection. “Mr. Clark was a victim of the AIDS pandemic and vowed that none of his anti-gay family would receive a portion of his estate. While so many people try to erase the stories of LGBTQ+ people, in the after life, Mr. Clark is helping us preserve LGBTQ history.”

You can see one example of improving the historical record in the article about AIDS activist Reggie Williams. It is now a substantial Wikipedia biography, thanks to Wiki Scholar Dan Royles. Before the course, Reggie’s biography did mention his activism work. But after the course, the biography tells a much deeper story of his life-mission making AIDS education and services more culturally relevant for gay and bisexual men of color. You can now read about Reggie’s impact at both a local and national level. He became an adviser to the San Francisco AIDS Foundation and the San Francisco Department of Public Health, submitted a proposal to the Centers for Disease Control’s national AIDS education program, and was instrumental in starting multiple organizations for on-the-ground AIDS education in San Francisco.

In addition to Reggie William’s biography, Ruth Bleier now has a more detailed one. Wiki Scholar Jenny Lenkowski worked on it, enhancing sections about the neurophysiologist’s activism work during the era of McCarthyism. Ruth was an early explorer of how gender bias affected her field and she advocated for change. In addition to following her own personal mission to better represent a diversity of scientists on Wikipedia, Jenny — as an Associate Professor of Biological Sciences at Goucher College who teaches with Wikipedia — has new perspective to take back to her Wikipedia assignments.

“This course was a great way for me, as an instructor who has assigned Wiki Education projects in my classes, to more intentionally contribute to Wikipedia in a meaningful way myself,” Jenny told us. “I try to emphasize to my students the benefits of us contributing to Wikipedia to increase the diversity of Wikipedians and to also consider profiling scientists from underrepresented groups for their project, so this was a great opportunity for me to explore and contribute to biographies of scientists in the LGBTQ+ community. It took me quite a while to finally decide what page I would be working on, something I see some students struggle with as well. I also benefited from weekly discussions of how projects were going, something I’ll be more intentional about doing next time I assign a similar project.”

One more example comes from Wiki Scholar Sara Moore, an Associate Professor of Sociology at Salem State University, who greatly expanded Rachel Levine’s biography page. Rachel Levine made history as the first openly transgender government official to hold an office requiring a Senate confirmation, serving as assistant secretary of health since 2021. Sara added a section to Levine’s biography about her commitment to solving US health disparities, especially as they relate to LGBTQ+ youth.

“You feel empowered when you learn how to contribute meaningfully to a body of knowledge that so many people draw on,” Sara told us. “It’s also important to bolster the stories and experiences of underrepresented groups of people and their histories.” Although there is a lot more work to do regarding the preservation of LGBTQ history, we’re pleased courses like this can have such an impact on Wikipedia.

If you’d like to peruse more great work that came out of our first iteration of this course, follow this link.

Thumbnail image shows Rachel Levine and White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre holding a Pride flag in 2022. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

Anne Brown has deep experience in design, writing, and editing across a long career in corporate communications as a graphic designer and then communication director. More recently, she’s been intrigued by graphic design history. So when the opportunity popped up to take a Wikipedia editing course sponsored by the American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA), Anne seized it.

“The AIGA Wikipedia course offered an opportunity to become a Wikipedia editor and share my research with others,” she says.

And share she did. Anne started by creating the Wikipedia article for Henrietta Condak, an influential designer who worked for CBS Records during the 1970s.

“Although Condak blazed a trail for other women to follow, she had no article on Wikipedia,” Anne notes. One of Condal’s colleagues, Carin Goldberg, did have an article, but its quality assessment was what’s known on Wikipedia as a “stub” — a short, underdeveloped article. Anne expanded that article too.

Then she noticed that graphic designer Joseph Binder lacked an article. Anne was able to find extensive information about him, so she wrote a longer biography for Wikipedia. This article even appeared on Wikipedia’s home page, in the “Did you know” section.

All of Anne’s contributions were possible thanks to the AIGA Wiki Scholars course she took.

“The class fully prepared me to write a Wikipedia article,” she says. “The short online tutorials were extremely helpful and I’ve continued to refer to them when I forget how to handle a certain step in the process. More importantly, our instructor, Will Kent, was supportive and encouraging.”

And just because the course is now over doesn’t mean Anne has stopped writing. Like many who catch the Wikipedia bug, once she saw the gaps in coverage, she’s started tackling them. Anne says she’s made a list of all AIGA medalists who lack Wikipedia articles, and is working on several of them.

“While much of design writing only appears in industry publications, Wikipedia is the go-to resource for people across the world,” Anne explains. “By increasing the number of Wikipedia articles that highlight diversity in graphic design, a broader and more diverse group of people are encouraged to engage in graphic arts.”

And even though she’s written several articles now, Anne still finds joy in the process.

“Now that I’ve retired from corporate life, my focus is on sharing what I’ve learned with others to enable the next generation of designers to attain their creative aspirations. One way to do this is through making the stories of other designers accessible through Wikipedia,” she says. “I get a big thrill when I’m finally able to post an article I’ve been working on and see it come up in Google search.”

Interested in a course like the one Anne took? Encourage any organizations you’re a member of to partner with Wiki Education to host a similar course. Visit wikiedu.org/partnerships for more information.

“Nina Saxon’s biography highlights the achievement of women in a historically male-dominated field,” Kristin says. “The choice to focus my efforts on her story reflects my own experiences being a woman in motion graphics.”

Kristin is both an animator and a professor of art and design at Lewis University. In that role, she’s a member of the American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA). In 2018, she’d attended the Design + Diversity conference, where she got inspired to update the curriculum of the graphic design program at her university to be more inclusive of diversity in graphic design history.

“I am an animator and design professor that teaches a wide variety of courses in graphic design and motion graphics. I teach and study animation history and am interested in exploring the connection between traditional animation history and the history of motion design,” she says. “Additionally, my academic research explores how social responsibility is addressed in undergraduate curriculum. The exploration of this topic has deepened my commitment to creating a diverse curriculum that lifts up historically underrepresented design practitioners.”

These interests all came together in 2022, when AIGA collaborated with Wiki Education to host the AIGA Wiki Scholars course, a 6-week program where Kristin and other graphic artists learned how to create and improve biographies of diverse graphic artists on Wikipedia.

“As an academic, I am charged with serving my discipline and developing new knowledge,” Kristin explains. “Contributing to Wikipedia allows me to accomplish both by creating a more inclusive version of graphic design history and providing those interested in the field resources to continue their exploration of graphic design.”

Guided by instructor Will Kent, Kristin says she learned the ins and outs of how to create her article on Nina Saxon. While she admits it was a challenge to let go of control and accept the communal nature of Wikipedia, she enjoyed how easy it was to create the article.

“The Wiki Education course was extremely helpful in providing guidance to develop articles that fit the quality expectations of the platform,” Kristin says. “Additionally, it provided me with the confidence and technical knowledge to easily publish my first article.”

Kristin encourages other graphic artists to engage with Wikipedia, especially in creating more representation in the field by adding biographies of diverse people in graphic arts.

“Wikipedia tends to be the first source that many individuals engage with when exploring a topic. A more diverse Wikipedia provides individuals with a broader understanding of the discipline and has the potential to guide research to be more inclusive,” she says. “I hope to continue to create diverse biographies related to motion design and animation that lift up women and historically underrepresented groups.”

Interested in a course like the one Kristin took? Encourage any organizations you’re a member of to partner with Wiki Education to host a similar course. Visit wikiedu.org/partnerships for more information.

Image credit: Kcolleena, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

As the Exhibit & Program Coordinator for the Museum of Work & Culture in Woonsocket, Rhode Island, Deborah Krieger organizes the museum’s changing exhibitions, develops programming to accompany those exhibitions, and works on the museum’s permanent exhibits. She also has a master’s degree in Public Humanities from Brown University. In both her academic and professional careers, Deborah had used Wikipedia — a lot.

The Museum of Work & Culture is a division of the Rhode Island Historical Society that tells the story of French-Canadian immigration to the Blackstone Valley and their lives as workers in the area’s textile mills — and it’s also a member of the Smithsonian Affiliates. As part of the Smithsonian’s American Women’s History Initiative, Wiki Education ran a series of Wiki Scholars courses, teaching Affiliates staff how to improve Wikipedia biographies of American women related to their collection. Deborah, as an avid Wikipedia reader, signed up to also become an editor.

“I have used Wikipedia many, many, many times over the years, and have observed as it became a more and more useful and reliable resource and jumping-off point for research and information, so I like to think I brought a Wikipedia user’s enthusiasm as well as professional and academic expertise to the course,” she says.

Perhaps that deep reader experience gave Deborah a better grasp of how to create a well-developed biography article than many new editors come to Wikipedia with — because she brought her first article, on Anne Burlak, from a short article of three or four total paragraphs all the way up to Good Article status on Wikipedia. A Good Article designation is given after an extensive peer review process; fewer than 1% of all articles on Wikipedia reach this status, and it’s extremely rare for a newcomer to achieve it with their first article, as Deborah did.

“The Wiki Education class really helped me learn about the process of editing Wikipedia — most important, how to take an underpopulated article to a Good Article, as my article on Anne Burlak was recently deemed!” she says. “Using the sandbox, responding to editorial comments and suggestions from other Wikipedians… all very helpful as I decide which article to work on next.”

Deborah chose Anne Burlak as the focus of her work as she is featured in the Museum of Work & Culture’s history of local unions. A union organizer and activist, Burlak even inspired a poem by Muriel Rukeyser.

“I thought it would be a great opportunity to study Burlak and collect the disparate sources of information about her on the internet into a place where people interested in labor history could learn about the ‘Red Flame,’ as she was known,” Deborah says.

Since taking the course, Deborah was inspired to host an edit-a-thon, where she and fellow participants helped improve articles related to five women featured in the museum’s recent exhibit, Rhode Island Women Create. Next up for Deborah is to get more involved in Wikipedia, potentially as an article reviewer for other Good Article nominations, since she had such a great experience working with the editor who reviewed her work.

“Since Wikipedia is based on collaboration and reciprocity, I think I could help pay it forward by helping another Wikipedian take their work to the next level,” she says.

Image credit: Swampyank at English Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons