Two of the new pages are about novels originally published in French: one from Canada and the other from France. The first, Suzanne, was published in 2015 by Canadian author Anaïs Barbeau-Lavalette. The work is a biographical novel of the author’s grandmother Suzanne Meloche, a poet and painter who interacted with many French-Canadian artists and historical events. Much of the information is based on the findings of a private investigator hired by Barbeau-Lavalette. It was a bestseller in Quebec and other French-speaking areas, particularly France, and won the Prix des libraires du Québec. The second novel, Incest was published in 1999 by French author Christine Angot. This work is a fictionalized biography, or autofiction, where the author and the protagonist share the same name and occasionally the same experiences. The story follows an anxious, depressed woman named Christine as she works through emotional turmoil following the end of her relationship with her lover and first lesbian partner Marie-Christine. Christine conveys her thoughts in a very disconnected manner as she discusses with readers the complicated relationships with her ex-lover, her ex-husband, her young daughter, and her father, who instigated an incestuous relationship with Christine when she was a teenager. Angot received criticism for the close resemblance between her characters and those related to her, creating a debate regarding the role of fiction in regards to public action, as well as the responsibility of an author to control the implications created by their works. This criticism would prove to be an ongoing issue for the author, as in 2013 Angot was successfully sued by her lover’s ex-partner for defamation of her character in Angot’s novel Les Petits.

Another two pages focused on Spanish language works. Argentinian author Samanta Schweblin’s 2014 horror novel Fever Dream has elements of psychological fiction and takes inspiration from the environmental problems in Argentina. The novel follows its protagonist Amanda as she struggles to piece together the events that led her to wake up disoriented in a clinic. However as she regains her memories and tells her story to David, a young boy also in the clinic, Amanda begins to realize that David is more integral to the story – as well as to the possible location of her daughter Nina. The Transmigration of Bodies is a 2013 post-apocalyptic noir fiction novel by Mexican author Yuri Herrera. Set in an unidentified Mexican city, the book focuses on an underworld fixer who tries to arrange a peaceful exchange of bodies between two rival criminal gangs in a corrupt city that is in the midst of an epidemic. It is also the second book in a trilogy, however the final book in the series was actually the first to be published in the United States and the first book the last.

For some, Wikipedia is the easiest way to learn about a new concept or topic, which is why additions from students and instructors using the site as an educational tool can make such a big difference in the world. If you would like to include Wikipedia editing as a learning tool with your class, visit teach.wikiedu.org and gain access to our free tools, online trainings, and printed materials.

Header image by Heffloaf, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

On the first day of 1995 people began to gather at the Myeong-dong Cathedral. They came with the knowledge that they would be there for many days, as many as it would take to reach their goals. So began the 1995 Myeong-Dong migrant labor protest, which lasted a total of nine days and opposed the Industrial Trainee System (ITS), which they stated systematically produced a population of vulnerable, bottom-tier migrant workers in the labor market. Thirteen Nepalese migrant workers, who were previously contracted under the ITS, arrived in South Korea in hopes of escaping the poverty in their own country. However their hopes were dashed when employers withheld wages for over six months and then beat and abused them when the workers demanded to receive their wages directly. During the protest the demonstrators shackled their necks with iron chains, exposing their struggles as migrant laborers and drawing a parallel to slavery. They were soon joined by others, especially grassroots religious organizations, who protested in solidarity. In response to the protest the state acknowledged the systematic issues from the ITS and changed the Labor Standards Law to include migrant workers and industrial trainees contracted by the ITS in legislation regarding industrial accidents, medical insurances, and minimum wage arrangements. However it should be noted that this still did not address the issues of toxic and inhumane working conditions and the production cycle of unauthorized workers. This realization eventually led to the creation of the Migrant Workers’ Support Movement (MWSM) and Joint Committee for Migrant Workers in Korea (JCMK).

Along with migrant workers, women are also at risk of being exploited for labor – something not limited to any one particular country. Women have been organizing to address workplace issues such as unequal pay and workplace violence as early as the 1880s. In 2006, several women gathered together to join their male coworkers in the South Korean KTX Train Attendant Union Strike, which protested the hiring practices of irregular workers. The women also protested against sexual harassment they had experienced in their workplace. The majority of the men from the KRWU (the union for the KTX workers) stopped protesting after 4 days; however, the women continued their strike. Over the course of 12 years, many workers dropped out of the strike; however, 180 continued until 2018 when the Railway Workers’ Union and Korea Railroad Corporation came to an agreement in which these 180 of the crew members were reinstated.

The following years also included protests, as demonstrators gathered for both the Hyehwa Station Protest in 2016 as well as the Yellow Ribbon Campaign and Sewol Ferry Protest Movement in 2014. The Hyehwa Station Protest was formed to protest against the discrimination of women and crimes involving spy cameras, also known as molka. Many of these spy camera cases go unreported or undetected, and those that are reported typically do not lead to prison sentences. The Yellow Ribbon Campaign and Sewol Ferry Protest Movement occurred after the Sewol Ferry sinking, where about 63% of the people on board the ferry died after the ship capsized and several crew members abandoned it and its passengers. Many of these deaths occurred as a result of the crew ordering passengers to remain in their cabins and not alerting them to the evacuation of the ship. In the days following the sinking it was also discovered that the ship was in poor shape and was carrying over twice its maximum limit of cargo, which was also not secured properly. The regular ferry captain had warned the ship’s owners, Chonghaejin Marine, of this but was met with hostility and threats of losing his job. The yellow ribbon became a prevalent symbol in South Korea. Its significance evolved during the course of the protest, as people began to realize that many did not survive and the gathering focus turned from mourning and hopes of return to activism and democratization. In 2017, three years after the Sewol Ferry Sinking, the former president of South Korea, Park Geun-hye, was removed from office. During the months leading up to this event, the yellow symbols of Sewol commemoration were always present on political slogans and impeachment demonstrations.

Wikipedia has a wealth of knowledge, however the site cannot grow without users contributing and correcting information to the site. A Wikipedia writing assignment is a wonderful way to teach your students about technical writing, collaboration, and sourcing in a unique learning environment. If you are interested in using Wikipedia with your next class, visit teach.wikiedu.org to find out how you can gain access to tools, online trainings, and printed materials.

Header/thumbnail image by Republic of Korea Government, CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons.

The Shrine of Khwaja Abd Allah, commonly called the Shrine at Gazur Gah and the Abdullah Ansari Shrine Complex, is the funerary compound of the Sufi saint Khwaja Abdullah Ansari. It was built by architect Qavam al-Din of Shiraz in 1425, in Herat, Afghanistan and the patron of this monument is Shah Rukh, ruler of the Timurid dynasty. He commissioned the site as a memorial mausoleum for patron-saint Khwaja Abdullah Ansari, a Sufi mystic. Much of the focus of the complex is given to the east iwan, a rectangular interior space with one un-walled side. The facade consists of three entrances from the large polygonal bay, covered in intricate mosaics. Despite the grandeur of the ornamentation, the iwan walls are rough. This is likely due to the rushed nature of construction, which only took around three years despite the fact that decoration itself is usually completed in the same length of time. Historians believe this suggests that Qavam al-Din designed the ornamentation himself, which was then executed by a team of mosaicists.

Another example of Islamic architecture is the Al-Firdaws Madrasa, a 13th-century complex located southwest of Bab al-Maqam in Aleppo, Syria. It was established in 1235/36 by Dayfa Khatun, who would later serve as the Ayyubid regent of Aleppo, and consists of a madrasa, mausoleum, and other functional spaces. The complex is the largest and best known of the Ayyubid madrasas in Aleppo and due to its location outside the city walls, the madrasa was developed as a freestanding structure. This central location is believed by historians to have been chosen in order to demonstrate the power and wealth of the ruler of Aleppo to any passerby and because the site’s strong religious ties would have earned continuous words of prayer from passersby.

Other articles created and expanded by these students includes the one on Maqama, a literary genre which alternates the Arabic rhymed prose known as Saj‘ with intervals of poetry in which rhetorical extravagance is conspicuous. Originally in Arabic prosimetric, there are only eleven illustrated versions of the Maqāmāt from the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries that survive to this day. These Maqāmāt manuscripts were likely created and illustrated for the specialized book markets in cities such as Baghdad, Cairo, and Damascus, rather than for any particular patron. Elite and educated classes were the audience for these manuscripts, as the Maqāmāt was largely appreciated and valued for its nuanced poetry and language choice, rather than its manuscript illustrations.

Are you interested in incorporating a Wikipedia writing assignment into a future course? Visit teach.wikiedu.org to find out how you can gain access to our free tools, online trainings, and printed materials.

Header image by K.A.C Creswell, public domain via Wikimedia Commons.

The cinema of the Middle East has no one form, structure, or style, as it encompasses films from all of the countries and cultures in the Arab world. In its inception, Arab cinema was mostly an imitation of Western cinema, however it has and continues to constantly change and evolve with the times. According to scholars such as Amal Elgamal, Egypt is especially a pioneer as it was able to create a sustained film industry at a time when other parts of the Arab world had only been able to sporadically produce feature-length films due to limited financing. Elsewhere in North Africa and the Middle East, film production was scarce until the late 1960s and early 1970s when filmmakers began to received funding and financial assistance from state organizations. This was during the post-independence and is when most Arab cinema took root. Most films produced at that time were funded by the state and contained a nationalistic dimension. These films helped to advance certain social causes such as independence and other social, economic, and political agendas.

Students in the class also took the time to create an article on the cinema of Qatar noting that it’s a relatively young industry that evolved as part of the country’s plans to develop different local sectors with the aim of accumulating international recognition and status. Many major steps were taken to implement a long-term plan to develop the infrastructure as well as give opportunities to local talents to have a platform that establishes their presence within the film industry with the support of the Doha Film Institute, and their various grants, workshops, and festivals.

Students and educators have a wealth of knowledge that’s surpassed only by their passion to learn and teach, two things that are incredibly well suited to the task of Wikipedia editing as an educational assignment. If you’re interested in taking part, visit teach.wikiedu.org to gain access to free tools, online trainings, and printed materials.

Header image in public domain via Wikimedia Commons.

Are you a fan of true crime? Do you find yourself fascinated by not only the pursuit and capture, but also the trial and legal issues that may pop up as the case runs its course through the legal system? If so, then you may find yourself intrigued by the Buried Bodies Case, an article that one of the students in Williams’s class chose to expand for their assignment. The Buried Bodies Case refers to the mid-1970s criminal trial of Robert Garrow, Sr., who was charged with the murder of 18-year-old college student Philip Domblewski while he was camping in the Adirondacks with his friends. Defense attorneys Frank H. Armani and Francis Belge were chosen to represent Garrow, who confessed that he had not only murdered Domblewski but also two other women unrelated to the case and informed the attorneys where he hid the bodies. Upon locating the bodies, Armani and Belge chose to keep this information a secret despite an ongoing search for the women. When this was discovered during the Domblewski trial, Armani and Belge faced not only public criticism but also criminal and ethical proceedings. They were eventually cleared in both cases, as the People v. Belge and its appeal confirmed that their actions had protected the Fifth Amendment constitutional right concerning self-incrimination, although the judge did note that attorneys should “observe basic human standards of decency.” Although they were now cleared of wrongdoing, the aftermath took a large toll on both attorneys as Belge abandoned his profession while Armani suffered a heart attack that temporarily destroyed his practice. As the case occurred during the Watergate scandal, this contributed to the case’s attention and the American Bar Association began reconsidering attorneys’ ethical obligations. Law schools also began to reconsider how legal ethics were taught and the case is still a touchstone of legal ethics classes today.

Another student in the class chose to create an article for the U.S. Supreme Court case of Hudson v. Palmer, which started with a search of Russell Palmer’s cell at the Bland Correctional Center in Bland, Virginia, on September 16, 1981. After the search Palmer stated that officer Ted Hudson destroyed some of his personal belongings, which included legal materials and letters, as part of a targeted attempt to harass him and violate his Fourteenth Amendment due process rights. The ruling of the District Court was that “intentional destruction of a prisoner’s property is not a violation of due process, when the prisoner has an adequate remedy under state law” and that even if the search was non-routine and meant to harass Palmer, it did not have “constitutional significance” under the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments. An appeal filed at the Fourth Circuit affirmed the decision on due process but ruled that Palmer “had a limited privacy right which may have been violated” if the search was undertaken because of “a desire to harass or humiliate him.” This was again appealed and it went to the Supreme Court, which ultimately ruled that “prison inmates have no reasonable expectation of privacy in their cells under the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments, and destruction of property did not constitute a Due Process violation under the Fourteenth Amendment because Virginia had adequate state law remedies.” Based on a privacy test derived from the Katz V. United States case in 1967, prisoners had no right to privacy due to the need for prison security to detect and remove drugs and contraband, maintain sanitary surroundings, as well as to ensure institutional security. They also found that Fourth Amendment protections did not cover prisoner restrictions, as “imprisonment carries with it the circumscription or loss of many significant rights”. Justice John Paul Stevens filed an opinion on behalf of four justices that disagreed with the Fourth Amendment holding, as they felt that “inmates must retain some ‘slight residuum of privacy'” in their cells and because the Seizure Clause “protects prisoners’ possessory interests even assuming the absence of any legitimate expectation of privacy” and that safety concerns don’t eliminate all civil rights of prisoners. He further wrote that the Court’s decision “declares prisoners to be little more than chattels” and that Chief Justice Burger’s assessment that society would not recognize privacy rights for prisoners as legitimate was faulty, as this was at odds with the general agreement by the lower courts that prisoners retain some privacy rights, and that prison officials also shared a “near-universal view…that guards should neither seize nor destroy noncontraband property.” Following the case many state courts that had previously not ruled that incarcerated persons had some limited amount of Fourth Amendment protection have changed their state constitutions to follow the Hudson ruling, with Vermont serving as the only exception. The case was cited in the 2012 Florence v. Board of Chosen Freeholders of County of Burlington, where it held that strip searches of pretrial detainees entering a general jail population do not violate the Fourth Amendment as it struck a balance between “inmate privacy and the security needs of correctional institutions,” not by holding that pretrial detainees have no Fourth Amendment privacy rights.

To quote the the Wikipedia article on Wikipedia, “Wikipedia is the largest and most popular general reference work on the Internet,” which makes contributions from students and educators that much more important. Want to help share knowledge with the world? Visit teach.wikiedu.org to find out how you can gain access to tools, online trainings, and printed materials to help your class edit Wikipedia.

Image by Matt Wade, CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons.

For those who perked up at the mention of music as well as those who love history, you may find the Bull Headed Lyre of Ur intriguing. One of the oldest stringed instruments ever discovered, this was excavated in the Royal Cemetery of Ur during the 1926-27 season of an archeological dig led by Leonard Woolley and carried out in what is now Iraq jointly by the University of Pennsylvania and the British Museum. Woolley was assisted in his work by his future wife Katharine Woolley, whom he married in 1927, and who also helped by working as an illustrator for the objects catalog. The lyre dates back to the Early Dynastic III Period (2550–2450 BCE) and was found along with several other such instruments in “The King’s Grave,” near the bodies of more than sixty soldiers and attendants. As a group, these instruments are the second oldest surviving stringed instruments. It is currently held at the Penn Museum in Philadelphia, which also took great pains to conserve and restore this historical treasure. There is much that can be learned from these instruments, such as how they were constructed, the available materials, and the preferred styles of the people from that era.

The ethics of archaeology have often been debated, as there are questions such as whether or not it is ethical to excavate a grave site or whether or not sites should be preserved in hopes that future generations will have less invasive techniques. There is also the question of what happens to artifacts once they’re taken from the site and what the responsibility is for museums that obtain them for their collections. To this end the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology issued the Pennsylvania Declaration on April 1, 1970. With this declaration the institution swore to not accept any items that lacked provenance or collection histories. This was done in order to foster and maintain trust with the countries where the university engaged in field research, as well as to distinguish it from illegal antiquity trading. It was presented by Froelich Rainey, director of the Penn Museum, at the meeting of the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), in conjunction with the issue of its treaty known as the 1970 Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property. Rainey, who had performed field research throughout the world – including his early work in Arctic Alaska, had been invited by UNESCO the prior year to help draft the convention. However as he did so, he realized that the UNESCO convention would lack legal accountability and would not suffice in ending looting, regulating the importation of cultural material, and providing guidelines for legal trade. This realization influenced his decision to draft the separate Pennsylvania Declaration.

Students and instructors have a lot of knowledge to offer the world! Wiki Education provides tools, online trainings, and printed materials to help them channel that knowledge into the public resource that is Wikipedia. If you’re interested in getting involved, visit teach.wikiedu.org to get started.

Header image by BabelStone, CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons.

Hur Libertas “H. L.” Mackenzie was a medical missionary and minister for the Presbyterian Church of England who worked in Swatlow, China, where he aided in the construction of a mission hospital and established several out-stations for patients. While these facilities were highly Evangelistic, they did bring Western medical infrastructure into areas where it may have been lacking, particularly the out-stations. He also assisted in the creation of a girls’ boarding school, theological college, and boys’ middle school, which were primarily staffed with Chinese ministers and teachers.

Lucy Bement, a nurse and medical missionary, also worked in China, specifically Shaowu, China. She was accompanied in her ventures by her sister Frances. Bement saw patients in a makeshift doctor’s office housed in their home until the Boxer’s Rebellion, when she and her sister were forced to flee until the rebellion passed. Upon returning home the sisters found that the house had been almost completely destroyed. Undeterred, the sisters worked to repair the house so they could resume seeing patients. The pair put extra emphasis on seeing women, as cultural customs strictly forbade male providers from caring for female patients. Before returning home to the United States, Bement helped build a hospital and a boarding school for girls.

Students also created a new article for the Scottish medical missionary Margaret Stephen Kennedy. Kennedy worked in India, where she initially taught Sunday School with her sister and brother-in-law. She later started a day school and also began working with a local orphanage. Between the years of 1847 and 1859 Kennedy personally taught Victoria Gouramma, who was the daughter of Chikka Virarajendra, the Raja of Coorg. She briefly returned home due to her husband catching ill, but returned to India to care for women with leprosy in Almora.

You too can have your class work with Wikipedia as one of your class assignments. If you’re interested, please visit teach.wikiedu.org to find out how you can gain access to our tools, online trainings, and printed materials.

Image: File:Shanghai mission conference members.jpg, University of Birmingham, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Uploaded by a student.

One of the new articles is about William Lambert, a prominent African-American citizen and abolitionist in Detroit, Michigan during the mid to late 19th century. He was born free and was educated by a Quaker schoolmaster, who not only gave him an excellent education but also introduced Lambert to the abolitionist movement. In his twenties Lambert was living in Detroit and working in a tailor shop. It was here that he met George DeBaptiste, with whom he would work and collaborate with on abolitionist matters and on the Underground Railroad. Lambert is perhaps most well known for assisting the fugitive slave Robert Cromwell, who escaped his owner John Dun and fled to Canada, where he could live in freedom. Lambert was responsible for exerting his influence and placing Dun in jail, giving Cromwell the ability to successfully reach Canada. This wasn’t without repercussion, as these actions influenced politicians to pass the Fugitive Slave Act in 1850, which greatly reduced the ability for slaves to escape the cruelty of slavery.

Another Wikipedia article that students created was about Louisa Matilda Jacobs, an African American abolitionist and civil rights activist and the daughter of famed fugitive slave and author, Harriet Ann Jacobs. Her mother was a mistress to congressman and newspaper editor Samuel Tredwell Sawyer, Louisa’s father. Harriet was the slave of Dr. James Norcom, who tried to force her into a sexual relationship by threatening her children. She fled, expecting that Norcom would sell her children. This expectation was correct as Sawyer purchased the children and helped them make their way to safety and freedom. Jacobs was eventually reunited with her mother and the two fled to Boston, where she was educated at home until her father paid for her to attend a seminary school in New York. She returned to Boston, where she received training to become a teacher. With her mother, Jacobs founded Jacobs Free School, a Freedmen’s School in Alexandria, Virginia. In 1866 she opened a second one in Georgia called the Lincoln School. She was also active in the activism movement and spoke about women’s suffrage on an American Equal Rights Association lecture tour alongside Susan B. Anthony and Charles Lenox Remond. She also worked as a matron of the National Home for the Relief of Destitute Colored Women and Children and at Howard University.

Interested in adapting a Wikipedia writing assignment to fit your course? Visit teach.wikiedu.org for all you need to know to get started.

Emmanuel Blayo Wakhweya was an Ugandan politician and economist who served as the Ugandan Minister of Finance under Idi Amin from 1971 until his high profile defection in London in 1975. Born and educated in Uganda, Wakhweya became a district administrative officer after completing his Master’s at Makerere University. He then became the Assistant Secretary to the Treasury in the Milton Obote administration, where his abilities caused him to rise in the ranks until he was appointed the Minister of the Treasury (1969) and then the Minister of Finance after Idi Amin’s 1971 Ugandan coup d’état. Amin wanted Wakhweya to help fix Uganda’s crumbling economy, which was now facing several complications such as high state spending. This chaos would result in Wakhweya defecting about four years later in early 1975, with him stating that he “can’t imagine how the ordinary people are still able to carry on because of the shortages of the simplest essentials of life and the soaring cost of living. Uganda is facing economic catastrophe. Either the economic forces will compel Amin to change his policies or there will be an explosion in the country because of popular discontent.” These actions were denounced in Uganda and any of his relatives that remained in Uganda were imprisoned, tortured, and killed. Now exiled from Uganda, Wakhweya moved to the United States, where he worked for the World Bank and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa. After he retired, Wakhweya was able to return to Uganda, where he died in 2001.

Another new article that students created was one on the short lived French literary journal Tropiques, which was founded by Martinican intellectuals such as Aimé and Suzanne Césaire. Published in Martinique from 1941 to 1945, this journal’s issues contained poetry, essays, and fiction and due to the contributions of surrealist André Breton, became a leading voice of surrealism in the Caribbean. Other topics discussed in Tropiques included colonialism, a vital topic for both its readers and writers, as Martinique was controlled by the French State during this time. This Vichy-supported government tried to shut down the journal and even tried to deny it paper for publishing. This did not work, as Tropiques simply resumed publication once the Free French arrived and even released a double issue to make up for the prior censored publication.

Finally, student movements in Uganda are a vital part of the country’s history and culture. Spanning back to the 1930s, students have fought against various forms of oppression and injustice that includes colonial rule and most recently, a tax on social media that critics state is aimed at silencing protesters. Students and instructors at Makerere University have often participated in these protests and in 2016 the university was closed in response to a student and instructor led strike over finance concerns, budget cuts, and tensions over the Kasese Massacre.

For some, Wikipedia is the easiest way to learn about a new concept or topic, which is why contributions by students and instructors using the site as an educational tool can make such a big difference in the world. If you would like to include Wikipedia writing as a learning tool with your class, visit teach.wikiedu.org to find out how you can gain access to tools, online trainings, and printed materials.

Image: File:Makerere University, Main Administration Block(main building).JPG, Eric Lubega and Elias Tuheretze, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.