Session Proposal: Wikipedia, Pedagogy, and Hacktivism

Apologies for the tardy proposal. This could fall under either category of Talk or Teach.

The main focus of this session would be the use of Wikipedia (and other popular online tools, like Twitter) in the classroom. What has worked for you, what hasn’t, etc.  Part of this comes out of conversations around the Writing for Wadewitz Tribute Edit-A-Thons organized to honor a scholar who helped promote Wikipedia as a pedagogical tool (here’s the brochure she wrote on the topic).Given that there’s been multiple Tribute Edit-A-Thons in New England (plus the upcoming one in June), the session could also cover planning events like Wikipedia Write-Ins and Hack Days in academic settings.

Related to this proposal (but not its main focus): Part of what intrigues me about this subject is that there is a social justice element underneath the Wikipedia assignments and events (whether it is increasing the visibility of underrepresented groups as subjects and editors or more broadly, promoting the spread of basic digital literacy).  I haven’t observed this as much in other assignments using social media (e.g., connecting Twitter assignments to activist hashtags such as the current #YesAllWomen and the earlier #SolidarityIsForWhiteWomen), but perhaps that is because I’m academically located in Early Modern and Eighteenth-Century discussions?

Categories: Session Proposals, Session: Talk, Session: Teach, Social Media, Teaching |

About Emily Kugler

I am a scholar working in literary/book history, postcolonial studies, digital humanities, and gender studies. My book, Sway of the Ottoman Empire on English Identity in the Long Eighteenth Century, was published in 2012 as part of Brill’s Studies in Intellectual History series, and I'm working on new digital and book projects focused on networks, women, slavery, and empire. I am also involved in preparations for the 23 August 2015 Middle Passage Port Marker Ceremony for Boston's role in chattel slavery in the Americas, as well as with a supplementary public history project on the Desire, which exchanged Pequot captives for African slaves in its 1637-1638 voyages. Starting Fall 2015, I will join the English Department at Howard University as an Assistant Professor.