Wikipedia and the Feminist Production of Knowledge

1. Wikipedia and the Feminist Production of Knowledge Women’s Studies 590 Feminist Thought

2. FEMINIST THOUGHT • What counts as “feminist thought”? How have the meanings, expressions, and implications of “feminism” intersected and diverged for women in various historical and global locations? How have women in these different positions theorized and represented the relationship between sex, gender, and power? This course provides an opportunity to explore diverse--and often competing--accounts of feminism within a transnational and cross-cultural framework.

3. FEMINIST THOUGHT • The course, which interweaves theoretical texts with fiction, poetry, and autobiography, as well as visual sources, reflects the interdisciplinary production of feminist thought internationally, and allows us to interrogate the processes through which “theory” is made and disseminated.

4. Student Learning Goals • To recognize feminist theory as an evolving dialogue between diverse constituencies • To become more conversant with the potential of technology in the feminist classroom • To increase women’s familiarity with the uses of technology in feminist scholarship

5. Student Learning Goals • To gain an understanding of knowledge as culturally and historically constructed • To facilitate students’ self-understanding as both consumers and producers of knowledge

6. Assignment • “Wikipedia is an encyclopedia written collaboratively by its readers. Your goal is to contribute to this collective construction of knowledge by developing a new entry, or adding new material to an existing entry, of approximately two paragraphs concerning feminist activism, feminist theory, or the history of feminism(s).”

8. Why the Wikipedia? •  Multilingual, web-based free-content encyclopedia generated by the public • Radically democratic approach to the production of knowledge

9. Instructions

11. Instructions • Red hyperlinks indicate entries that do not yet have contributors. You may either research and write an article for one of the existing red hyperlink, edit an existing entry by contributing new material, or generate an entirely new entry • When you have decided what topic you wish to write about, go to the following page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:Starting­_a_new_pagea new page which provides all the technical information that you need to start a new page. • Follow the procedures on “How to write a great article” at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Hw to write a great article. • Use at least three legitimate scholarly sources (from peer-reviewed journals or recently-published scholarly books, and cite them in the article. It is essential to cite your sources (follow directions in Wikipedia) and to avoid plagiarism. Remember that your work will be widely available to others.

13. Instructions • As the Wikipedia staff suggests: “One way to get a good article is to bounce it back and forth between several Wikipedians. Use the Talk pages to refine the topic, desk for their confirmations, note their doubts: it is usually interesting to discover that, perhaps from the other side of the planet, after a while, some other contributors can check other sources, or propose different interpretations. • If you run into any technical problems, you can always post a question on the help line (do not post your email address), to Wikipedia:helpdesk.

14. EXAMPLES OF STUDENT WORK • Mixtec Transnational Communities • Mitsuye Yamada

15. ASSESSMENT • 1. How would you characterize your degree of familiarity with the Wikipedia prior to this class? • 70% “unfamiliar” or had heard of it but seldom used it • 2. Did completion of the Wikipedia assignment in WMST 590 make you more likely to use technology (such as Wikipedia) in the future? • 77% “more likely” or “much more likely”

16. ASSESSMENT • 1. Did the Wikipedia assignment advance your knowledge of feminist thought? • 57% “definitely” • 2. Did the assignment advance your understanding of knowledge as socially and historically constructed (evolving over time, and produced by a range of individuals)? • 62% “somewhat” or “in significant ways” • 3. Did it further promote your sense of self as a producer of knowledge? • 50% “in significant ways” • 93% “somewhat” and “insignificant ways”

17. Student Narratives: Challenges • Time investment for students and faculty; • Students less familiar with technology may encounter difficulties; • Stress due to global access

18. STUDENT NARRATIVES • “I'm not sure if I would post again without having info critiqued and edited first by an expert. It is a huge responsibility to put your info and credibility on the line--online. Empowering in some ways (had never even thought that I could contribute to such a medium) but definitely scary and humbling at the same time. In the end, I thought it was one of the most interesting assignments I'd ever had.”

19. STUDENT NARRATIVES • “The assignment was very informative as it forced me to actually use the entire site and it was great to be able to contribute to the information. Before the assignment I didn't even now it was out there. Now, I have another scholarly source available for my use by others of my peer group and people all over the globe. This relates to feminism and people as global and multifaceted not singular.”

20. Student Narratives • “It made me more aware of how technology and the collective knowledge of people from around the world, can really be useful in obtaining information from all perspectives.”

22. Theorizing Intersecting Identities Performance piece, short story, photomontage, poetry, music, or web based project that represents a creative response to the question: If female identities and structures of domination are not singular, but plural, how might one conceptualize feminist community?

23. Theorizing Intersecting Identities This project must be accompanied by a annotated bibliography of at least five feminist theorists/artists/writers who work in your chosen genre, and a short analytical essay explaining your own strategies of representation and analysis. Intersecting Identities Research Project: Student Website