Wikipedia and the Feminist Production of Knowledge

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Wikipedia and the Feminist Production of Knowledge

• Womens Studies 590
• Feminist Thought

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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.

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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.

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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 womens familiarity with the uses of
  technology in feminist scholarship

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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

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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).

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Why the Wikipedia?

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

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Instructions
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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/HelpStarting_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.

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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 Wikipediahelpdesk.

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EXAMPLES OF STUDENT WORK

• Mixtec Transnational Communities
• Mitsuye Yamada

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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

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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

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Student Narratives Challenges

• Time investment for students and faculty
• Students less familiar with technology may
  encounter difficulties
• Stress due to global access

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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?

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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