The gender gap on Wikipedia extends across subjects and biographies to its contributors themselves – a gap that individuals, organized groups of editors, and organizations like Wiki Education are tackling head on.

In celebration of Women’s History Month, I had the pleasure of bringing together four scholars from across the country to explore the ongoing efforts to close the gender gap on Wikipedia. As part of Wiki Education’s monthly Speaker Series, the event “Persistence & Progress: Confronting Wikipedia’s gender imbalance” sparked meaningful dialogue between the panelists and our global audience.

Despite the ongoing and concentrated efforts of individuals and organizations alike, why do these gaps continue? One key reason is the precarity of labor as it relates to who contributes to Wikipedia, explained panelist Kira Wisniewski, Executive Director of Art + Feminism.

“It’s truly incredible that Wikipedia is the effort of millions of volunteers, but who actually has the ability to volunteer?” asked Wisniewski. “[For example], there have been many studies about how women, and particularly women of color, have been disproportionately affected by COVID. When you think of the factors of who is even able to volunteer, it helps reveal more answers on how these gaps appear and persist.”

Information activism and the work to support new editors is more important now than ever, emphasized Wisniewski: “What do people edit about? They edit about things they know…so that’s why working with students and getting people editing is so important.”

And there’s no doubt that professors like panelist Caroline Smith and her students are making significant progress in filling these gaps. Through their Wikipedia assignments, Smith’s students have collectively contributed 100,000 words to Wikipedia – and their work has been viewed more than 8 million times!

From the first time Smith incorporated the assignment into her Communicating Feminism course at The George Washington University, she noted how the coursework on Wikipedia resonated with her class. When her students looked for gender gaps in the online encyclopedia, they were surprised by just how much was missing – and that surprise created a sense of urgency to improve it, Smith observed.

“[They] found it so interesting and rewarding, and I think it spoke to some of the historical issues we were discussing throughout the semester in a really real, tangible way,” said Smith, who shows her students Wikipedia articles about their own institution to highlight gender gaps. “They were shocked to find that the amount of space devoted to the [Women’s Leadership] program is much less than some of the other things that happen on George Washington’s campus. Students see that and realize, even in this space I’m occupying right now, we’re seeing these imbalances.”

Like Smith, panelist Siobahn Day Grady also teaches with Wikipedia with free support from Wiki Education, empowering her students to add notable women and other historically excluded figures to the encyclopedia. Initially unsure about bringing a Wikipedia assignment into her course, Grady ultimately found the experience rewarding, just like her students.

“There are so many times when people don’t even recognize that they are worthy to have a Wikipedia article, that their contributions matter,” said Grady, a professor at North Carolina Central University. “I really take these moments as pure joy to celebrate the achievements of women doing amazing things that may not have an opportunity to have their work shared, if not through this work that we do with Wiki Education.”

Panelist Whitney James enrolled in a Wiki Education editing course in summer 2024 to learn how to contribute to Wikipedia herself, then incorporated Wikipedia assignments into her first-year writing courses. 

But the University of Notre Dame professor didn’t stop there – she joined two more of our editing courses to improve Wikipedia’s coverage of women herself. As a new editor, James worked to improve existing content and created new Wikipedia articles for notable women including investor Tracy Gray and corporate sustainability expert Esther An.

“I feel like this work has a low barrier for entry and a really high impact,” said James. “It’s also very rewarding for me personally, which is an important self-care thing to think about. This is a really important space right now, and I’m happy to be part of it.”

As we wrapped up the discussion, I asked the panelists if they had advice for anyone who found our conversation interesting and liked the idea of a more inclusive Wikipedia, but didn’t feel like their individual efforts could make a difference on closing the gender gap. Smith kicked us off with a simple answer and a laugh.

“I would just say, no, that’s wrong,” said Smith. “Every voice matters and can make a difference. Maybe that’s oversimplifying, but I feel like it takes a lot of little movements to create broader change.”

Catch up on our Speaker Series on our YouTube channel and join us for our next webinar on Tuesday, April 22!

En “abling” Change: How Wiki Education is tackling disability on Wikipedia

Tuesday, April 22, 2025
11 am Pacific /  2 pm Eastern
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Interested in incorporating a Wikipedia assignment into your course? Visit teach.wikiedu.org to learn more about the free resources, digital tools, and staff support that Wiki Education offers to postsecondary instructors in the United States and Canada. 

Visit learn.wikiedu.org to explore our editing courses for subject matter experts.

Connect with Art + Feminism at artandfeminism.org.

Joined virtually by attendees from across the globe, our panelists explored how the public and healthcare professionals alike turn to Wikipedia for reliable information, the impact of Wikipedia content on patient-physician communications, and the critical need for ongoing improvement of healthcare topics on the encyclopedia.

Whether our search for information is sparked by something we read in a book, watch on the news, or learn from a medical diagnosis, Wikipedia is the first stop we make online, emphasized panelist Maureen Richards, assistant professor and assistant dean at University of Illinois College of Medicine.

“Patients get a diagnosis, they receive a test result, and they Google it,” explained Richards. “If they have been using Wikipedia in all other facets of their life…they’re going to click on it and believe what it says – which means that those of us who have had the opportunity to study [healthcare] have a responsibility to ensure that information on Wikipedia is accurate and well-founded in scientific research.”

Richards, who first incorporated a Wikipedia assignment into her courses in 2020, noted her appreciation for how the project provides her medical students with the opportunity to practice the language of research and to learn how to synthesize primary literature for a greater audience. 

Like Richards, professor Amin Azzam assigns coursework on Wikipedia to his own medical students. Azzam underscores the critical, real-world nature of the work to his classes by encouraging them to explore the readership trend on any health-related Wikipedia article.

“When you look at article traffic statistics, there’s always a five peaks and two valleys pattern that reoccurs,” noted Azzam, who challenges his students to explain this pattern. “It’s weekdays and weekends, because exactly as Maureen said, people get diagnoses, and then they go home and read about them on Wikipedia. It really is incumbent upon us to make it as accurate as possible.”

Lending her perspective as a new Wikipedia editor herself, physician and policy researcher Gabriela Alvarado echoed the assertions made by her fellow panelists. As Alvarado explained, the platform’s accessible nature is a significant draw for those seeking answers to healthcare questions. She noted Wikipedia’s understandable language, clear visual formatting, and of course, one very simple but powerful characteristic of accessibility – it’s free to read.

“My family members will search for something and a paywall comes up on a journal,” shared Alvarado, who participated in a Wiki Scientists course focused on improving reproductive and women’s healthcare content. “The average person who isn’t affiliated with a school library can’t pay $50 for each academic journal they want to read. It’s a recurring conversation that academics have with themselves – are we screaming into this echo chamber? Why are we doing the work that we’re doing, who’s actually reading it, and who are we serving with our research?”

Just like Alvarado, health researcher Izidora Skracic was compelled to join the Wiki Scientists editing course to help improve public access to critical healthcare information. While Alvarado created a new Wikipedia article on breastmilk storage and handling, Skracic lent her efforts to enhancing high-traffic articles including Unintended pregnancy, Intrauterine device, and Contraceptive implant.

When asked for her best advice for new editors, Skracic recommended newcomers start small and work their way up to large-scale editing.

“In order to start, pick one sentence somewhere on any Wikipedia article that you’re reading, and just say, I’m going to make this sentence better – whether that means adding a citation, adding a second part of a sentence, or just adding more updated information,” said Skracic. “And as you build confidence, go bigger.”

Catch up on our Speaker Series on our YouTube channel, including “The Experts Behind the Edits: Expanding public understanding of healthcare,” and join us for our next webinar tomorrow, February 18!

Beyond the Classroom: Student editors improve Wikipedia
Tuesday, February 18 (10 am PST / 1 pm EST)
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Interested in incorporating a Wikipedia assignment into your course? Visit teach.wikiedu.org to learn more about the free resources, digital tools, and staff support that Wiki Education offers to postsecondary instructors in the United States and Canada. 

Even if you haven’t yet taught with a Wikipedia assignment, enrolled in a Wiki Scholars & Scientists editing course, or engaged with other efforts to improve the world’s go-to online encyclopedia, Wikipedia’s persisting gender gap probably comes as no surprise to you – a gap that extends from its content across disciplines to its content contributors themselves. Over the years, Wiki Education’s programs and resources have empowered academics, students, and subject matter experts to move the needle on this imbalance, and today we’re reflecting on just a snapshot of their work to expand the coverage of women in science.

One of the most straightforward and impactful ways to enhance Wikipedia’s coverage of underrepresented notable figures is to create new biographies for those who lack their own articles or to improve existing biographies. And year after year, professors like Glenn Dolphin at the University of Calgary empower their students to do just this.

Last term, Dolphin incorporated his eighth Wikipedia assignment into his annual Introduction to Geology course, charging his students with the mission of creating new Wikipedia articles and improving existing content about famous women geologists and other underrepresented people in the field. In his most recent course alone, Dolphin’s students improved or created articles for 37 women scientists, including geologist, politician, and diplomat Judi Wakhungu and micropaleontologist Helen Jeanne Skewes Plummer. Over the years since he first taught with Wikipedia, Dolphin’s students have added more than 350K words and 3,330 references to Wikipedia, creating content that has been viewed 2.63 million times.

Unlike Dolphin, biologist Emily Sylwestrak at the University of Oregon was new to incorporating the Wikipedia assignment into her pedagogy last term, but she too tasked her students with the mission to create new biographies of women in the sciences. Thanks to the efforts of Sylwestrak’s class, we can now learn about prominent female figures in fields such as marine biology (Natalya Gallo, Ana K. Spalding) and chemistry (Sibrina Collins, Cynthia Chapple).

And as Wiki Education’s curriculum emphasizes, improving representation is not just about creating articles or adding new sections to existing articles. By citing more sources authored by female scientists, taking a critical eye to the weight of existing sections, adding links to other related articles, and considering the role of images on Wikipedia, editors can also make significant impact on this topic area through smaller edits.

While Wiki Education supports hundreds of faculty each term to assign their students Wikipedia coursework, faculty and other subject area experts across the world also enroll in our professional development courses to improve content through their own contributions. 

Thanks to support from the American Physical Society, we’ve offered 10 courses since 2019 to teach scientists how to add their expertise to Wikipedia, many of whom have focused their efforts on enhancing the coverage of women in sciences. 

Prior to the work of the course participants, prominent female scientists including Leticia del Rosario, the first Puerto Rican woman to earn a PhD in physics, and Silke Bühler-Paschen, a solid-state physicist, were absent from Wikipedia, and the content of others with existing articles was limited. Throughout the courses, participants transformed Wikipedia’s existing coverage of figures like chemist Ka Yee Christina Lee, materials scientist Julia R. Greer, and astronomical sciences professor Gillian Knapp, and so many others, expanding the world’s understanding of women’s contributions to the sciences.

Today, we celebrate the efforts of all who have worked to improve representation of women in science  – and all who will read their stories on Wikipedia and be inspired to follow their own professional dreams. 

Visit teach.wikiedu.org to learn more about the free resources, digital tools, and staff support that Wiki Education offers to postsecondary instructors in the United States and Canada.

But is that content on Wikipedia up to date with the current medical understanding of a topic? The answer is a solid “maybe”. That’s why Wiki Education works with a variety of organizations in the medical space to ensure Wikipedia’s coverage of medicine is as high quality as possible.

One such initiative we’ve been running for the last two years focuses on ensuring Wikipedia articles have patient-centered outcomes at their forefront. When a medical practitioner has a number of options for treatment, it’s important for patients, caregivers, and the clinicians themselves to base their treatments on research to be the most effective for patients. The gold standard for citing medical information on Wikipedia is Systematic Reviews. They look at a corpus of primary research studies on a particular topic and the consensus among a variety of studies, rather than relying on a one-off study whose findings may not be replicable.

The Patient-Centered Research Outcomes Institute (PCORI) is one publisher of systematic reviews in the medical field, with reviews addressing important topics like infantile epilepsy, cervical ripening, atrial fibrillation & stroke prevention, and early rheumatoid arthritis, among others. Over the last two years, thanks to a project funded by PCORI, Wiki Education has added information from these high-quality systematic reviews to Wikipedia.

We’ve taken a two-pronged approach: In our Wikipedia Student Program, we’ve empowered health professions instructors to assign their students to improve Wikipedia’s coverage of medical topics as a class assignment, including at institutions such as the University of Central Florida School of Medicine or Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. In our Wiki Scientists Program, we’ve engaged subject matter experts to directly improve content, running four six-week courses on how to edit Wikipedia.

Through both programs, we improved more than 40 medical articles on Wikipedia, adding critical information about patient-centered outcomes. Since our program participants added this information, these articles have been viewed more than 11 million times, demonstrating the power of Wikipedia as a vehicle for information dissemination. This better information helps patients, caregivers, clinicians, policymakers, and other important stakeholders have access to patient-centered outcomes research.

While our current two-year project with PCORI is wrapping up, we will continue to support health professions instructors who are interested in supporting students to improve Wikipedia’s coverage of medical topics. We encourage any interested instructor to visit teach.wikiedu.org to learn more.

Wiki Education expresses its thanks for the support of the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI), Eugene Washington PCORI Engagement Award (EADI #26698).

Wiki Scholars courses like Elections and Campaigning in the United States, Women and Politics in the US, and State Politics and Policy have brought together subject matter experts to learn to edit Wikipedia, tackling misinformation and filling in the content gaps on election-related content. 

Course participants improved the encyclopedia’s coverage of electoral processes, proposed local laws, US political parties, voting behavior and participation, candidates for office, and other topics related to the election, making an incredible impact on the public’s understanding of these topics. Their work on Wikipedia has been viewed nearly 28 million times!

For Libby Newman, associate professor and chair of the Department of Government, Politics and Law at Rider University, the professional development course also offered an opportunity to better understand the editing process on Wikipedia.

“I came away with much more confidence in Wikipedia as a source, and I feel empowered to add content myself now, too,” said Newman.

From candidate biographies and historical events to voter access and voting behavior, participants contributed to a diverse range of topics to create new, neutral content to help inform voting decisions. 

Particularly interested in voter access, one participant created several new Wikipedia articles including Homeless vote in United States, United States non-resident eligible voters, and Pitt v. Black, a 1984 legal case that established that Americans living in non-conventional accommodations cannot be refused the right to register to vote.

“My community service with homeless people sparked the interest in creating an article about the homeless vote in the United States, which consequently led to the creation of the Pitts v. Black article, a landmark case that allowed Americans to cast their ballot even if they reside on a park bench,” explained the participant.

This editor also enhanced articles like Voter registration in the United States, Absentee ballot, and Election law, adding more than 50 new references and nearly 4,000 words through their work on Wikipedia.

Without a doubt, Wikipedia’s role as a neutral and high-quality public knowledge source is more critical than ever during election years, providing nonpartisan information to voters as they wade through the never-ending landscape of bias and misinformation online. As course participant Dale McGowan of the Center for Election Innovation & Research shared with us, the heart of Wikipedia is democracy – the democratization of knowledge for all.

Interested in learning more about our election courses and the subject matter experts who participated? Explore their stories:

• Scholar, writer joins efforts to democratize knowledge on Wikipedia
• Connecting the past and present: Political scientist brings expertise to Wikipedia during election year

Want to learn how to add your own expertise to Wikipedia? Explore Wiki Education’s upcoming courses for subject-area experts.

Looking to empower your students by incorporating a Wikipedia assignment into your course? Visit teach.wikiedu.org to learn more about the free resources, digital tools, and staff support that Wiki Education offers to postsecondary instructors in the United States and Canada. Apply by December 1, 2024 for priority consideration for spring 2025.

This summer, McGowan enrolled in an eight-week Wiki Scholars election course to bring his professional experiences and personal passion for accessible, nonpartisan information to Wikipedia. Throughout the course, he and his classmates worked to improve content related to candidates, voting behavior and participation, proposed laws, political parties, and other topics relevant to U.S. elections.

“I’ve had to develop both a knowledge base and the ability to find answers to what I don’t know so I can accurately represent the complex collision of politics, culture, and law in that sphere,” said McGowan of his work at Center for Election Innovation & Research, which helped build his confidence to edit Wikipedia articles with high readership.

When reflecting on his motivation to join the course, his answer was simple.

“Wikipedia is one of the greatest contributions to global civilization, period,” said McGowan. “A chance to develop greater skills as an editor was unmissable.”

During the course, McGowan created a new Wikipedia article for an event that had a profound effect on him years ago – the memorial event that followed the death of Minnesota U.S. Senator Paul Wellstone in a plane crash in 2002, just 11 days before he was to stand for re-election.

“That memorial, as much as the crash, changed the course of the election and impacted national politics in several ways,” said McGowan. “I was geekily delighted when the article was assessed as B-class.”

And McGowan’s editing momentum on Wikipedia only grew stronger after the final meeting of his Wiki Scholars course. 

Since the end of the course, McGowan has improved articles focused on state elections, including Mississippi, Alabama, and New Hampshire, and added several new paragraphs to the early voting article. His contributions to the article’s lead section help readers understand how early voting over the course of several days can lead to a smoother election process than when voters cast their ballots on a single day.

While at first intimidated by the prospect of changing information on articles, particularly those with millions of monthly page views, McGowan’s editing jitters have subsided over time.

“I’ve added substantial content around early voting, voter registration methods, mail voting, the Freedom of Information Act, election security, voter-verified paper ballots, and more,” said McGowan. “I’ve looked at historical page view data, and many of these pages balloon 50-200 times in views shortly before an election. It’s gratifying to get accurate and current information where people can find it.”

Editing Wikipedia has become a significant and fulfilling part of his daily work, McGowan explained. 

“For much of history, so much knowledge has been the purview of the privileged elite,” he noted. “It is terrifically rewarding to participate in the democratization of knowledge that is the heart of the Wikipedia project.”

McGowan encourages other subject matter experts to engage with Wikipedia, emphasizing the incredible reach of Wikipedia.

“Wikipedia is the most commonly-accessed source of knowledge on Earth,” explained McGowan. “It is the first result in almost every online search. There is no greater way to disseminate accurate knowledge of your field than by improving related content on Wikipedia.”

And fortunately for us all, McGowan looks forward to sharing his knowledge with Wikipedia long term.

“I’ve wondered for years how I might stay involved in the life of the mind when I retire in a few years,” said McGowan. “Now I know!”

Interested in learning how to add your own expertise to Wikipedia? Explore Wiki Education’s upcoming courses for subject-area experts.

Looking to empower your students by incorporating a Wikipedia assignment into your course? Visit teach.wikiedu.org to learn more about the free resources, digital tools, and staff support that Wiki Education offers to postsecondary instructors in the United States and Canada. Apply by December 1, 2024 for priority consideration for spring 2025.

Liebell’s scholarship lies at the intersection of history, politics, law, and philosophy – areas that have sharpened her keen eye for identifying gaps in the information available to the public. 

“I had noticed things that were missing on Wikipedia, for example the article on women’s suffrage does not include important material on the contributions of women of color, but I was afraid of the practical, technical side of editing,” said Liebell, a political science professor at Saint Joseph’s University in Philadelphia. “I really did not think it would be so easy – and that was the best part of the course.”

Expressing her gratitude to the Wiki Scholars course, Liebell now compares the simplicity of editing Wikipedia to the ease of sending a text message.

“I learned that it only takes a few minutes to add or correct something – and you don’t need to be a tech genius,” explained Liebell.

From information about Supreme Court cases to 17th century feminist thinkers, Liebell made widespread improvements to Wikipedia across a variety of political science topics, following her interests, areas of expertise, and available resources – and even tackled the example her instructor shared to underscore how some critically important articles can still need serious help: the Comstock Act of 1873 article.

“I had made a very long list of possible articles to work on, but when I saw that the Comstock article was a strange mix of long quotes and did not connect with 21st century politics, I thought it was an easy way to contribute,” said Liebell, noting her excitement to lend her expertise to the article. “I knew a lot about 19th century attitudes towards women in the law and I understood that Comstock was a ‘zombie’ law that some people hoped could criminalize abortion and birth control.”

Just as she approaches her own scholarship, Liebell’s work on Wikipedia often bridges historical context with contemporary life, a link she forged during the course to enhance relevant and critical content for U.S. voters.

“My work is very theoretical and historical – but I always try to connect what I know about the 17th and 18th century to what is happening in today’s world,” noted Liebell, who added information about relevant court cases to several articles, including Mifepristone and Bump stock. 

Throughout the course, Liebell also enhanced articles covering legislature (Married Women’s Property Acts in the United States), court cases (Garland v. Cargill), and political figures (Lilly Goren). 

“We need all types of people to add what they know about the world,” emphasized Liebell, encouraging other scholars to learn to edit Wikipedia. “I have continued to edit because people who have access to ‘behind-the-paywall’ resources need to share with those who do not. As a university professor, I have access to databases (so I can easily find a quote or a photo out of copyright) and I’ve spent almost 40 years learning to research.”

Liebell continues to draw real-world connections between her experience in the course, her ongoing work to improve election-related content on Wikipedia, and current events.

“As part of our [Wiki Scholars] class, we looked at the number of people who read articles,” said Liebell. “During the Democratic National Convention, one of the speakers mentioned Comstock (because Project 2025 recommends using Comstock to make mailing abortion related material illegal). Because of the course, I know that people will look up terms they don’t know – and it is absolutely true!”

When considering the challenges of her editing experience, Liebell noted the conflicts that can arise between editors when they disagree about exactly what content should be included in an article.

“I saw that Wikipedia is only as good as the editors and we needed more editors to be involved,” Liebell reflected. “Democracy is great until you have two people who disagree and no neutral umpire!” 

Motivated by the satisfying moments when she can leverage her expertise and resources to benefit others, Liebell continues to fight misinformation by improving Wikipedia.

“It feels very good to add specific material that is time consuming and tricky to find,” said Liebell. “For example, I read that the Comstock Act was mentioned in Project 2025 but I could not find it when I scanned the 900+ page document. Project 2024 refers to the law but never uses the term. But I read the sections on abortion and added the page reference to the Wikipedia article. That felt good!”

Liebell encourages other scholars to join her in editing Wikipedia, underscoring her hope that academic associations establish a way to credit this impactful knowledge equity work.

Interested in learning how to add your own expertise to Wikipedia? Explore Wiki Education’s upcoming courses for subject-area experts.

Looking to empower your students by incorporating a Wikipedia assignment into your course? Visit teach.wikiedu.org to learn more about the free resources, digital tools, and staff support that Wiki Education offers to postsecondary instructors in the United States and Canada. Apply by December 1, 2024 for priority consideration for spring 2025.

In August, five scholars from across the country gathered virtually to share their efforts to enhance this critical access by improving election-related content on Wikipedia. Drawing from their experiences as participants of our Wiki Scholars election courses, the panelists reflected on their work to combat misinformation and bridge information gaps on Wikipedia.

The Wiki Education Speaker Series event, “Wikipedia & Politics: Improving articles for a more informed public,” brought together an audience of faculty, students, scholars, and community members from around the world. The discussion explored themes including public access and understanding of election information, the civic duty to share expertise with others, and the rewarding and challenging task of editing political content on Wikipedia.

Prior to starting his PhD at Rutgers University, panelist Anderson De Andrade taught public school. During the discussion, he drew parallels between his approach to teaching and his work on Wikipedia, including the importance of maintaining neutrality and awareness of his own biases.

“As I was going through this [course] thinking about knowledge creation itself…it’s just so complex and so tricky,” said De Andrade. “It has to be done in this kind of democratic process, where you have different people all editing the same piece to create a more fluid and more objective kind of piece.”

Panelist Muhammad Hassan Bin Afzal, visiting professor in the Department of Political Science and Public Service at the University of Tennessee-Chattanooga, underscored his appreciation of Wikipedia’s ability to keep up with an ever-changing political landscape.

“The beauty of Wikipedia is that it’s an iterative document,” explained Afzal. “As a researcher, it takes time to edit and publish something. I really appreciate Wikipedia – if something suddenly changes, it can be very difficult for academic journals to update and inform the public accurately, but Wikipedia has more scope to fill that gap.”

Panelist Tasha Bergson-Michelson, instructional and programming librarian for Castilleja School, stressed the power of Wikipedia as a constructor of authority, particularly in topics of critical social importance like election content.

“[Wikipedia] creates authority for people who should have it and aren’t necessarily granted it,” said Bergson-Michelson. “And I think we grow in ourselves when we edit and learn about new parts of the world we don’t know about, new people we don’t know about.”

Hillel Gray, recently retired from Miami University of Ohio, also highlighted the opportunities for both personal and professional growth when editing Wikipedia.

“You learn a lot about yourself,” said Gray. “You can be an introvert in certain respects, and then you can find yourself in Wikipedia feeling freeform.”

Both Gray and Bergson-Michelson emphasized the public impact scholars can make by bringing information out from behind paywalls to share with all through Wikipedia.

“We have access to really high-quality sources and all sorts of knowledge,” said Gray, noting the breadth of research and academic publications available through institutional credentials. “Just putting these sources into Wikipedia will start to improve the media literacy of people who visit Wikipedia.”

While each panelist shared several key takeaways from their experience improving election-related content on Wikipedia, Yao Yao of the University of Georgia offered one simple yet impactful piece of advice:

“Don’t be afraid of editing Wikipedia,” said Yao. “Everyone can contribute their knowledge and expertise, or even simply update an article when there’s new data, and everyone will benefit.”

Catch up on our Speaker Series on YouTube, including “Wikipedia & Politics: Improving articles for a more informed public,” and join us for our next program this Wednesday: 

Wikipedia & Social Justice: How students are enhancing representation and equity

Wednesday, September 25 at 10 am Pacific / 1 pm Eastern

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Interested in learning how to add your own expertise to Wikipedia? Explore Wiki Education’s upcoming courses for subject-area experts.

“It feels like where theory means practice in a really powerful way for students,” said panelist Dean Allbritton, who teaches with the Wikipedia assignment at Colby College. “[My students] are saying, I’m not just researching or understanding the plight or the lives of LGBTQ people throughout the world, but I’m actually making the invisible feel visible in a way that they feel personally and ethically edified by. And it’s just beautiful.”

The associate professor of Spanish enjoys the pivotal moment where the assignment “clicks” for his students – at the beginning, students often tell Allbritton that they’ve been taught to mistrust information on Wikipedia, but when they understand the need to cite all added content, their perceptions change.

“I just love that moment of discovery for them of what Wikipedia can do, and what it can offer particularly to groups that have been underrepresented throughout history,” emphasized Allbritton, reflecting on the Wikipedia assignment’s role in his course “Queer Spain”. “They learn a different, fact-based style of writing, research skills…and all of this is available through the Wiki Education program, which is incredible.”

Panelist Juana Maria Rodriguez, professor of Ethnic Studies at UC Berkeley, echoed Allbritton’s experience in empowering students to add LGBTQ+ content to Wikipedia as part of their coursework. Students quickly realize they are writing for a global audience and can’t simply jump to analysis without substantive research to support their edits, she explained. 

“It actually gives [my students] a sense of the incredible resources they have,” said Rodriguez, noting their access to information held behind paywalls. “That sense of reaching out, speaking to the world, is really impactful for them. Some have taken that extra step to translate pages, coming from their own desire to make this information more widely available.”

The panel also featured the perspective of historian Dan Royles, who traded his usual role of professor to become a student himself in a 2022 Wiki Scholars course focused on enhancing LGBTQ+ histories and content on Wikipedia. 

Drawing from his deep expertise and research for his book To Make the Wounded Whole: The African American Struggle for HIV/AIDS, Royles completely transformed the Wikipedia article on American AIDS activist Reggie Williams, expanding the brief text by adding nearly 3,000 words and 20 references.

Royles explained that just like students, he developed an appreciation for the rigor required to significantly improve a Wikipedia article. As part of his edits to Williams’ article, Royles added the names of William’s notable collaborators to encourage future additions on Wikipedia of their own impactful histories.

“The kind of iterative nature of Wikipedia, where our work is the groundwork for the work other people do later, is really valuable,” said Royles.

Margaret Galvan, Speaker Series panelist and assistant professor of Visual Rhetoric at the University of Florida, has taught with Wikipedia for several years, primarily in her course “Queer Comics”. 

“Wiki Education’s platform makes it really easy to teach with Wikipedia,” said Galvan. “They have modules where students learn about Wikipedia throughout the semester that you can adapt to your course.”

Galvan encouraged fellow faculty to teach with Wikipedia, underscoring the opportunity to engage students in critical discussions on topics including the idea of notability, particularly when editing content about underrepresented people or subjects. 

Catch up on our Speaker Series on YouTube, including “Who is preserving LGBTQ+ history?”, and explore recaps of our most recent programs on our blog:

• Wikipedia and education, globally 
• Wikipedia can shape the world, not just reflect it

Interested in incorporating a Wikipedia assignment into your course? Visit teach.wikiedu.org to learn more about the free resources, digital tools, and staff support that Wiki Education provides to instructors in the United States and Canada.