I’m reaching out to let you know about one of Wiki Education’s upcoming initiatives that we’re excited to share with our network! Starting in January, we’re running a series of virtual training courses to guide scholars through the process of improving at least one high-visibility Wikipedia article related to the 2024 US Election.
One of the foundations for a strong democracy is that the electorate has access to reliable information about elections, and we know people look to Wikipedia to guide them during election season. In fact, in 2020, Wikipedia’s article about the 2020 United States presidential election reached more than 25 million readers. In this program, participants will meet with our team of experts for 8 weeks, learning the ins and outs of adding academic content to Wikipedia with a built-in peer support system. Participants will work on topics related to policy and law, candidates or other relevant figures, environmental issues or any issue of interest to voters during this election, or topics related directly to campaigns and elections. We invite subject-matter experts to tell us how their area of focus belongs in Wikipedia and this initiative, and we hope to work with scholars across disciplines!
We have a number of courses open for registration, and I’d love to include women and gender studies scholars in the [free!] program to look at these topics related to policy and elections through an intersectional and critical lens. You may be especially interested in our course about women and politics in the United States, though I think your perspective is invaluable across these course topics.
I’m inviting you and/or your graduate students to sign up for one of these courses, and please feel free to forward to someone who may be interested in this type of professional development and service learning opportunity. Please reach out with any questions about the courses.
Hope you’ll consider joining us in this important work,
Jami Mathewson
Director of Partnerships
Wiki Education
jami