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The Native American Literature Symposium has agreed to host a wikithon to improve Wikipedia's coverage of Native American literatures and Indigenous literary topics. Delegates will be trained in the basics of wiki-editing, invited to create their own article or improve existing ones, and given a presentation on using Wiki-editing tasks as a way to engage students in the classroom. |
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What: Wikithon, Native American Literature Symposium [1] When: Thursday, March 12, 2015, 10:30 am-1:15pm Where: Isleta Resort What to bring: Your laptop and power adapter if you are interested in participating in the editathon. If you are willing to help others edit on their laptops, we just need you! Focus: Improving and significantly expanding Wikipedia's coverage of Native American literatures. Refreshments will be provided!
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If you plan on attending, please see above and also add yourself to this list.
Our primary aim at this meeting is to improve Wikipedia's coverage of American Indian literatures in English, making use of the extensive knowledge and research skills of the delegates at the 2015 Native American Literature Symposium. Our secondary aim is to encourage educators to use Wikipedia editing as a tool in education, getting students to participate in knowledge production and increase the visibility of Indigenous literary topics.
Many articles in this area have come under attack in the past due in particular to Wikipedia's notability guidelines, so we would ask that new editors apply the following criteria:
1) You should cite more than one example of the author/book/topic being discussed in an independent, reliable source (academic journal, monograph, newspaper article, etc)
2) You need to demonstrate in your article the clear reasons why the author or book merits coverage in an encyclopedia (awards, influence on other writers, media coverage, academic discussion).
Most importantly, this project will be best helped by editors who maintain a neutral, dispassionate tone and point of view in their writing (see WP:NPOV).
One of the best biographical articles on a Native American person can be found at Jim Thorpe. This was selected as a "featured article", meaning that Wikipedia editors considered it gold standard. In a short session like today's this would be an impossible standard to reach, but it exemplifies what we're aiming for. Full list of featured articles here.
Indigenous articles that have been rated "Good" include Greenlandic language and Kechewaishke. Again, this is an aspiration. Full list here.
The highest rated article I can find on an American Indian or First Nations literary topic are those on Louise Erdrich and Leslie Marmon Silko. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian is also coming up to being an excellent article. reliable sources
It would be good to aim at producing a decent-quality "Start-Class" article. This means an article that is short, but meets the requirement of cited sources that demonstrate the article's notability and verify that the topic exists and is discussed in other published works. Start-class articles include Heid E. Erdrich, Luci Tapahonso, William S. Yellow Robe, Jr. and Eric Gansworth (the bulk of Eric's article I produced in about the time available for this session). Book articles in this category include The Way to Rainy Mountain, Shell Shaker, Indian Killer, Pushing the Bear, or The Life and Adventures of Joaquín Murieta.
I ask students, in the latter half of a 15-week class on Native lit, to create entries for authors not already represented on Wikipedia. The whole process takes about 6 weeks, as follows:
(a) a short paragraph of author bio [minimally, what s/he writes and has published]; (b) short paragraph on the author's tribal nation [geographic location? size, history? does the author live in the community, or elsewhere?]. (c) list at least five reliable sources
In Weeks 5 and 6 students continue to expand, refine and edit their articles in conversation with their authors or a tribal historian and each other. For more on this assignment, see my essay, "Indigenizing Wikipedia: Student Accountability to Native American Authors on the World's Largest Encyclopedia" in _Web Writing: Why and How for Liberal Arts Teaching_, ed. Jack Dougherty (U of Michigan Publishing).
If you are going to write a biography article for a writer, please copy the Template:Infobox writer onto the page, filling in all possible fields and deleting the rest (all fields are explained at Template:Infobox writer).
Of course, every article is in need of improvement to some degree - these are just some examples. You can find biographies of all writers who currently have articles on Wikipedia by going to the List of writers from peoples indigenous to the Americas.
Use Template:Infobox_book for these articles.
Please note that I have alternated the use of "Native American" and "First Nations" in some of these article titles, simply because it's exhausting typing each one out over and over again. These topics are only suggestions, so you can create an article with any title.
Please note that there are quite specific guidelines for whether academics merit their own Wikipedia pages. These are explained at some length at WP:PROF. Your article needs to demonstrate why the person you have chosen is generally considered to have made a significant impact on their field.