Submissions:2014/Bridging conversations with the Humanities

Title of the submission

Themes (Proposal Themes - Community, Tech, Outreach, GLAM, Education)

Type of submission

Presentation(20-30 minutes)/Open Conversation (20-40 minutes)

Author of the submission

Alex Stinson

E-mail address

sadads[a]gmail.com

Username

Sadads

US state or country of origin

United States

Affiliation, if any (organization, company etc.)

Kansas State University

Personal homepage or blog

http://alexstinson.wordpress.com/

Abstract (at least 300 words to describe your proposal)

The humanities are increasingly relying on digital spaces to interact with the public through the w:en:digital humanities, and one of the largest impact spaces for that interaction is Wikipedia. However, despite calls by scholars for deliberate academic curation of humanities content, like that by digital humanist and American historian Roy Rozenwig, there has been very little active participation from English speaking humanists in Wikimedia projects. Unlike other academic fields which rely on more scientific methods that require analysis and digitally oriented development, and thus often use digital methods, most traditionally trained humanists do not have strong digital literacy skills. Moreover, digital humanities scholars who do have those skills and have tried to apply them to Wikipedia, often turn towards analyzing individual Wikipedia articles or creating reference sources distinct from Wikipedia, rather then actively shaping the community's presentation of their field of knowledge. In my talk I will first posit some of the reasons for the gap in humanist contributions, and propose ways that the community can alter some of its methodology developed in the GLAM-Wiki community and Education Program to actively involve Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects in humanities and digital humanities conversations. This talk builds on my research with w:en:User:Wadewitz on the place of historiography within Wikipedia (paper soon to be published), as well as the various outreach activities I have completed in both the Education Program and GLAM-Wiki community, in project like w:en:WP:Blake. Following the talk, I will facilitate an open conversations where we address and reflect on various other methods for building humanities conversations, including encouraging active research around humanities topics on Wikipedia, structuring Wikipedia Education assignments around humanist goals, and providing greater fit within the digital humanities.

Length of presentation/talk (see Presentation Types for lengths of different presentation types)

I could foresee the combination of presentation and facilitated talk taking as much as 60-70 minutes or as little as 40. If need be, the open conversation on how the humanities could be better integrated into the larger outreach conversation, I would be interested in doing an un-conference event on the Sunday instead.

Will you attend WikiConference USA if your submission is not accepted?

If I get a scholarship.

Slides or further information (optional)

Special request as to time of presentations

Interested attendees

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