Talk:Debora Shuger

Not notable?
I'm not really sure what the best course of action is, but the entire page reads somewhat like a personal webpage. It looks as if the primary contributor to this page is her domestic partner, Russ Abbot, under the name RussAbbott. Her inclusion elsewhere appears to be primarily in lists of 'famous' people from certain areas or institutions. Thoughts? I've left a note on RussAbbott's page. At the very least the article could use a significantly narrower focus. CDills 18:16, 22 October 2007 (UTC)

Re: Not notable?
I'm confused about what is needed. With regard to notability, being a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences should be notability all by itself. Furthermore the list of honors she has received (from reliable and independent sources) seems to me to satisfy the Wikipedia notability requirements. Finally, how can anyone who has published six books with reputable presses not be considered notable? Debora Shuger is not a household name, but she is a recognized world class scholar who has produced a world class record of scholarship. If that is not notability, it's difficult for me to understand what is.

On my User talk page, a note was left wondering if I have this page watched. It is watched, but I was never notified that this message was left. I've been told that Wikipedia has disabled email notification about watched pages. That seems to me to be a bad idea, significantly reducing the value of watching a page.

With regard to the page's focus, I copied the format from Stephen Greenblatt, another academic in the same general field.

-- RussAbbott 18:03, 27 October 2007 (UTC)

P.S. I would guess that Shuger is better known and more highly regarded by independent sources than most of the people in the categories in which she is included: Category:1953 births, Category:American literary critics, Category:Living people, Category:New Historicism, Category:University of California, Los Angeles faculty. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 130.221.224.7 (talk) 03:34, 9 November 2007 (UTC)


 * I removed the notability tag, as I'm not really sure what the guidelines are and probably shouldn't be the one making that determination. The main reason I thought something should be done is that it's clear you've put a lot of time, effort and love into this article, and it seems like there are details that aren't really appropriate to be included in Wikipedia.
 * I removed the notability tag, as I'm not really sure what the guidelines are and probably shouldn't be the one making that determination. The main reason I thought something should be done is that it's clear you've put a lot of time, effort and love into this article, and it seems like there are details that aren't really appropriate to be included in Wikipedia.


 * The family and general interest section contain a lot of information that while might provide insight into her life, aren't necessarily appropriate for an encyclopedia ("Her pet cat Blue, a rag doll, comes to her when she sings."). The section detailing her work is written from the viewpoint of someone who is clearly impressed by her work, but doesn't come off as being a very neutral "just the facts" summarization. Phrases like "Shuger’s previous book exploded the longstanding assumption" sound biased.


 * In general, a good deal of the text appears to be subjective or not verifiable, where Wikipedia is intended to be objective and verifiable. Just my opinion.  CDills (talk) 04:48, 9 November 2007 (UTC)


 * The comments on her work were written by Rob Watson, one of her colleagues. (See the history.) I don't know enough about the area to write about it. The stuff about the cat was just for fun. I felt ok about including it because similar light-hearted material was included on Stephen Greenblatt's page. RussAbbott 03:50, 12 November 2007 (UTC)

Yo, Russ!
Hello, Russ Abbott. The article needs references from newspaper articles and university websites, you know, third-party sources. Also, the links to outside websites, embedded in the text, need to come out, e.g. Scott Shuger linking to his webpage. Perhaps you can turn them into references. Thanks. --  Kenatipo   speak! 15:19, 5 November 2011 (UTC)


 * I found this article on a cleanup backlog. I moved the external links into references, deleting some of the links to personal pages. Hope this helps - I'm removing the linkrot tag. Some of the family info probably needs to be deleted. Kjtobo (talk) 16:01, 4 December 2013 (UTC)

Wikipedia Criteria for Notable Academics
To Whom It May Concern:

Professor Shuger meets at least two, if not three, of the eight criteria for notability as an academic. She is a distinguished professor by title, she has been elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and she has produced an important body of work that has made a significant contribution to her field. Thus, she has every right to a Wikipedia page.

Based on some conversations that I have had with Wikipedia editors, it would seem that Wikipedia editors are not qualified to judge who is notable in the academy. Thus we defer to the guidelines. Also, there is a dirth of entries on important humanities scholars (probably because editors like the aforementioned insist on deleting their pages because they are more familiar with mathematicians and computer scientists!)

Mrg 713 (talk) 18:06, 17 August 2013 (UTC)mrg_713

External links modified
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External links modified
Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just modified one external link on Debora Shuger. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20140912210148/http://www.gf.org/fellows/all?index=s&page=16 to http://www.gf.org/fellows/all?index=s&page=16

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