Template:Did you know nominations/Ros Pesman


 * The following is an archived discussion of the DYK nomination of the article below. Please do not modify this page. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as |this nomination's talk page, the article's talk page or Wikipedia talk:Did you know), unless there is consensus to re-open the discussion at this page. No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was: promoted by Fuebaey (talk) 23:27, 17 December 2014 (UTC)

Ros Pesman

 * ... that Ros Pesman was the first female Challis Professor of History at the University of Sydney?
 * Reviewed: Roger Wilbraham (MP)

Created by Whiteghost.ink (talk), M.O.X (talk). Nominated by Whiteghost.ink (talk) at 05:20, 10 November 2014 (UTC).


 * Symbol question.svg Long enough and nominated just in time. Article is free from obvious bias, disputes or tags. The hook, however, does not have an inline citation. One of your two source in the lead only confirms she was the "first female chair of the academic board at the University of Sydney" . The PDF, as far as I can tell, just confirms her appointed position - no mention that she was the first. This source used elsewhere in the article confirms she "was appointed to the Challis Chair in History", but makes no mention of her being the first either. Add a reliable source that confirms she was the "first female Challis Professor of History at the University of Sydney" and add it as an inline citation at the appropriate place in the article, or reword the hook to instead say she was the "first female chair of the academic board at the University of Sydney", as this is backed up. Freikorp (talk) 12:12, 9 December 2014 (UTC)
 * FYI: I'm in contact with two people from the University of Sydney administrative staff who are helping to identify a source for this factual claim. They have both immediately written back to me that they're working on it, but that still might be a day or two. Wittylama
 * No worries; thanks for letting me know. Freikorp (talk) 04:16, 10 December 2014 (UTC)
 * Hi Freikorp - we've had a response from the university. There is no official "list" of the different professors holding this position. However, we have heard from the official historians that the book (now cited as footnote number 3) does list the first few people who held this position - all of whom are men. So... rather than proving she is the first woman, instead we are able to prove that the predecessors were all men. A bit odd, but it works. We've also now listed the predecessors within the article itself. In the near future I'd like to try to create a WP List article about all the different Challis professors (not just history professors) which would make this debate here redundant. But, in the mean time I hope the new (offline) source will be sufficient. Sincerely, Wittylama 13:18, 15 December 2014 (UTC)
 * Symbol voting keep.svg Offline source accepted in good faith. The list is not ideal, but it'll do. I moved the reference so it specifically backs up the hook. It would be a good idea to provide a page number(s) for the offline book, showing whereabouts in it this assertion is supported by the list of her predecessors, though i'm happy for this to pass now. Freikorp (talk) 03:56, 16 December 2014 (UTC)