Wikipedia:Wiki Ed/University of Pennsylvania/Women Making History -- The Penn Museum and the Centennial 2020 (Spring 2020)

The year 2020 marks the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which declared that the right of citizens to vote “shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex”. To mark this centennial – to both celebrate it and critically assess its impact on American society – we will investigate the history of women at the Penn Museum as archaeologists, ethnographers, epigraphers, philanthropists, and more. At the same time, we will examine material in the Penn Museum that women collected, donated, or studied. Our goal will be to produce scholarship, based on original research, for broader public forums.

Sponsored primarily by the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, our seminar will focus heavily on western Asia, southeastern Europe, and North Africa – all zones that scholars have variously associated with the Near East or Middle East, and where the Penn Museum has been active since its foundation in 1887. To situate the Penn Museum and its collections within a global and comparative frame, we will also study select women who made major scholarly contributions to other parts of the world such as the Americas. Among the figures we will study are Sarah Yorke Stevenson (Egypt), Katharine Woolley (Mesopotamia [Iraq]), Harriet Boyd Hawes (Ottoman Crete and Greece), Florence Shotridge (Alaska), Zelia Nuttall (Mexico and Russia), and Tatiana Proskouriakoff (Guatemala).

We will venture into many different kinds of history. In regional terms, our scope will be transnational and international: we will cover the United States and the Middle East in the wider world. In thematic and methodological terms, we will approach our subject through biography, oral history, and microhistory; material history and museum studies; cultural and intellectual history; women’s and gender studies; and the history of academic disciplines, especially archaeology and anthropology.

All assignments in this class work towards the goal of producing public-facing scholarship. Drawing on the museum’s collections, archives, and library holdings, we will conduct research to write biographical studies modeled on articles that have appeared in the museum’s Expedition magazine. We will also craft Instagram posts featuring museum objects, and develop material for oral presentation in the museum galleries. To reach readers living far beyond the Penn campus and Philadelphia, we will write and edit course-related articles for Wikipedia, learning from tutorials provided by the non-profit Wiki Education foundation.

Week 2
Discussion: Which women scholars and philanthropists of the Penn Museum appear in Wikipedia? Who is missing? What can we do to fill in the gaps?

Welcome to your Wikipedia assignment's course timeline. This page guides you through the steps you'll need to complete for your Wikipedia assignment, with links to training modules and your classmates' work spaces.

Your course has been assigned a Wikipedia Expert. You can reach them through the Get Help button at the top of this page.

Resources:


 * Editing Wikipedia, pages 1–5
 * Evaluating Wikipedia

Create an account and join this course page, using the enrollment link your instructor sent you. (Because of Wikipedia's technical restraints, you may receive a message that you cannot create an account. To resolve this, please try again off campus or the next day.)

This week, everyone should have a Wikipedia account.

Week 4
Biographies

History

Women's Studies

Week 5
We will assemble source materials and begin to draft an article in class, as a team.

Week 6
Resource: Editing Wikipedia, pages 7–9

Everyone has begun writing their article drafts.

Week 7
Guiding framework

Every student has finished reviewing their assigned articles, making sure that every article has been reviewed.

Week 8
We will assemble source materials and begin to draft, in class, as a team.

You probably have some feedback from other students and possibly other Wikipedians. Consider their suggestions, decide whether it makes your work more accurate and complete, and edit your draft to make those changes.

Resources:


 * Editing Wikipedia, pages 12 and 14
 * Reach out to your Wikipedia Expert if you have any questions.

Week 9
We will discuss, in class, how we can add coverage about Zelia Nuttall's Russian Expedition to her biography.

Now that you've improved your draft based on others' feedback, it's time to move your work live - to the &quot;mainspace.&quot;

Resource: Editing Wikipedia, page 13

Week 10
Now's the time to revisit your text and refine your work. You may do more research and find missing information; rewrite the lead section to represent all major points; reorganize the text to communicate the information better; or add images and other media.

Week 11
Continue to expand and improve your work, and format your article to match Wikipedia's tone and standards. Remember to contact your Wikipedia Expert at any time if you need further help!

Week 12
It's the final week to develop your article.


 * Read Editing Wikipedia page 15 to review a final check-list before completing your assignment.
 * Don't forget that you can ask for help from your Wikipedia Expert at any time!

Write a paper going beyond your Wikipedia article to advance your own ideas, arguments, and original research about your topic.

Week 13
Everyone should have finished all of the work they'll do on Wikipedia, and be ready for grading.