Savannah Cragin, CCCC Wikipedian-in-Residence

This session reports on 1) the work of the CCCC Wikipedia Initiative and WikiProject Writing and 2) the challenges of establishing pathways for academic contributors to Wikipedia. While there is powerful alignment in the educational missions of the Wikimedia Foundation with those of the academic humanities, skepticism and misunderstanding of Wikipedia persists among humanities scholars. WikiProject Writing is developing expert-focused resources and training to create pathways for academic contributors, supporting a culture of professional scholarly responsibility for public knowledge. However, barriers to academic contribution still persist, particularly through the inaccessibility of WikiProjects and creating sustained editing practices.

• Humanities scholars whose research and teaching focus on knowledge equity are uniquely positioned to contribute reliable content to vital, general interest articles and high-traffic, field-specific articles.
• Pathways for academic contributors to Wikipedia are critical to improving articles in need of expert attention.
• This work acts as a blueprint for the whole of the academic humanities. Moving forward, we need to focus on accessibility and curate more inclusive community.