BU Faculty Contribute to International Wikipedia Edit-a-thon

Cell phone with image of wikipedia

Contributed by Malavika Shetty, CAS Writing Program/College of General Studies

Faculty from the Writing Program, along with BU libraries on the Charles River campus, and the Alumni Medical Library, and colleagues from the University of Southern California and the American University of Beirut, organized an across-time-zones Wikipedia Edit-a-thon on Feb 16, 2024. On the BU campus, the event was organized by Abir Ward and Malavika Shetty (lecturers in the Writing Program), Rachel Dwyer (Assistant Head, African Studies Library,) and A’Llyn Ettien (Head of Resource Sharing and Discovery, Alumni Medical Library). 

To bridge the well-documented gender gap on Wikipedia, librarians, students, and faculty from these three institutions came together to add articles about women in STEM around the world. The edit-a-thon was held to commemorate the International Day of Women and Girls in Science. The event began in Beirut and ended in California with participants joining remotely from their respective institutions; on-campus sites hosted editors in person. The contributions made to pages related to Women in Science can be seen on the event dashboard.