Event Information
Join us! We'll provide tutorials for beginners, reference books and materials, and snacks!
- Date: Thursday, April 18
- Time: 4:30-6pm
- Location: Room 113, Mary Church Terrell Main Library, Mudd Center
- Organizers: Oberlin College Classics Department, Oberlin College Libraries
- Who should attend: Anyone interested in increasing representation of female classicists of color on Wikipedia. Please ask your fellow attendees for their pronouns of choice!
- Hashtags: #WCCWiki
- What to bring: Your laptop, power cord, and ideas for entries that need updating or creation (we'll have desktop computers available for anyone who doesn't being a laptop)
- ALSO: Please take a moment to familiarize yourself with the Safe Space/Brave Space Policy
Thanks for joining us!
What is Classics+Women of Color?
Inspired by the Art+Feminism campaign, which works to improve the coverage of cis and transgender women, feminism, and the arts on Wikipedia, this event aims to increase the representation of women of color in Classical studies on Wikipedia. The event will focus on the first generation of women of color in the field, and especially those from Oberlin College, who studied and taught Latin, Greek, and the history of the Mediterranean world in the 19th century. Classics involves the study of a diverse set of cultures from over two thousand years of history. Today we are working to tell its stories more inclusively, and we can begin by looking at the history of the field itself, to the fore-mothers who paved the way. Help us to tell their stories and to improve the repository of common knowledge that is Wikipedia.
The Women's Classical Committee is also doing great work in this area.
Creating an Account
Advice on selecting your username: Though you can choose to use your real name, as some Wikipedia editors do, you can also choose a pseudonym–Wikipedia does not require one one or the other. If you're completing a course assignment, remember that your professor and classmates will likely see your username (and know whose it is). Furthermore, anyone can look at a Wikipedia article's edit history and see the username of anyone who has edited the article. Consider if you want a username that reflects your personal identity. Usernames that imply they are shared by multiple users are not recommended (e.g., GSFS101-ABC).
Want more advice? Wikipedia's Username Policy has guidance for new users on how to choose.
Using the Dashboard (Getting credit for participating at Oberlin)
The Oberlin College Classics+Women of Color 2019 Dashboard allows us to track our group contributions. All participants are requested to sign in before they begin editing. Note: students completing a course assignment are required to sign in--confirm with one of the organizers that you have successfully signed in so you can receive credit for your participation.
Articles to Work on
Oberlin Graduates
- Mary Church Terrell
- Ida Alexander Gibbs Hunt (Ida Gibbs)
- Anna Julia Haywood Cooper (Anna J. Cooper)
- Sarah Jane Woodson Early
Other Classicists of Color
- Frazelia Campbell (information on educational background needed)
- John Wesley Gilbert (information about publications needed)
- Helen Maria Chesnutt (information about publications needed)
Databases
- Rutgers Database of Classical Scholarsa multi-faceted database that aims to provide biographical and bibliographical information on classical scholars from the period associated with classical scholarship as currently understood, from the end of the eighteenth century and the publication of F.A. Wolf's Prolegomena zu Homer (1795) to the current day.
- Biography Reference Bank This link opens in a new window
Biographical information about over 500,000 people; includes images, full-text articles, and abstracts of biographical profiles, feature articles, interviews, essays, book reviews, performance reviews, speeches, and obituaries.
- Women and Social Movements in the United States 1600-2000 This link opens in a new window
Archival document collections covering women's activism throughout US history, including papers of prominent organizations and individuals.
- L' Année Philologique This link opens in a new window
Indexes articles in journals, books, and conference proceedings covering all aspects of classical studies. Historical coverage ranges from prehistory to the Middle Ages. Dates of Coverage: 1924 to date
Note: Only 2 simultaneous Oberlin users at one time. - Black Studies Center This link opens in a new window
Covers the Black experience from ancient Africa to the modern day from perspectives in history, literature, political science, sociology, philosophy, music, visual arts, and religion. Includes index to Black Literature (1827-1940), Black Studies Periodical Database, and the full text backfile (1910-2010) of the influential black newspaper The Chicago Defender.
- Academic Search Complete This link opens in a new window
Multidisciplinary - good for nearly all subjects. Scholarly and trade journals, popular magazines, newspapers, conference proceedings, book reviews, and more.
Summon
Search approximately 300 million books, scholarly articles, newspaper articles, data, digital audio, digital video, digital images, government documents and more. It draws from the library catalog (OBIS), many of the full text and article indexing databases, as well as digital repositories from colleges, universities, research centers, and other open-access archives on the web.
Reference Books
Black Foremothers by Call Number: Main Library E185.96.S75 1988ISBN: 0935312897Publication Date: 1993-01-01Three heroic women whose stories, in the words of Margaret Walker, "every woman, man, and child should know": Ellen Craft, the daring runaway Georgia slave who used her freedom to serve the cause of abolition; Ida B. Wells, the firebrand journalist whose crusade against lynching awakened the consciousness of a nation; and Mary Church Terrell, a gifted and untiring leader in the movement for suffrage, civil rights, and world peace. Through painstaking research, Sterling not only produces a fascinating account of three outstanding leaders; she also documents the role hitherto "faceless, nameless millions of African American women" have played in shaping our culture and history. Reflecting and connecting the historical struggle of the years 1826 through 1954,Black Foremothers will captivate and inspire readers, young and old.
Black Women in America by ISBN: 9780195156775Publication Date: 2005-05-19In three volumes, Black Women in America celebrates the remarkable achievements of black women throughout history, highlights their ongoing contributions in America today.
Classics and Feminism by Call Number: Main Library PA78.U6 M38 1997ISBN: 0805797572Publication Date: 1997-03-21The volumes in this series examine the impact of feminist advocacy, theory, and methodology on the humanities, social sciences and natural sciences.
A Colored Women in a White World by Call Number: Main Library E185.97.T47 A3 1996ISBN: 0783814216Publication Date: 1996-06-01
Constructing Black Education at Oberlin College by Call Number: Main Library LD4168 .B38 2010ISBN: 9780821418871Publication Date: 2010-01-15In 1835 Oberlin became the first institute of higher education to make a cause of racial egalitarianism when it decided to educate students "irrespective of color." Yet the visionary college's implementation of this admissions policy was uneven. Following the Reconstruction era, Oberlin College mirrored the rest of society as it reduced its commitment to black students by treating them as less than equals of their white counterparts. By the middle of the twentieth century, black and white student activists partially reclaimed the Oberlin legacy by refusing to be defined by race. Generations of Oberlin students, plus a minority of faculty and staff, rekindled the college's commitment to racial equality by 1970. In time, black separatism in its many forms replaced the integrationist ethic on campus as African Americans sought to chart their own destiny and advance curricular change.- From slavery to the Sorbonne and beyond : the life & writings of Anna J. Cooper byCall Number: Main Library E185.93.D6C664 1982Publication Date: 1982
Parallel Worlds by Call Number: Main Library E185.96 .A474 2010ISBN: 9780813928876Publication Date: 2010-03-04Ida advocated openly against race and gender inequities, and was a major participant in W. E. B. Du Bois's post-World-War I Pan-African Congresses which took her to stimulating European capitals that were largely free of racial oppression. In this, William and Ida's unique dual biography, Adele Logan Alexander gracefully traces an extraordinary partnership with a historian's skills and insights. She also presents a nuanced account of the complex impact of race in the early twentieth-century world.The Progress of Colored Women by
Publication Date: 1898
The Three Sarahs by Call Number: Main Library LC2801 .T57 1984ISBN: 0889465363Publication Date: 1984-08-01Including brief biographies together with papers written by six college-educated black women from the period before the American Civil War, three of whom were called Sarah, this volume provides primary evidence of education for black women in this period of American history.
A Voice from the South by Call Number: Art Library E185.6.C77 1969ISBN: 0837113849Publication Date: 1969-08-21At the close of the 19th century, a black woman of the South presents womanhood as a vital element in the regeneration and progress of her race.
