The Hypatia Trust's Wikipedia Women's Project
The Hypatia Trust, with support from Wikimedia UK, is developing a project to rebalance the gender bias of the English-language Wikipedia.[1] By targeting existing and creating new articles on the lives and achievements of women who have originated in Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly, or who have lived and worked in the region, the project will increase and improve the quality of articles on Cornish women.
Dr Tehmina Goskar has been appointed as the Hypatia Trust's first Wikimedian In Residence. She will lead the project from September 2016 to March 2017, and will recruit and coordinate a small network of researchers with the primary aim of writing and editing biographical articles on women in Cornwall and Scilly for the English-language Wikipedia.
This project page will document the progress of the project, provide a place for discussion, and to provide news about forthcoming events related to the projects, such as editathons. If you are interested in getting involved in Wikimedia events organised at the Hypatia Trust, or in contributing to this project, please contact the Wikimedian-in-Residence.
Background
About the Hypatia Trust
The Hypatia Trust is a UK-registered charity based in Penzance, Cornwall (reg. 1060663).[2]. Its stated charitable activities are: “to advance the education of the public by maintaining, developing, protecting and making available to the public the Hypatia Library, focusing on literary, artistic and scientific works of women, with emphasis on public service and cultural appreciation. Based in Penzance, Cornwall with international connection to the USA, Germany, Australasia and Africa.” Inspired by the philosopher and mathematician, Hypatia of Alexandria, Dr. Melissa Hardie-Budden MBE founded the Hypatia Trust in 1996. In practice the Hypatia Trust operates as a loose collective of individuals with a common ideal and common aim: to promote and raise the profile of women and women’s works in their communities.
The Hypatia Trust’s principal activities have focused on establishing a distributed library consisting mainly of books but also including some archives and artworks. The guiding principle behind this distributed library is to facilitate public access to knowledge by and about women on a wide variety of subjects and geographical foci. Together with collecting, the Hypatia Trust has led or supported various projects and series of educational programmes, including public engagement community events on women’s heritage (History 51), creative writing online and exhibitions on women.
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