Grants:Programs/Wikimedia Research Fund/Women’s History on Lusophone Wikipedia: Mapping Gender, Race, and Sexuality Gaps Towards Knowledge Equity

statusnot funded
Women’s History on Lusophone Wikipedia: Mapping Gender, Race, and Sexuality Gaps Towards Knowledge Equity
start and end datesJuly 2023 - July 2024
budget (USD)40,250 USD
fiscal year2022-23
applicant(s)• Elisa Garcia

Overview edit

Applicant(s)

Elisa Garcia

Affiliation or grant type

Fluminense Federal University

Author(s)

Elisa Garcia

Wikimedia username(s)

Elisa Garcia: User: ElisaFGarcia

Project title

Women’s History on Lusophone Wikipedia: Mapping Gender, Race, and Sexuality Gaps Towards Knowledge Equity

Research proposal edit

Description edit

Description of the proposed project, including aims and approach. Be sure to clearly state the problem, why it is important, why previous approaches (if any) have been insufficient, and your methods to address it.

The project aims to map History-related biographies of women on Lusophone Wikipedia, in observance of the DEI Research on Brazil. The mapping consists of a quali-quantitative exploratory research: the preliminary listing of existing entries, in order to conduct case studies. The selection of the cases will consider people and communities historically marginalized within Women’s History, examining the intersection of Gender, Race, Ethnicity, Sexuality and/or Geography content representation gaps. The analysis will include the dynamics of knowledge inclusion and exclusion around sample articles, i.e., their history of creation, construction, and (attempts of) deletion, as well as its relation to pertinent Wiki Projects. Considering intersectionality, the research aims not only to provide an unprecedented view of pt.wikipedia’s knowledge gaps, but also an in-depth analysis.

Past and present Native American women are underrepresented on the Lusophone Wikipedia. The assessment builds on my two-year experience at a Wiki Lab, where I taught and edited with undergraduate students. My experience indicates how, regarding Indigenous women, there’s a latent male-bias on the rare entries; and a persistent gatekeeping targeting the recently created ones. Additionally, only a few of these articles are mentioned in the general History articles, conveying a silencing of the little information available. Besides that, they are commonly formatted by colonial and patriarchal perspectives, e.g., the practice of silencing the women’s names while emphasizing on their relation with men. Furthermore, their trajectories tend to be considered not relevant enough by the reviewers editors, who rely on unreliable guidelines to nominate articles for deletion.

The aforementioned barriers and misrepresentations targeting Native American women seem to be similar to those of African background. The case of Marielle Franco’s article is representative of the structural gatekeeping of women’s biographies on pt.wikipedia, which appears to be particularly more incident on non-white, non-straight, global southerners figures. The research will provide reliable data on the matter.

The project will reach for cooperation with Lusophone Wikimedia user groups committed to Knowledge Equity. Moreover, will develop a community engagement’s risk management framework in order to secure the project’s activities in a fruitful manner.

Personnel edit

  • I am considering to invite the following personnel as advisors:
  • Flavia Florentino Varella, Ph.D. in History, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul; History associate professor at Santa Catarina Federal University, and coordinator of the Wiki Project Mais Teoria na História (More Theory of History on Wiki). She will advise on general terms of the theory of History regarding the studied entries.
  • Stephanie Santos, Ph.D. in Social Sciences, Campinas State University; member of InternetLab; She will advise on general terms of knowledge equity on the internet.
  • Diana Santos Souza, MS.c in History, Bahia Federal University; member of Rede de Historiadorxs Negrxs (Black Historians Research Group) and partner with Wiki Movimento Brazil in a GLAM initiative. She will advise on the Black Women’s History entries.
  • They are concurrently experienced wikimedian. I didn’t provide their usernames because I’m still in the process of inviting them.
  • I will invite the following data analyst to work on the project:
  • Érika Suca Guetti, MS.c in Computer Science, São Paulo University; indigenous women, and member of Wiki Movimento Brazil user group;
  • I am are already in collaboration with the wikimedian volunteer:
  • Andressa Inácio de Oliveira, MS.c in History, Federal Fluminense University; member of Wiki Movimento Brasil and WikiMulheres+ user groups; former community liaison for the Wikimedia Foundation; who will work as a voluntary wikimedian-in-residence for the project. Edits under the username CalliandraDysantha.

Budget edit

Approximate amount requested in USD.

40,250 USD

Budget Description

Briefly describe what you expect to spend money on (specific budgets and details are not necessary at this time).

Salary or Stipend (Project Coordinator, 1 PhD Student, and 1 Master Student): $24,000

Honorarium Entries Reviewers: $2,000

Honorarium Data Analysis: $1,000

Seminar and Workshops logistic: $2,000

Travel Expenses $2,000

Equipment $3,000

Software $1,000

Institutional Overhead $5,250

Impact edit

Address the impact and relevance to the Wikimedia projects, including the degree to which the research will address the 2030 Wikimedia Strategic Direction and/or support the work of Wikimedia user groups, affiliates, and developer communities. If your work relates to knowledge gaps, please directly relate it to the knowledge gaps taxonomy.

The DEI Research concluded that Brazilian Women, Black people, and LGBT community feel underrepresented on Wikipedia, a site they mostly use to consume content on History. Content inclusion initiatives (e.g. +Teoria na História and Mulheres a vermelho) attend to the Knowledge Equity strategic direction, but face on-ground gatekeeping (and thus emotional labor) around identified Topics for Impact. The research will identify the effects and mitigations of these groups’ misrepresentation, as well as the policies that hinder knowledge equity. One analytical focal point will be the notability criteria usage regarding the studied historical characters, people marked by intersectionality. The identification of such matter can guide future actions.

Dissemination edit

Plans for dissemination.

-Outreach of Lusophone Wikimedia user groups;

  • On-wiki announcements of the research activities, development and results in pt.wikipedia, meta.wiki, and especially at the pt.wikiversity;
  • In-person seminar (workshops and roundtable) at Fluminense Federal University’s History Department, aiming to present the research’s preliminary results and engage more professors and students in editing Wikipedia;
  • Scholarly Publication (academic article) summarizing the results;
  • Final report on Meta-wiki.

Past Contributions edit

Prior contributions to related academic and/or research projects and/or the Wikimedia and free culture communities. If you do not have prior experience, please explain your planned contributions.

I am a scholar with a long trajectory of researching and teaching gender and race issues. I have been a professor at Fluminense Federal University since 2009, with many sojourns in Europe and the USA. Two years ago, I started editing the Lusophone Wikipedia together with my undergraduate students, after we realized how difficult it was to find reliable information there. During this experience, I managed to engage students and also some colleagues on the potential of the use of Wikipedia in undergraduate class. They were excited, turning themselves from a user to an editor and realizing how Wikipedia can be an important tool for educators in Brazil. I believe this funding can help me to multiply the benefits of this project.


I agree to license the information I entered in this form excluding the pronouns, countries of residence, and email addresses under the terms of Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0. I understand that the decision to fund this Research Fund application, the application itself along with all the information entered by my in this form excluding the pronouns, country of residences, and email addresses of the personnel will be published on Wikimedia Foundation Funds pages on Meta-Wiki and will be made available to the public in perpetuity. To make the results of your research actionable and reusable by the Wikimedia volunteer communities, affiliates and Foundation, I agree that any output of my research will comply with the WMF Open Access Policy. I also confirm that I have read the privacy statement and agree to abide by the WMF Friendly Space Policy and Universal Code of Conduct.

Yes