Northwestern Qatar students have provided additional content on Wikipedia to give voice to underrepresented people and topics from the Global South. In a class on intercultural and international communication, the students submitted and edited English-language entries on cultural, social, and political topics related to the Global South.
Northwestern Qatar Professor Banu Akdenizli teaches the course and said that the project is “an attempt to decolonize Wikipedia” by contributing content on regions that have historically suffered from a lack of representation in academia, media, and the online world.
“Not only are issues concerning the Global South not well addressed on Wikipedia, but they are also in need of improvement,” she said, stressing that Northwestern Qatar students are uniquely positioned to lead on efforts to introduce and translate content about the region as multi-lingual writers and researchers from the region.
From information about a local dialect in Western parts of Ukraine to Middle Eastern cuisines, students used their research and fact-checking skills to investigate existing entries about the region, synthesize the available literature, and use verified sources to add meaningful contributions to Wikipedia.
“For Northwestern Qatar student Evghenia Scripnic, the project was a chance to learn the historical roots of the Pokutia-Bukovyna dialect, which was spoken by her ancestors. Scripnic was surprised to find limited information about the dialect on the Wikipedia page, so she researched archives, pictures, and maps to find verified sources and peer-reviewed articles. ”
For Northwestern Qatar student Evghenia Scripnic, the project was a chance to learn the historical roots of the Pokutia-Bukovyna dialect, which was spoken by her ancestors. Scripnic was surprised to find limited information about the dialect on the Wikipedia page, so she researched archives, pictures, and maps to find verified sources and peer-reviewed articles.
After researching the language, she added content to the Wikipedia page that the language had “originated in Pokuttya and Bukovyna under the influence of the Romanian language.”
“I felt I needed to write about the Pokutia- Bukovyna dialect to give an insider perspective on cultural specificities of the region and because someone else from Russia could write about it from their perspective and ignore the voices of the dialect’s native speakers,” Evghenia Scripnic.
Mayassa Ghaddas, another student in the class, said that she was able to provide information on Palestinian culture that empowers alternative narratives to what she considers an ideological bias in Wikipedia’s English contributors, which favors the Israeli viewpoint.
Ghaddas’s contributions on Palestinian culture showcase elements of the Palestinian identity in the fields of art, literature, music, and cuisine, and looks at how it has been “influenced by the many diverse cultures and religions which have existed in historical Palestine, from the early Canaanite period onward.”
She pointed out that her use of a neutral tone and reliance on verified sources of information allowed her to challenge existing anti-Palestinian narratives and engage in fact-checking with other editors to ensure that the information provided is accurate and unbiased.
The students’ Wikipedia contributions were part of the WikiEducator’s initiative, a global initiative designed to promote cross-cultural collaboration and exchange of information and expertise.
