FAQ Wikipedia Artist Research Project

This assignment will be challenging because often BIPOC women visual artists do not receive much attention. And younger artists, much less. Remember your activist research is about finding as much as you can using the resources you have (your research skills and university libraries). 

It's ok to select another artist as long as they are female Chicana/x Latina/x preferably U.S. visual artist with no Wikipedia Article who has not already been selected by a classmate. If you decide to change, contact TA to make that change on Wikipedia 2021 page on blog.

Wikipedia articles need to have the following:

Neutrality • No Copyright Infringement and No Plagiarism • Written from a reliable source, but in your own words • Reliable sources are print sources with facts, not opinions etc. • Examples of reliable sources: books, exhibition catalogues, academic journals, and internationally recognized newspapers 

Artist Websites: Can be used to lead you to original reliable sources. Artists will often include a resume or CV or list printed reviews or interviews. Artists Websites may include other informations such as where they have exhibited and what museums have collected their work.

Directly from Wikipedia:

Wikipedia is "an encyclopedia, a place where you can go to find a good summary of what is already known about a topic."

"Anything you add to an article should be based on a published source of information, and you should always cite that information... That means citing published, authoritative sources that people trust."

Do not engage in "edit war" with a Wikipedia editor. None of your work is ever lost. All edits are viewable in Edit History tab.

Avoid plagiarism and copyright infringement. Follow this YouTube link to see how.

https://youtu.be/KbI1rqRVq7c

Link to our Wikipedia Assignment

Click on our course Wikipedia Assignment, where you will be prompted to create a User Account.

https://dashboard.wikiedu.org/courses/University_of_California,_Los_Angeles/Chicana_Latina_Art_and_Artists_(Fall_2021)?enroll=srdxtlhk

Then, it's time to create your Wikipedia user account. Each individual student editor must have their own account in order to access our class Wikipedia Assignment page. Review text and video below before creating your own account.

• Take a moment to look at Wikipedia's username policy and consider how anonymous you would like to be on Wikipedia. You need not use your real name, although many Wikipedians choose to do so. Keep in mind that your username must not imply shared usage of your account, appear to be promotional, register as the name of a company, group, institution or product, impersonate other people, or be likely to offend, and, once chosen, cannot be easily changed.
• When you've chosen a username, click "Create account" at the top right and follow the instructions.
• Adding an email address to your account is strongly recommended; this allows you to send and receive emails with other editors. (Your email address is not revealed when other users contact you.) You can also receive email notifications whenever pages you are interested in get changed, if you wish. And if you forget your Wikipedia password, you can have it emailed to you — but only if you add your email address to your account!

Week 2 Post Name of your Selected Artist

Monday, October 4: Blog Post 2: On the Title line, write the name of artist who is your first selection for your Wikipedia Project. In body of post, list in order of preference at least 2 other artists you would select if your first selection has already been chosen by a classmate. One artist per student. First student to post on artist, selects artist. If another student has already written a post on that artist, then select another. Throughout quarter, you will add Bibliography and Wikipedia Article Draft. 

Lopez, Alma (Prof Lopez)

My name is Alma Lopez. I am a visual artist and the professor of this Chicana/x Latina/x Art & Artists course offered by UCLA's Cesar E. Chaves Department of Chicanx and  Central American Studies (cross listed with Art and WL Arts). My preferred pronouns are she/her, and I prefer to be addressed as Professor Lopez. Teaching this course allows me to share with you great Chicana/x Latina/x artists as well as be introduced to new artists through student presentations.

I am a Mexican-born Queer Chicana visual artist. I think of myself as a visual storyteller. Using digital media, as well as painting, photography, public art and silkscreen, I take culturally familiar icons and filter them through my own feminist lesbian lens. The result is something that may look vaguely culturally familiar to some but totally different and sometimes even controversial to others.

The purpose of this blog is to serve as additional discussion space. Class lecture time affords us a limited time for discussion. Therefore, it is important to have a space to stay connected to the course material throughout the quarter. On this blog via short posts, each of us will be able to continue discussions on art, artists, reading materials, and our activist Wikipedia research project. Posts are due every week on or before noon on Mondays.

Since this Fall quarter starts on Thursday, September 23, please make every effort to post your introductory post on/before noon Wednesday, September 22. That way, if you have any issues with Blogger, we can figure out the issues within the first few weeks of class.

After accepting Blogger invitation, write a new post. Below is the New Post writing area. 

1. Title your posts every week. For the first post title as follows: Last Name, First Name (preferred Name). Email me at alma@ucla.edu to let me know if names on title or label are different from class roster/gradebook so that you receive credit for your posts.

2. Label every post! Create label as follows: 2021FLastNameFirstName. Use same label every week. Email me at alma@ucla.edu if you are using a different name than on class roster/gradebook.

3. Write approximately a 300 word post (this post is almost 500 words). This first post is your introduction to our class. Therefore, introduce yourself (name, preferred name and pronoun, program, research interest, interest in course, etc), include a photo of yourself, and any thoughts or questions on the readings. Double check your spelling and grammar.

4. When you have titled your post, written your post, included a photo, and labeled, then click orange "Publish" button in order to submit your post to the blog. See sample post below.

Please see video below to learn/review on how to accept Blogger invitation and post your first blog. The video was made for another class (Art on Trial: Art Censorship) but blogging basics are the same.