Adrianne Wadewitz

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Adrianne Wadewitz (2012)

Adrianne Wadewitz (born January 6, 1977 in Omaha , Nebraska , USA ; † April 8, 2014 in Palm Springs , California ) was an American feminist literary scholar with a focus on English literature of the 18th century. She also worked as an influential Wikipedian, wrote hundreds of biographies about important authors and scholars since 2004 and commented on Wikipedia , especially on the gender gap . In April 2014, Wadewitz died while rock climbing . In her honor, the American Society of Eighteenth-Century Studies (ASECS) conducts international edit-a-thons , which continue Adrianne Wadewitz's work.

Life

The Editing Wikipedia brochure with Wadewitz as the face of Wikipedia

Wadewitz was born in 1977 in Omaha as the only child of the nurse and lawyer Betty M. and the Lutheran pastor Nathan R. Wadewitz. In 1995 she graduated from high school in the small town of North Platte , also in Nebraska. Wadewitz studied English and received an English diploma from Columbia University in 1999 . In 2011 she obtained a Ph.D. from Indiana University and became a postdoctoral fellow at the Center for Digital Learning and Research at Occidental College . She received a Mellon Digital Postdoctoral Fellowship and was recognized as a HASTAC Scholar ("HASTAC Scholar") by the HASTAC (Humanities, Arts, Science and Technology Alliance and Collaboratory) scholar network.

Academic career

education

Wadewitz graduated with a Bachelor of Arts from Columbia University with the distinction Magna cum laude . Her master's degree and later a doctorate in English literature with a minor in studies of the 18th century it received at the Indiana University . Her master's thesis from 2003 was entitled Doubting Thomas: The Failure of Religious Appropriation in The Age of Reason, her dissertation from 2011 was Spare the Sympathy, Spoil the Child: Sensibility, Selfhood, and the Maturing Reader, 1775-1815.

Her dissertation combined her research interests in archive work, children's literature and gender studies . Wadewitz researched the use of language and discursive strategies such as the embedded narratives in children's books by Mary Wollstonecraft , Anna Laetitia Barbauld , Charlotte Smith , Maria Edgeworth and other authors. She argued that this reading should help the child develop a “sympathetic self” that should be “collective, benevolent, and imaginative”. She also argued that the types of subjectivity found in children's literature of the late eighteenth century challenged the "prevailing Lockean model." They rely on “Rousseau's theory of upbringing and the discourse of sensitivity to construct a 'benevolent self'. [...] Both genders and children could use this 'benevolent self'. Unlike other forms of self that were based on sensitivity, it was not based on femininity. Moreover, maturity did not depend on age, but on one's own state of mind; any person formed through this sympathetic literature could become an adult and part of civil society, for example by doing charitable acts. ”She also examined the influence that“ childhood reading on reading the adult novels of Jane Austen In doing so, she found that “contemporary Austen readers read their novels 'didactically' and followed the structure of children's reading they grew up with. They didn't notice the irony we appreciate today. "

Digital humanities

In 2009, Wadewitz began putting the historic New England Primer primer online. Until 2013, the text and the comments were consistently available on the Internet.

She published literature on children's literature of the 18th century, on the ambiguity in historiography and on the use of Wikipedia in university teaching.

In the latter case, she wanted students to acquire media and technology skills in addition to traditional writing and research skills. In reflecting on the construction of knowledge, she emphasized the need to evaluate sources, distinguish between facts and opinions, and pay attention to authority and legitimacy. She advocated curricula that included collaborative writing in a "community of practice" and for a global readership.

Use for Wikipedia

Wadewitz in the video The Impact of Wikipedia

Wadewitz made her first Wikipedia entry in 2004. As a result, she published articles on women writers and scientists, many of which were recognized as excellent in the English Wikipedia. She edited anonymously for years before revealing her gender. In total, she made almost 50,000 edits.

Wadewitz was one of the main promoters of the request that more women write down Wikipedia to help end the systemic bias . She said, “We need more female writers, more feminists (they can be writers of any gender), and more writers involved in content about women. The group most underrepresented in Wikipedia are married women of color with children. "

She was increasingly seen as an authority in the Wikipedia community. She was quoted by media such as the BBC in particular on the gender issues of the encyclopedia .

Wadewitz was on the board of the Wiki Education Foundation.

Climb

Wadewitz liked to go climbing in the mountains. In 2013, she described this hobby as something that allowed her to be a different person than just the piano-playing bookworm who's co-writing Wikipedia.

death

A digital honor for Adrianne Wadewitz at Occidental College

On April 8, 2014, Wadewitz died of head injuries sustained a week earlier when she fell while rock climbing in Joshua Tree National Park . Sue Gardner , the then managing director of the Wikimedia Foundation , described Wadewitz's death as a "huge loss" and mentioned that she was arguably the greatest article author on women’s history.

Obituaries have appeared in the New York Times , Los Angeles Times , Washington Post , Sydney Morning Herald, and Corriere della Sera , among others . The Sydney Morning Herald  also republished one of her recent blog posts on how dealing with a difficult activity enabled her to help students with their troubles. You should celebrate small successes on the way to the goal. On the other hand, there is nothing more helpful than failing repeatedly. Your students should realize that failure is part of learning and they shouldn't be ashamed of it. The magazine ABO , for which Wadewitz worked from 2011 to 2012, dedicated the March 2014 issue to Wadewitz.

Works

Web links

Commons : Adrianne Wadewitz  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Jennie Batchelor, Gillian Dow (Eds.): Women's Writing, 1660-1830. Feminisms and Futures , Palgrave Macmillan UK, London 2016, ISBN 978-1-137-54382-0 , p. 12
  2. ↑ Elaine Woo: Adrianne Wadewitz dies at 37; helped diversify Wikipedia. In: Los Angeles Times . April 23, 2014, accessed March 8, 2017.
  3. ^ Diane Wetzel: North Platte grad, 37, Wikipedia editor, dies in climbing fall. ( Memento of April 27, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) In: Omaha World Herald. April 23, 2014.
  4. ↑ Noam Cohen: Adrianne Wadewitz, 37, Wikipedia Editor, Dies After Rock Climbing Fall. ( Memento from April 20, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) In: The New York Times . April 19, 2014, accessed March 8, 2017.
  5. ^ Cathy Davidson: Remembering Adrianne Wadewitz: Scholar, Communicator, Teacher, Leader. ( Memento from April 23, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) In: HASTAC. April 23, 2014, accessed March 8, 2017.
  6. ↑ Curriculum Vitae of Adrianne Wadewitz ( Memento from May 24, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) academia.edu, April 23, 2014, accessed on March 8, 2017.
  7. ^ Adrianne Wadewitz: 'Doubting Thomas': The Failure of Religious Appropriation in The Age of Reason. Indiana University , accessed March 8, 2017.
  8. ^ A b c Adrianne Wadewitz: Spare the Sympathy, Spoil the Child: Sensibility, Selfhood, and the Maturing Reader, 1775-1815. ProQuest Dissertations and Theses, Ann Arbor, MI.
  9. ↑ New England Primer .
  10. ↑ Selected Works of Adrianne Wadewitz. OxyScholar Digital Repository, Occidental College.
  11. ↑ a b Marta Serafini: Addio ad Adrianne Wadewitz, paladina delle donne su Wikipedia. ( Memento of April 27, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Corriere della Sera, April 21, 2014, accessed on March 8, 2017.
  12. ↑ Tracy Wholf: 'Wikipedian' editor took on website's gender gap. ( Memento from May 19, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) In: PBS NewsHour . May 18, 2014, accessed March 8, 2017.
  13. ↑ Virginia Heffernan: The Lives They Lived - Remembering some of those we lost this year. In: The New York Times. December 27, 2014, accessed March 8, 2017.
  14. ↑ Karishma Mehrotra: Universities 're-write' Wikipedia to fill holes, include women. ( Memento of April 21, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) In: USA Today . March 26, 2014, accessed March 8, 2017.
  15. ↑ Lynsea Garrison: How can Wikipedia woo women editors? ( Memento of May 23, 2014 on the Internet Archive ) In: BBC News Magazine. May 23, 2014, accessed March 8, 2017.
  16. ^ Adrianne Wadewitz: What I learned as the worst student in the class. ( Memento from April 25, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) In: HASTAC. August 12, 2013.
  17. ↑ Jennie Albrinck: Busy Weekend for Search and Rescue at Joshua Tree National Park ( April 24, 2014 memento in the Internet Archive ) Joshua Tree National Park, April 1, 2014, accessed March 8, 2017.
  18. ↑ Barrett Newkirk: Wikipedia editor Adrianne Wadewitz dies in Palm Springs ( Memento from April 19, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) In: The Desert Sun. April 18, 2014, accessed March 8, 2017.
  19. ↑ Elaine Woo: Adrianne Wadewitz, Wikipedia contributor, dies at 37 , The Washington Post, April 30, 2014, accessed March 8, 2017.
  20. ^ Noam Cohen: Adrianne Wadewitz: A persnickety, fact-obsessed Wikipedia editor ( Memento of May 24, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) In: The Sydney Morning Herald. May 25, 2014, accessed March 8, 2017.
  21. ↑ Adrianne Wadewitz: How Adrianne Wadewitz learned to embrace failure ( Memento of May 24, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) In: The Sydney Morning Herald . April 25, 2014, accessed March 8, 2017.
  22. ↑ Laura Runge: Adrianne Wadewitz, 1977-2014. SUBSCRIPTION: Interactive Journal for Women in the Arts, 1640-1830, ScholarCommons; University of South Florida .
personal data
SURNAME Wadewitz, Adrianne
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American feminist literary scholar
DATE OF BIRTH January 6, 1977
PLACE OF BIRTH Omaha , Nebraska , USA
DATE OF DEATH April 8, 2014
Place of death Palm Springs , California , USA