Amanda Stojanov, M.F.A., assistant professor of digital media, recently presented her research paper “‘Not an Acceptable Source’: Wikipedia Edit-a-Thons and Higher Education” on Dec. 8. at the 2021 Art Association of Australia and New Zealand (AAANZ) conference. The conference, titled “IMPACT,” was held virtually at the University of Sydney. This was the first fully online conference in the association’s history. The University of Sydney is one of the top universities in Australia and is also ranked among the best universities in the world.
The conference describes its mission this year as exploring pressing questions of social justice and equity to a pandemic that has exposed our frailties and our connectedness, from the questioning of the very fundamentals of what we practice in universities, museums, and as visual artists or designers, to the crisis of artistic lives engendered by social and economic conditions. The conference explored these multiple local impacts alongside art and visual culture’s response to tremors and shocks across many other cultures and timespans.
Stojanov presented on the panel, “The Power & Privilege of Editing Wikipedia.” Her paper is an early study on the relationship of Wikipedia-edit-a-thons and media literacy in higher education.