Women in Religion User Group/Women in Religion User Group Annual Report 2023

This is the annual report for the Women in Religion User Group. It details the activities of the group from 1 January to 31 December 2023.

This report is dedicated to Polly Hamlen, one of our founding members, who we unfortunately lost in December 2023.

User Group Women in Religion, originally a project of the Women's Caucus of the American Academy of Religion (AAR) and the Society of Biblical Literature, and an offshoot of the Women in Religion Wikiproject seeks to create, update, and improve Wikipedia articles pertaining to the lives of cis and transgender women scholars, activists, and practitioners in the world's religious, spiritual, and wisdom traditions. We seek to write women back into history, especially those who have made an impact in their faith and religious communities.

There are almost 8,200 articles and bios that have been categorized as under our purview. As of January 2024, we have created and improved over 300 articles and bios since WikiProject Women in Religion was created in 2018, including over 30 DYKs and 1 On this Day entry. The Wikiproject has also created working lists for both English Wikipedia and Wikidata.

Events

Monthly virtual edit-a-thons

Held on the 2nd Monday of each month at 4 pm CST, except for the months of August, November, and December, due to conflicts and holidays.

Monthly virtual editing session for Africa, Europe and India

When: Held on the 3nd Monday of each month at 10AM CST; meeting on hold after November, due to scheduling conflicts and the general busyness of our members.

Monthly virtual planning sessions

Held on the 4th Thursday of each month, usually at 4 pm CST, except for the months of August and December, due to scheduling conflicts and the holidays.

Parliament of the World's Religions

In August, we attended and conducted two in-person edit-athons/workshops at the Parliament of the World's Religions in Chicago, Illinois, USA.

2023 Wikimania

In August, we made a recorded report at the 2023 Wikimedia in Singapore, about our experiments using Artificial Intelligence in the creation of Wikipedia biographies.

American Academy of Religion

In November, we attended and conducted an in-person edit-athon and workshop, about working with Wiki Education to introduce Wikipedia in the classroom, at the American Academy of Religion's annual meeting in San Antonio, Texas, USA.

WikiConference North America

In November, we presented a report about the history and projects of WikiProject Women in Religion at the WikiConference North America in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

Women in Religion series

In December, volume 3 of the Women in Religion series of books, Women Advancing Knowledge Equity: The Parliament of the World’s Religions, edited by one of our co-founders Colleen D. Hartung, and written by members of our usergroup and WikiProject, was published.

In addition to writing, creating, and improving biographies about Women in Religion on Wikipedia, one of our goals is to increase content about women in religion in the general scholarship. Our strategy is to provide secondary sources for Wikipedia editors and contributors to use to increase the content about women in religion on Wikipedia. In addition to the above volume, we have published two other volumes, also edited by Hartung: Claiming Notability for Women Activists in Religion (2020) and Challenging Bias against Women Academics in Religion (2021).

See Wikipedia:WikiProject Women in Religion/Women in Religion series for more information and for lists of the women featured in this series.

Wikidata

In 2023, our user group and Wikiproject has added and expanded almost 100 entries in Wikidata.

Future plans

In 2024, we plan to continue creating and improving articles and biographies about women in religion on Wikipedia. We will continue to conduct edit-athons and editing sessions, both virtually and in-person. We hope to expand to other parts of the world and continue our work with the Circle of Concerned African Women Theologians. To that end, we're applying for a Wikimedia Quick Grant to help offset some of the costs and obstacles to internet access in Africa.

Planning is already underway for a fourth volume in the Women in Religion book series, also published by the Parliament of the World's Religions. We would also like to continue our research about the use of AI in Wikipedia.