CUNYpedia Focus Articles – CUNY Newmark Wikimedian-in-Residence

CUNYpedia Focus Articles represent fruitful on-wiki collaborations springing from the CUNYverse.

Explore these examples of how CUNY’s faculty, staff, and students are actively improving and expanding public information on Wikipedia, while also connecting people to CUNY’s rich library and archive collections.

Homelessness in New York – June 2026

June’s CUNYpedia Focus Article is Homelessness in New York, greatly expanded and improved by students from a LaGuardia Community College English 103 class during the Spring semester. While the article is still a work in progress, students made strides in organizing and adding information, and students in upcoming semesters will be able to continue their work.

Coney Island Creek – May 2026

This May, we highlight the Wikipedia article on Coney Island Creek, developed by students as part of a Brooklyn College Principles of Ecology class. Students updated citations, uploaded imagery, and added language to the article, increasing its Wikipedia class ranking from a C to B. Read more on the WikiEdu blog.

Kallidin – April 2026

This April, we celebrate another CUNY/Wiki collaboration with an article on the hormone Kallidin and its role in diabetes and Parkinson’s, an article written by a pair of students over two semesters as part of a Biochemistry Lab class at Hunter College.

Sonny’s Blues – March 2026

This month, we feature the work of LaGuardia Community College students on the article about James Baldwin’s 1957 short story “Sonny’s Blues.” With guidance from CUNY faculty and the CUNY Newmark Wikimedian-in-Residence, students expanded on the themes section of the article, adding additional text and updated citations.

This article was edited in the ENG-103 class at LaGuardia Community College in the Fall 2025 semester with support from professors Ximena Gallardo and Ann Matsuuchi.

CUNY SEEK – February 2026

This month, we highlight a new Wikipedia article on CUNY’s SEEK Program, giving historical background and context on this opportunity program within CUNY that provides comprehensive academic, financial, and personal support to first-time college students.

This article was edited during the Black History Month Wikipedia Edit-a-Thons on February 19 and 26 at Baruch College, with support from Ethnic Studies Librarian and Outreach Archivist Jade Obler. The two sessions served as an opportunity for participants to share Black histories at Baruch and across CUNY, build research and digital literacy skills, and improve and expand public information on Wikipedia.

Elliottville, Staten Island – January 2026

This month, we feature a newly created Wikipedia article on Elliottville, a Staten Island neighborhood that existed from the 1850s to the mid-1870s and was known for its abolitionist, intellectual, and reform-minded residents.

The article emerged from a collaboration among CUNY College of Staten Island (CSI) faculty and library staff and Wikimedian-in-Residence Richard Knipel that draws on research from CSI Professor and Archivist James A. Kaser’s new book, Staten Island’s Elliottville: Abolitionist Enclave, Gilded Age Retreat, Ferry Suburb (2025). Along with Associate Dean and Chief Librarian Amy F. Stempler, and Health Sciences Librarian Ashley Dirzis, the team created a well-sourced #Wikipedia article that sheds new light on a neglected piece of NYC history.

The Save Hostos Movement – November 2025

On November 13, 2025, CUNY Newmark Wikimedian-in-Residence Richard Knipel visited Hostos Community College to collaborate with Dr. Krystyna Michael’s English students and Dr. Michael’s and Dr. Jojo Karlin’s Graduate Center Digital Humanities students on improving public knowledge of the Save Hostos Movement.

After conducting research in the Hostos Archives, students worked together to update and expand the Hostos Community College Wikipedia page and include a new section that tells the story of how the South Bronx community united to successfully save the College from a proposed merger during New York City’s financial crisis of 1975.

Students took pride in building their writing, research, and digital literacy skills while connecting a wider audience with NYC history.

Internment of Japanese Americans – October 2025

A Brooklyn College student in Dr. Alvin Khiêm Bùi’s Asian American History course recently enhanced the Wikipedia article on Internment of Japanese Americans, adding new details and context on inmate-led music education and linking to figures like a Japanese American music librarian Ruth Watanabe: https://tinyurl.com/2kmfuppx In Dr. Bùi’s course, a total of 23 students edited 22 articles, adding 8,300+ words and 56 references—expanding our collective knowledge of Asian American history. This is just one example of how classroom wiki-projects across the CUNY system are teaching research and writing skills to students while also empowering them to improve and expand public knowledge on Wikipedia.

History of City University of New York – September 2025

Team archivists from the CUNY Newmark Wikimedian-in-Residence project are enriching Wikipedia with key sources, historical images, and deeper context to help tell the story of the largest urban public university system in the US — and highlighting figures like Hunter College founder Thomas Hunter, who “insisted on admitting students of all racial and ethnic backgrounds and teaching a combined curriculum of liberal arts, science, and education.”

African American Film Score Composers – June 2025

This student’s Wikipedia article on African American film score composers examines the role of African American music in American film history. The article came out of an English composition course taught by Professors Ximena Gallardo C. and Ann Matsuuchi of La Guardia Community College in which students explored uses of Generative AI (GenAI) in academic research. (This was the first class under the WikiEducation Foundation system expressly designed to use GenAI to help draft new articles and is being used as a pilot to explore GenAI’s ethical use in Wikipedia classroom assignments.) As part of their process, students were tasked with researching and writing a Wikipedia article entry, which resulted in a wide variety of topics explored.

HIV/AIDS in New York City – May 2025

This month’s article was developed as part of a program over several years with the La Guardia and Wagner Archives, where student teams focused their research on the creation of this Wikipedia entry on HIV/AIDS in New York City and related subjects.

Travel training – April 2025

In this month’s article, archivists from the Cultivating Archives & Institutional Memory project collaborated with the Archives and Special Collections at the College of Staten Island to make more accessible the New York Disability Rights Archive (specifically the Margaret M. “Peggy” Groce Collection) and help tell the story of an amazing decades-long effort to empower special education students through bus and subway skills.