Samhuinn at the University of Edinburgh

  • October 24, 2019

So, the University of Edinburgh have been awfully busy when it comes to all things Witchcraft recently.  

Samhuinn Wikipedia editathon at University of Edinburgh - Mihaela Bodlovic
Samhuinn Wikipedia editathon at University of Edinburgh – Mihaela Bodlovic – CC-BY-SA

Wikimedian in Residence Ewan McAndrew has been working with Wikidata and the Survey of Scottish Witchcraft for a while now, with the University’s Wikidata / Data Visualisation internship and “Witchfinder General” Emma Carroll taking it to another level; geolocating places from the database of accused witches in Scotland, and entering them into Wikidata.  

This allowed for some incredible visualisations and detailed storytelling, as you can see on the dedicated website here.  Both the project and the website have been incredibly popular, and gained a huge amount of press – you can see just one of the pieces here.  This success is testament not only to the hard work of all involved, but to how data storytelling can help us connect to our culture, and our history.  

For the last few years the University have been celebrating Hallowe’en – or Samhuinn/Samhain, in the original Gaelic – with something a little Wikimedia, and this year is no exception.  

Faerie Porters at the University of Edinburgh Samhuinn Editathon in 2016.
Faerie Porters at the University of Edinburgh Samhuinn Editathon in 2016. Mihaela Bodlovic. CC-BY-SA

Ewan will be hosting A Witchy Wikipedia Editathon for Samhuinn on Thursday 31st October in Argyle House, just off the Grassmarket, between 1pm-5pm.  The event’s open to members of the public as well as those from the University, and you can book your tickets by following the link here.  They’ll also be hosting their regular Women in Red editathon at the University library on Wednesday 30th. 

They’ll be concentrating on improving the coverage of accused witches of Scotland, gothic novels, and more.  We’d love to see you there!  

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