Challenging narratives, capturing memories: the Photographic Walk for Gender Diversity on Wikimedia Commons as a practice of public history in university outreach

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.19137/cuadex-2025-09-0210

Keywords:

photo walk, LGBT+ history, gender diversity, public history, Wikimedia Commons

Abstract

This article presents the experience of planning and carrying out the Photographic Walk for Gender Diversity on Wikimedia Commons, a public history and university extension initiative aimed at expanding LGBT+ representation in Wikimedia projects. The event, held in downtown Florianópolis, sought to document and upload images of the LGBT+ community’s memory sites, promoting visibility and digital heritage preservation. Based on this experience, we discuss the challenges and lessons learned in organizing Wikimedia-related events, reflect on the relationship between extension and research, and analyze the photo walk as a practice that connects memory, urban space, and community engagement.

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Author Biographies

Muriel Custodio dos Passos, Santa Catarina State University

They are pursuing a master’s degree in the Graduate Program in History (PPGH) at the State University of Santa Catarina (UDESC), as a scholarship holder of the Social Demand Program (DS) of the Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (CAPES). They are an associate member of the Brazilian Society for the Theory and History of Historiography (SBTHH) and the Santa Catarina Section of the National Association of History (ANPUH-SC). They taught the subject of History in schools of the Municipal Education Network (RME) of Florianópolis in 2023 and 2024. They earned a degree in History (both teaching and research tracks) from the Federal University of Santa Catarina (UFSC), having presented a monograph on the changes in Brazilian historiography during the 1980s, focusing on the appropriation of Walter Benjamin’s theory of history by Michel Zaidan Filho. They were a member of the Tutorial Education Program in History (PET História) at UFSC. They served as a student representative in the UFSC Department of History between 2019 and 2020 and currently serves in the Collegiate Board of PPGH-UDESC. Their research interests include the theory of history, the history of historiography, and contemporary history.

Flávia Florentino Varella, Federal University of Santa Catarina

Productivity Research Fellow (level 2) and Associate Professor of Theory of History at the Federal University of Santa Catarina (UFSC). She has extensive research on the theoretical problems involved in the writing of national histories aimed at an adult audience, with a focus on British authors who wrote about Brazil in the early decades of the 19th century. She is also dedicated to studying the participation of women as history writers in Britain, particularly in national histories for children and teens during the transition from the 18th to the 19th century. Since 2015, she has been engaged in activities related to Public History, with an emphasis on the Theory of History on Wikipedia Project. She is part of the research line Global Connections: Theory, Art, and Narratives in the Graduate Program in History (UFSC) and the research line Literary and Cultural Studies in the Graduate Program in English (UFSC), advising master’s and doctoral theses in both fields. Between 2015 and 2024, she was a board member of the Brazilian Society for the Theory and History of Historiography. She served as editor-in-chief of the journal Esboços: Histórias em Contextos Globais from 2019 to 2021 and of História da Historiografia from 2021 to 2023.

Talita Araujo, Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina

Graduated in History from the State University of Paraná (2021). Holds a master’s degree in History and is currently a doctoral candidate in History in the Global History program at the Federal University of Santa Catarina (UFSC), within the research line Entangled Histories of Subjectivities, Gender, and Power. She is a member of the Laboratory for Gender and History Studies (LEGH/UFSC) and follows a study path in Lacanian-oriented psychoanalysis. Her research interests include Contemporary Brazil, gender, Black masculinities, rap and Afrocentric cosmoperceptions, critical race theory, and psychoanalysis.

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Obra de Tapa. “28 de mayo - Día Internacional de acción por la salud de las mujeres”, de Mirta Noemí Fiorucci. La fotografía captura una concentración nocturna multitudinaria en una plaza pública, destacando la participación activa de cientos de personas que portan banderas y pancartas verdes, símbolo del movimiento por el derecho al aborto legal, seguro y gratuito. Las pancartas exhiben el logo de la Campaña Nacional por el Derecho al Aborto, reflejando la cohesión y el propósito del evento. La concentración tuvo lugar el 28 de mayo de 2019, en el marco del Día de Acción por la Salud de las Mujeres, en la plaza "San Martín" de Santa Rosa, capital de La Pampa, Argentina. La multitud llena la plaza, con personas de pie y levantan las banderas con entusiasmo. La imagen proyecta un ambiente de activismo, determinación y reivindicación por parte de la comunidad en su lucha por los derechos reproductivos y la autonomía de las mujeres.

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Published

2025-09-29

How to Cite

Custodio dos Passos, M., Florentino Varella, F., & Araujo, T. (2025). Challenging narratives, capturing memories: the Photographic Walk for Gender Diversity on Wikimedia Commons as a practice of public history in university outreach. Cuadernos De Extensión Universitaria De La UNLPam, 9(2). https://doi.org/10.19137/cuadex-2025-09-0210

Issue

Vol. 9 No. 2 (2025): julio-diciembre

Section

Dossier

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