Talk:Farah Mendlesohn

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MrsArkban (talk · contribs) This user has declared a connection.

Edward James, husband

Removed '(her husband)' -- it's not really the norm for an academic's bio. One mentions co-authors, but not their relationship in relationship to their work. 24.127.71.17 (talk) 03:28, 4 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]

If we have a source for their marriage, however, it should be covered in both articles. Cf. Talk:Edward James (historian)#Farah Mendlesohn, wife.

--P64 (talk) 23:06, 26 March 2015 (UTC)[reply]

[ref name=SFE] says this: "[At York] she met Edward James, with whom she has lived since 1994; they married in 2001. James encouraged her interest in sf, and introduced her to the Science Fiction Foundation, which formed the basis from which much of her earlier sf administrative and editorial work would follow. // In 2002 she succeeded James as editor of Foundation: The Review of Science Fiction ..."

(not in the article; cf. #Vital dates, below) --P64 (talk) 23:53, 26 March 2015 (UTC)[reply]

I've never heard that this is not public knowledge, so I added her marriage to the information box. Skepticalgiraffe (talk) 23:27, 18 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Awards

Someone - and this is part a reminder to myself - needs to update the awards, link to the Hugo site, links to OEB and other publishers . . . --Kovar (talk) 00:07, 15 April 2013 (UTC)[reply]

www.farahsf.com no longer valid?

http://www.farahsf.com/ seems to be off the air. Has it been done away with? 213.114.227.251 (talk) 14:30, 24 November 2014 (UTC)[reply]

The latest Internet Archive copy of that top page is dated 2014-04-05 [1]. The latest copy of subpage "How I discovered fandom" is dated 2013-09-02.

It does appear to be a former official website. "This site is a clearing house and central axis for articles and other writing by the academic and critic Farah Mendlesohn." The directory is annotated in the first person.

--P64 (talk) 23:12, 26 March 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Vital data

The Czech and Polish national libraries give birth year 1968. The French ('BNF' in External links) gives birth date 1968-07-27. Others are silent --including the US, which cites the British Library (BL) for many writers.

VIAF 64258803 --P64 (talk) 23:32, 26 March 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Fullname, birthdate, birthplace found in The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, now [ref name=SFE]. It covers her relationship with Edward James, too, but I did not add that to the article this hour. See above, #Edward James, husband. --P64 (talk) 23:46, 26 March 2015 (UTC)[reply]

External links modified

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Added archive https://archive.is/20120728220555/http://www.anglia.ac.uk/ruskin/en/home/faculties/alss/deps/english_media/staff/farah_mendlesohn.html to http://www.anglia.ac.uk/ruskin/en/home/faculties/alss/deps/english_media/staff/farah_mendlesohn.html
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Heinlein book crowdfunded

In 2017, Mendlesohn announced that her forthcoming critical study of Robert Heinlein would be published by the crowdfunding publisher Unbound,^[1] and that if the funding exceeded the target any surplus would be divided between America's Blood Centers and Con or Bust (a non-profit corporation which helps people of color to attend Science Fiction and Fantasy Conventions).^[2] In October 2017 the pledges had exceeded the target by 18%, but no publication date had been announced.

I know Farah, and it was she who suggested somebody add this information; I'm pretty sure it's OK as I've written it, but I have put it in as a COI edit. --ColinFine (talk) 12:15, 30 October 2017 (UTC)[reply]

References

^ Reisz, Matthew (2017-10-25). "Crowdfunding offers new opportunities to academic authors". Times Higher Education (THE). Retrieved 2017-10-30.
^ "Robert Heinlein". Unbound. Retrieved 2017-10-30. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |dead-url= (help)

Added. That looks fine to me. Nitpicking polish (talk) 19:06, 30 October 2017 (UTC)[reply]

External links modified (January 2018)

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Pronoun

Editor MrsArkban changed the pronouns, with the comment "Changed pronouns, because Farah identifies as gender fluid. Farah prefers "Farah" but will accept they/their/them. Mention of being gender-fluid is at the end of the document". Well intentioned, but, at a minimum this needs a citation. Not all gender-fluid people use "they". The bio on Farah's webpage uses the pronoun "she", and unless there's a good reason to change, we should use the pronoun the person themself uses, which (per her page) would be "she". Skepticalgiraffe (talk) 01:57, 7 December 2021 (UTC)[reply]

I looked at the citation for the statement "Mendlesohn identifies as gender-fluid", here. Although the essay does conclude "I’m really gender-fluid," this is in the context of the statement at the beginning "I am a cis bisexual woman." I find it hard to call this a clear statement that Mendlesohn "identifies" as gender-fluid, it's more of a statement of identifying as cis but "really" being gender fluid.

But, more to the point: should this even be in the article at all? It's in the section "Scholarly career", where it clearly does not belong. It would more reasonably be in a section "personal life," but more relevant details of personal life aren't there; no mention of marriage nor for that matter any details about life at all.

I think this statement should be removed; it's both out of place and also not well cited. Skepticalgiraffe (talk) 00:00, 8 December 2021 (UTC)[reply]

I edited the article based on being Farah's assistant. If you look at their blog, it's very out of date. If the "I identify as gender fluid" statement is out of place in the article, that's fine. However, Farah's pronouns should be "they/them", as Farah prefers. They do not identify as cis. User:MrsArkban MrsArkban (talk) 08:37, 6 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]

I was able to find tweets from Mendlesohn which express a preference for no pronoun at all, or "Farah": [2] [3]. I suppose we can cite these as sources? (WP:TWEET) Olivaw-Daneel (talk) 17:55, 6 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]

We don't first-name article subjects, but I've gone in and changed the pronouns to neutral 'they' or last name. [Full disclosure: I am real-life acquainted with Mendlesohn, and have been messaging with them in an effort to fix this problem within the bounds of our Manual of Style, COI and sourcing requirements.] --Orange Mike | Talk 18:21, 6 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Neither of the tweets cited states that Farah uses the pronoun "they". One tweet clearly states I prefer 'Farah'... and you went through the article and deleted every instance of the use of Farah, the pronoun Farah specifically prefers, and replaced them with "they", a pronoun Farah never expressed a preference for. It seems odd to say you're going to use the preferred pronoun, and then change the pronouns away from what is preferred. Skepticalgiraffe (talk) 20:36, 6 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Update: Mendlesohn's Twitter bio now lists pronouns "Farah/she/they". If you read that as an order of preference, we should probably switch back to "she". Olivaw-Daneel (talk) 05:17, 15 September 2022 (UTC)[reply]

[1] Reisz, Matthew (2017-10-25). "Crowdfunding offers new opportunities to academic authors". Times Higher Education (THE). Retrieved 2017-10-30.

[2] "Robert Heinlein". Unbound. Retrieved 2017-10-30. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |dead-url= (help)

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