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UID:calendar.1585.events_uoft_date.0@www.italianstudies.utoronto.ca
CREATED:20241128T162629Z
DESCRIPTION:\nWhen and Where: \nThursday, March 20, 2025 4:15 am to 5:15 
 am \n 405 (4th Floor) \n Carr Hall \n 100 St. Joseph Street, Toronto, ON
  M5S 3L5 \n\nSpeakers \nSimona Di Martino \n\nDescription: \nTeenage Girls
 , Witches, and Popular Culture: Cultural Memory in Italian Girlhood This
  lecture examines female adolescence and popular culture, highlighting th
 e importance of recognising teenage girls as a vital demographic through t
 he study of cultural products specifically designed for them. While resear
 ch on girlhood began in the UK with Angela McRobbie and Penny Tinkler in t
 he 1990s, and expanded in the Anglophone world (Driscoll 2002, Gill 2007
 , Kearney 2011, Hains 2012, Round 2019), cross-cultural scholarship re
 mains limited, with Italian girlhood receiving minimal academic attention
 . Key exceptions include a themed issue of gender/sexuality/Italy on ‘Girl
  Cultures in Italy from Early Modern to Late Capitalism’ (2017), Marini-M
 aio and Nerenberg’s The Winx Project (2020), and the A Girls’-Eye View pr
 oject (2021–2024) by Hipkins and Andò.Since the 1960s, the trope of the t
 eenage witch has emerged as a central lens for exploring female adolescenc
 e, reflecting societal ideas about youth, gender, and transformation. O
 nce feared as an outcast, the witch has been reimagined as a beloved hero
 ine and has attracted significant scholarly attention in recent years (Cho
 llet 2022; Corcoran 2022; Kosmina 2023). Teen witches, from Sabrina the
  Teen-Age Witch to Harry Potter, have normalised the witch while embracin
 g her complexity, often serving as feminist allegories of coming of age. 
 This talk focuses on W.I.T.C.H. (2001–2012), a transnational magazine cre
 ated by Disney Italia, as a prominent Italian popular cultural product ai
 med at adolescent girls. Through its metaphor of magic and witchcraft, W.
 I.T.C.H. uniquely shaped Italian girlhood and achieved global success, re
 aching 63 countries and becoming a cultural phenomenon by 2005. Despite it
 s widespread popularity, the magazine remains underexplored in academic s
 tudies, with few notable exceptions (Pellitteri 2009, 2018, Di Martino 
 2024).My analysis explores how W.I.T.C.H.’s storyline and characters addre
 ss themes of independence, friendship, and self-discovery, blending man
 ga, European comics, and Disney influences into a unique hybrid style. B
 eyond its narrative, the magazine engaged readers through interactive fea
 tures like quizzes, surveys, letters, advice columns, and DIY sections
 , fostering a sense of community and creating a generational media memory
  – a collective sense of belonging and identity tied to a specific moment 
 in time. Drawing on Carolyn Kitch’s concept of magazines as vessels of mem
 ory (2001) and an analysis of reader responses gathered during recent rese
 arch, I argue that W.I.T.C.H. validated girls’ voices, empowered identit
 y, and contributed to collective memory. By reflecting popular trends and
  cultural touchstones of the early 2000s, it became a pioneering media sp
 ace and a repository of cultural memory for Italian teenage girls, where 
 voice, agency, and creativity converged to shape shared identities. This
  study lays the groundwork for further exploration into how popular media 
 empowers adolescent girls globally.  Bio. Dr. Simona Di Martino holds a Ph
 D in Italian Studies from the University of Warwick (UK) and is currently 
 a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Toronto. Prior to this position
 , she held fellowships at the universities of Warwick, London, Leeds, 
 and Reading. Her research, Wonderful Witches (WoW): American Models of Gi
 rlhood from ‘Archie Comics’ to ‘Disney Italia,’ focuses on the Italian re
 ception of the empowering trope of the teenage witch from American popular
  culture. Simona has organized and participated in national and internatio
 nal conferences and published numerous peer-reviewed articles and book cha
 pters. Her latest publication is the refereed article “Empowering Girls in
  the Transnational W.I.T.C.H. Magazine and Comic Series” in Girlhood Studi
 es 17.3 (2024). .All times stated in Eastern time. \n\nContact Information
 : \n italian.studies@utoronto.ca Department of Italian Studies \n\nSponsor
 s \nEmilio Goggio Chair in Italian Studies - University of Toronto \n100 S
 t. Joseph Street, Toronto, ON M5S 3L5 \n\nCategories \n Goggio LecturesL
 ectures \n\nAudiences \n Alumni and FriendsCommunityFacultyFirst-Year Stud
 entsGraduate StudentsGraduating StudentsProspective Graduate StudentsProsp
 ective Undergraduate StudentsStaffUndergraduate Students
DTSTART;TZID=America/Toronto:20250320T041500
DTEND;TZID=America/Toronto:20250320T051500
LAST-MODIFIED:20250214T214609Z
LOCATION:100 St. Joseph Street, Toronto, ON M5S 3L5
SUMMARY:Goggio Lecture - Simona Di Martino
URL;TYPE=URI:https://www.italianstudies.utoronto.ca/events/goggio-lecture-s
 imona-di-martino
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