An IntervIew wIth Maria DiCenzo, London AprIl 2011

Abstract

Dr Maria DiCenzo is Associate Professor of English and Film Studies at Wilfrid Laurier University (Canada).1 Her research focuses on feminist media history, particularly late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century women’s print media and social movements, as well as twentieth-century British political theatre. DiCenzo has published widely on the late Victorian and Edwardian feminist periodical press, and she has also provided thoughtful and provocative commentary on the development of feminist media history and its relations to the broader field of media history. Her latest book, Feminist Media History: Suffrage, Periodicals and the Public Sphere (Palgrave Macmillan, 2011), co-authored with Dr Lucy Delap (St Catharine’s College, Cambridge, UK) and Dr Leila Ryan (McMaster University, Canada), further considers the methodological and disciplinary debates currently shaping feminist media history. Through several case studies the book also highlights and builds on the complexity of early feminist media: its representation and debate of a range of feminist discourses and tactics for the emancipation of women; and, further, how these publications engaged with wider public issues and consequently the general press, therefore adding to our broader understanding of press history. As such, the book is a valuable attempt to address new directions and ways of breaking away from the marginalization or ‘separation’ of feminist (and women’s) media history. Hence, the book works as a good starting point for further engagement and discussion about the field.