WELCOME! (COMING OUT OF THE 'BROOM' CLOSET)

Hello and welcome. My name is Giovanna (Nina) Parmigiani. I am a scholar and a magic practitioner. Some of you might find this an odd combination. Perhaps even an invalidating one. Some of you might find it intriguing, instead. Even empowering. Curious, perplexed, enthusiasts, and agnostics, you are all welcome in this kind and respectful space. I am happy to meet you. Below, you can find a bit of my story and read why I decided to open this website and start this blog.

I was not really interested in making this 'scholar-practitioner' identity of mine a public one, at first. It was a fairly recent addition to my set of identities ( more on this in a future post). Moreover, it was not exactly a mainstream identity to inhabit in academia. Then, though, by casually interacting with some of my students and readers who are magic practitioners and/or do not fit into the 'World Religions' label , I realized that my being a magic practitioner was more than a personal matter: it was a political one--to quote the old feminist adage. For many of my students and interlocutors, seeing and meeting a scholar who was openly a (fellow) magic practitioner had consequences that went beyond my personal experience. It helped them feeling seen and validated, and it opened up their imagination and its generative possibilities. This simple and honest remark had consequences that I could not anticipate. The latter are the reason why I decided to come out of the 'broom closet,' in the first place, a couple of years ago.

The particular political relevance of my personal experience derives also from the fact that I, a scholar-practitioner of magic, teach and operate within an institution that, for the good and/or the bad, is known worldwide: Harvard University.

The 'Harvard' name comes with its own weight--that some call gravitas (which is, incidentally, a way better motto than veritas). A heavy one, indeed. This is why I keep reminding myself, my students ( and, sometimes, my colleagues--those who can and want to listen, at least) that all of us are at Harvard thanks to a combination of worth, hard work, privilege, and luck. Therefore, in my opinion, the issue should not be how to prove to ourselves and others that we are 'the best of the world' ( spoiler alert: we are not, because nobody is and knowledge is not the result of 'solo' efforts). Rather, I believe that the right question that we should ask ourselves is: what can I do from here? What can we do from here?

This blog is one way in which I try to engage with these last two questions and to extend the empowerment, validation, and generative imagination that I share with my (wonderful) Harvard students with a wider audience. Out of the broom closet. Out of the ivory tower.

In this blog you will get to know me and some of the things I do, write, read, learn, encounter, feel, and experience alongside my students and colleagues in 'the best University of the world.' [sic] While I will write, as good ethnographers do, in the first person singular (or plural), this blog will and, at the same time, will not be about me. I will not talk about my story and life. I will talk through them. After all, my feminist interlocutors taught me that the personal is political--but the private is not personal: it is (and needs to remain) private :).

Thanks for being here. I hope to see you again. Soon.

Love,

Nina