The overall Digital Girls program is internationally-focused and funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. We examine the knowledge of digital technology that Canadian, British, and South African pre-teen and teenage girls are acquiring through computer play on and off the Internet. We consider – and contest – the “digital gender divide” that is said to exist and examine girls’ voluntary engagement with technology. We are interested in mapping out the emergence of a particular digital literacy that includes technical knowledge, social uses of technology, and moral and ethical decision-making. For more information about the Digital Girls program, please see the Overview of the Digital Girls Program.
A number of projects are being conducted within the overall Digital Girls program. Please see below for more information on these. More project descriptions will be coming soon.
The cyberdolls project is a UK-based study investigating girls’ interactions with new media, looking specifically at discourses around fashion and young teen girls. As part of the study we ran a workshop in which twenty-six girls aged 12 – 13 researched and discussed online fashion, particularly dollmaker sites. The girls then produced their own interactive fashion design webpages, making decisions about body shapes, types of clothing and audience. Please visit the Cyberdolls website
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