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Luisa del Giudice, a Visiting Scholar at the Elphinstone Institute 3-9 May 2016, is a fellow of the American Folklore Society, and is internationally known for her work on Italian, Italian-American, and Italian-Canadian Folklife, Ethnology; and Oral History. This public seminar, promoted jointly with History of Art, on the multiple resonances of the Watts Towers, a U.S. National Historic Landmark built by a visionary Italian immigrant labourer over a span of three decades (1921-1954). The talk will explore the importance of the buildings within local cartographies and global migrations, contested social and urban spaces, and the relationship between art and economic development.