New Introductory Courses in History (200-0-34)

Topic

History of Witchcraft

Instructors

Haley Elisabeth Bowen

Meeting Info

Harris Hall L06: Mon, Wed, Fri 10:00AM - 10:50AM

Overview of class

The great witch trials of the early modern era peaked in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, leading to the public executions of an estimated 40,000 individuals throughout Europe and North America. This course seeks to contextualize the witch trials within religious, cultural, social, and economic perspective, offering a multifaceted account of why Europeans turned on their neighbors - a large majority of them women - and accused them of fraternizing with the devil, poisoning livestock, brewing love potions, and consorting with grotesque familiars. Towards the end of the course, we will discuss how modern ideologies of witchcraft - in fairy tales, films, and politics - continue to draw upon these earlier European cultural and intellectual legacies. At a moment when the specter of the "witch hunt" has re-entered American political discourse and when women's bodies have become the subject of national debate, the era of the witch burnings offers unsettling parallels to our own society.

Learning Objectives

In this class, students will: learn to ask generative research questions about the past and produce complex, evidence-based historical arguments; assess secondary sources and place them within a broader historiographical context; read complex primary texts and images "slowly" by summarizing, analyzing, and synthesizing them in order to generate and support writing; situate the witch trials within religious, cultural, and social context; and understand the European legacy that informed witch trials in the early United States

Evaluation Method

Attendance, short essays, final research paper

Class Notes

Concentration: Americas, European

Class Attributes

Historical Studies Foundational Discipline
Historical Studies Distro Area