Witchcraft in the Early Modern Atlantic World (263-0-20)

Instructors

Haley Elisabeth Bowen

Meeting Info

Annenberg Hall G15: 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.

Class Attributes

Historical Studies Foundational Discipline
Historical Studies Distro Area

Associated Classes

DIS - Kresge Centennial Hall 2-425: Thurs 10:00AM - 10:50AM

DIS - University Hall 112: Thurs 12:00PM - 12:50PM

DIS - Kresge Centennial Hall 2-339: Thurs 2:00PM - 2:50PM

DIS - Annenberg Hall G28: Thurs 3:00PM - 3:50PM

DIS - University Hall 412: Thurs 4:00PM - 4:50PM

DIS - Kresge Centennial Hall 2-343: Thurs 11:00AM - 11:50AM