Course A
The History of Witchcraft
Haley Bowen, Assistant Professor, History
Tuesdays, 9:30 – 11:00 a.m.
The great witch trials of the early modern era peaked in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, leading to the executions of an estimated 40,000 individuals throughout Europe and North America. This course contextualizes the witch trials within religious, cultural, and social perspectives, 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 animal 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.
