HIST 3820A: Exploration in History Theory: Witchcraft
Fall 2023
Instructor: Hal Goldman
There is no one way of doing history. Historians use different theoretical frameworks or “historiographies” in order to understand the past. This course will use the history of Western European and North American Witchcraft prosecutions to explore how scholars, both past and present, have used different historiographical approaches in trying to make sense of the witchcraft prosecutions that roiled large parts of Western Europe and North America between 1560 and 1760. These approaches include religious, political, social, cultural, gender, sexual, mentalities, and post-modern frameworks. The course will make use of a weekly lecture and discussion groups to explore both the substantive history of witchcraft and the historiographical theories relied upon by historians to understand it. Analysis and interpretation of primary and secondary sources on the subject will form the majority of the work in this course.