Unit information: Modern Witchcraft in 2020/21

Unit name	Modern Witchcraft
Unit code	HIST30112
Credit points	20
Level of study	H/6
Teaching block(s)	Teaching Block 1 (weeks 1 - 12)
Unit director	Dr. Will Pooley
Open unit status	Not open
Pre-requisites	None
Co-requisites	None
School/department	Department of History (Historical Studies)
Faculty	Faculty of Arts

Description including Unit Aims

Witchcraft has never gone away.

This unit takes a global approach to witchcraft after the early modern ‘Witch Craze’. Who believed in witchcraft in Europe in the 18th-20th centuries? How were fears of harmful magic related to colonialism, and the postcolonial world? How have ideas about witchcraft shifted with new scientific thinking?

The unit will draw on the rapidly expanding recent body of work on modern witchcraft to explore examples including European ‘cunning folk’; the Occultists; policing colonial witchcraft; ‘voodoo’ and other syncretic belief systems; modern Wicca; satanic abuse panics; and contemporary human rights challenges. Far from belonging to the distant past, some authorities have argued that modern-day violence is the greatest epidemic of witch-persecutions in history.

The unit will expose students to a range of examples with a focus on three key questions:

What is ‘modern’ about modern witchcraft?

What makes witchcraft real to the people who use and fear it?

How is witchcraft different in different modern contexts?

Intended Learning Outcomes

On successful completion of this unit, students will be able to:

1. Analyse and critique the ‘modernity’ of modern witchcraft phenomena.
2. Contrast varying examples of witchcraft across the globe, identifying differences and similarities.
3. Synthesise and evaluate primary sources to build wider arguments about cultural change and continuity.
4. Critically assess existing historical interpretations and independently challenge these using techniques from other disciplines.
5. Demonstrate advanced writing, research, digital and presentation skills, as well as the ability to learn and contribute to group tasks and discussions.

Teaching Information

Classes will involve a combination of class discussion, investigative activities, and practical activities. Students will be expected to engage with readings and participate on a weekly basis. This will be further supported with drop-in sessions and self-directed exercises with tutor and peer feedback.

Assessment Information

1 x 3500-word Essay (50%) [ILOs 1-5]; 1 x Timed Assessment (50%) [ILOs 1-5]

Reading and References

Willem de Blécourt and Owen Davies (eds.), Witchcraft Continued: Popular Magic in Modern Europe (2004)

Wolfgang Behringer, Witches and 'and' Witch Hunts: A Global History (2004)

Jeanne Favret-Saada, Deadly Words: Witchcraft in the Bocage (1977)

Margarite Fernández Olmos and Lizabeth Paravisini-Gebert (eds.), Sacred Possessions: Vodou, 'Santeria', 'Obeah' and the Caribbean (1996). 

Ronald Hutton, The Triumph of the Moon: A History of Modern Pagan Witchcraft (1999)

Jean La Fontaine, Speak of the Devil: Tales of Satanic Abuse in Contemporary England (1998)