HR628-6-FY-CO:
Witches, Witchcraft and Witch-Hunts in Early Modern Europe and New England
2025/26
Philosophical, Historical, and Interdisciplinary Studies (School of)
Colchester Campus
Full Year
Undergraduate: Level 6
Current
Thursday 02 October 2025
Friday 26 June 2026
30
07 March 2025
Requisites for this module
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This module will focus on a phenomenon peculiar to the early modern period: the prosecution of c.100,000-120,000 people for the crime of witchcraft in Europe and its colonies, which resulted in around 50-60,000 executions.
Students taking this module will engage with key historiographical debates in the field and with the main types of primary sources (all available in English) for the study of early modern witchcraft beliefs and witch-trials (demonologies, trial-records, pamphlets and images).
The aims of this module are:
- To train you in the reading, analysis, and critical assessment of a range of primary sources relating to the witch-trials and the belief systems which underpinned them.
- To enable you to engage critically and independently with the diverse historiography of witchcraft.
- To enable you to engage imaginatively and empathetically with the early modern culture and society in which witch-trials took place.
By the end of this module, students will be expected to be able to:
- Gain an understanding of a complicated and large-scale historical phenomenon and be confident in comparing witch-trials across time and space.
- Be able to read, understand and evaluate critically a varied range of relevant primary sources and historiographical debates.
- Demonstrate writing skills across a range of written assessments (including a piece of empathy writing).
In order to understand this phenomenon, and also the regional and chronological variation in witch-trials across Europe during the early modern period, we will explore:
- beliefs about witchcraft, magic and the devil, at both popular and elite levels.
- The legal context of witch-trials (laws, trial processes and the use of torture).
- What motivated accusers and witch-finders in witch-trials.
- Whether or not there was a 'stereotypical' witch.
- The gendering of witch-persecution.
- Why people confessed to being witches.
- Why witch-trials declined and then stopped by the end of the 18th century.
Introductory Reading
- Brian P. Levack, The Witch Hunt in Early Modern Europe (ideally the 3rd edition, Pearson Longman, 2006).
- Julian Goodare, The European Witch-Hunt (Routledge, 2016).
- Brian P. Levack (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Witchcraft in Early Modern Europe and Colonial America (Oxford, 2013).
- Malcolm Gaskill, Witchcraft. A Very Short Introduction (Oxford, 2010).
- Johannes Dillinger (ed.), The Routledge History of Witchcraft (Routledge, 2016).
This module will be delivered via:
- One 1-hour seminar per week
- One 1-hour lecture per week
Students are expected to do the essential reading for each seminar (available online via the TALIS reading list) and to be prepared to discuss it in seminars. The seminar reading will consist of a selection of key primary sources and key secondary readings.
This module does not appear to have a published bibliography for this year.
Assessment items, weightings and deadlines
| Coursework / exam |
Description |
Deadline |
Coursework weighting |
| Coursework |
Empathy Writing (2000 words) |
|
30% |
| Coursework |
Essay (2500 words) |
|
35% |
| Coursework |
Primary Source Extracts Analysis (1,500 words) |
|
30% |
| Practical |
Seminar Participation |
|
5% |
Additional coursework information
Guidance about the coursework tasks will be provided in the seminars. Sample copies of the empathy letter task will also be made available to provide additional guidance.
Exam format definitions
- Remote, open book: Your exam will take place remotely via an online learning platform. You may refer to any physical or electronic materials during the exam.
- In-person, open book: Your exam will take place on campus under invigilation. You may refer to any physical materials such as paper study notes or a textbook during the exam. Electronic devices may not be used in the exam.
- In-person, open book (restricted): The exam will take place on campus under invigilation. You may refer only to specific physical materials such as a named textbook during the exam. Permitted materials will be specified by your department. Electronic devices may not be used in the exam.
- In-person, closed book: The exam will take place on campus under invigilation. You may not refer to any physical materials or electronic devices during the exam. There may be times when a paper dictionary,
for example, may be permitted in an otherwise closed book exam. Any exceptions will be specified by your department.
Your department will provide further guidance before your exams.
Overall assessment
Reassessment
Module supervisor and teaching staff
Prof Alison Rowlands, email: alisonc@essex.ac.uk.
Professor Alison Rowlands
History UG Administrators: hrugadmin@essex.ac.uk
Yes
Yes
Yes
No external examiner information available for this module.
Available via Moodle
Of 44 hours, 44 (100%) hours available to students:
0 hours not recorded due to service coverage or fault;
0 hours not recorded due to opt-out by lecturer(s).
* Please note: due to differing publication schedules, items marked with an asterisk (*) base their information upon the previous academic year.
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