14-15 February 2023, annual ICR conference, in partnership with the Università degli Studi di Firenze (UniFI) & MONITORacism magazine.
Hosted by the Dipartimento di Storia, Archeologia, Geografia, Arte e Spettacolo (SAGAS), UniFI.

Venue: Aula Magna, Via San Gallo, Firenze.
Link zoom: http://bit.ly/Witch-Hunts

Supported by SAGAS, UniFI, the Institute for Social Responsibility and the Department of History, Geography & Social Sciences, Edge Hill University.

Convenors: Professor Valeria Galimi, Professor Francesca Tacchi, Professor Rolando Minuti, Professor Giovanni Tarantino, SAGAS, UniFI; Monica Gonzalez Correa, MONITORacism magazine; Professor James Renton, Edge Hill University.

Conference Programme

Scholarship on the early modern ‘witch hunts’ is extensive, and has demonstrated their transformational consequences for women and patriarchal societies in the West. In addition, intersectional research on race and gender has blossomed in recent years across a range of disciplines, and has shown beyond doubt the relationship between racism and sexism around the globe. Yet the specific story of the ‘witch hunts’ and their connection with race remains untold, in terms of origins, consequences, and echoes.

14 February 2023
9.45 Opening Remarks

Professor James Renton, HiGSS & ICR, Edge Hill University.

Professor Valeria Galimi, SAGAS, UniFI.

Keynote Address
Chair: Professor Valeria Galimi, SAGAS, UniFI.

10.00 ‘Fear of Foreign Women in the Athenian Tragedies and Law.’

Professor Rebecca Futo Kennedy, Denison University, USA

11.30 Coffee

Chair: Professor James Renton, HiGSS & ICR, Edge Hill University.

12.00 ‘Heretical Magic or Ridiculas divinationes? The Perception of Gypsy Women’s Magic in Spain during the Early Modern Age.’

Dr Maria Gloria Tumminelli, Italy.

12.45 ‘Rethinking ‘Witch-Hunts’: Regulating Dakans in Early Modern Jodhpur.’

Dr Akhila Mathew, Azim Premji University, Bengaluru, India.

13.30 Lunch

Chair: Professor Giovanni Tarantino, SAGAS, UniFI.

14.30 ‘A Sin as Great as the Sin of Cain.’ What Na Prous Boneta and the Plight of Beguines in 14th Century Languedoc Reveal About the European Witch Hunts.

Professor Sarah Bracke, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

15.15 ‘Inventing a Difference: Female and Diabolic Breast.’

Dr Sara Petrella, University of Fribourg, Switzerland.

16.00 Coffee

The PKC Millins Annual Lecture
Chair: Professor James Renton, HiGSS & ICR, Edge Hill University.

16.15 ‘Dehumanisation: Race, Religion and the European Witch Hunts.’

Millins Laureate Professor Anya Topolski, Radboud University, The Netherlands

17.45 End of Day One

15 February
Chair: Professor Francesca Tacchi, SAGAS, UniFI.

10.00 ‘The Patriarchal Conspiracy of the Salem Witch Trials.’

Mary Elizabeth Gearen, University of Cambridge, UK.

10.45 ‘Gender and “Race” in the Stereotype of the Wandering and Neuropathic Jew.’

Professor Vinzia Fiorino, University of Pisa, Italy.

11.30 Coffee

MONITORacism Magazine Round-Table
Chair: Professor James Renton, HiGSS & ICR, Edge Hill University.

12.00 ‘Traces from Antiquity until Today?’

Professor Rebecca Futo Kennedy, Denison University, USA

Professor Anya Topolski, Radboud University, The Netherlands

12.45 Lunch

Chair: Professor James Renton, HiGSS & ICR, Edge Hill University.

14.15 ‘Dangerous Liaisons and Islamic Witchcraft in the Dutch East Indies.’

Berna Toprak, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

15.00 ‘The Basque Witch: A Figure of Horror and Heritage.’

Dr Rebecca Wynne-Walsh, Edge Hill University, UK.

15.45 Coffee

Chair: Professor Valeria Galimi, SAGAS, UniFI.

16.15 ‘White Feminism and the Narrative Politics of Witchcraft.’

Dr Kavita Maya, Royal Holloway, University of London, UK.

17.00 ‘The Continuation of the Colonial in the Contemporary: Women as Subalterns and Victims at the Intersection of Political Ideology, Religion, Gender and the Questionable Selectivity of Gender Emancipation in India.’

Shilpi Pandey, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium.

17.45 End of Conference.