The View From Kalamazoo

CALL FOR PAPERS:
The Supernatural in Late Medieval and Early Modern Germany (GSA 2010)

German Studies Association Conference, October 7-10, 2010, Oakland, California.

Scholars have described Germany as the ‘heartland of the witch craze’ that afflicted Europe in the late Middle Ages and the early modern period. Alpine communities in Switzerland and southern Germany experienced early witch panics in the age of the Malleus Maleficarum, helping to spawn the mass witch-hunts that followed. Some of the most virulent witchcraft prosecution in European history took place in Germany’s Prince-Bishoprics during the Wars of Religion, as mass panics claimed thousands of victims. During the early modern period, the Holy Roman Empire was also a center of learned magic, astrology, and alchemy, as princely courts attracted magical practitioners. The organizer intends to feature a series of five or six panels on the supernatural in late medieval and early modern German-speaking Europe and is seeking
proposals.

Possible topics and themes include, but are not limited to: folklore and popular magical practices; learned sorcery and alchemy; ghosts and apparitions; possession and the diabolical; witchcraft beliefs and witch-hunting; astrology and fortune telling; the supernatural and the state; gender and the supernatural; the supernatural and witchcraft in literature and drama; witch-hunting manuals and demonological treatises; and skepticism and disenchantment.

Please email an abstract (maximum 250 words) and a brief CV with institutional affiliation by Monday, February 15 to the panel series organizer:
Jason Coy
College of Charleston
coyj[at]cofc.edu