Witch Hunts: Race & the Persecution of Women, Antiquity to the 21st Century

Date / time: 17 October, 12:00 am

 

Aula Magna, Via San Gallo, UNIVERSITY OF FLORENCE, Italy

14-15 February 2023

PARTNERS: MONITORacism magazine; SAGAS, University of Florence; International Centre on Racism (ICR), Edge Hill University, UK.

Call for Papers, deadline – 17 October 2022

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.

This conference aims to fill this lacuna on a global scale. It is inspired by the work of the ICR’s next PKC Millins laureate, Dr Anya Topolski (Radboud, The Netherlands), who will deliver at the event her lecture, ‘Dehumanisation: Race, Religion and the European Witch Hunts.’ In addition, we are excited to host keynote lectures by Dr Rebecca Futo Kennedy, Denison University, USA, on ‘Fear of Foreign Women in the Athenian Tragedies and Law’, and Julie Pascoet, European Network Against Racism, on Islamophobia and women in Europe.

We invite paper proposals that speak to one or more of the following themes:

  • Race and the persecution of women in antiquity.
  • A global framework for thinking about the pre-history and consequences of the witch-hunts.
  • The political theology of the racialised persecution of women.
  • European colonial states, including settler-colonialisms.
  • Post-modernity.
  • Anti-Black racism, Islamophobia, Romaphobia, antisemitism.
  • The Reformation and Counter-Reformation.
  • Conspiratorial thought.Women, race, and the diabolical.
  • The contemporary global far-right.

We will publish a collection of essays based on the conference.

Please send a 250-word abstract and 100-word bio by 17 October 2022 to icr@edgehill.ac.uk.

Organising committee:

Monica Gonzalez Correa, Editor, MONITORacism magazine.
Dr Valeria Galimi, SAGAS, University of Florence.
Professor Rolando Minuti, SAGAS, University of Florence.
Dr Francesca Tacchi, SAGAS, University of Florence.
Dr Jenny Barrett, ICR, Edge Hill University.
Professor James Renton, ICR, Edge Hill University.