Why Women Are Cast As Witches Throughout History

10/12/2024 - From 19h30 - Members & Guests
Registration mandatory

Women's History: Sorcerers, Witches, Enchantresses, and Magicians

Why are wizards and magicians positive terms but sorcerers and witches negative?

This workshop explores women's knowledge and its place in Western societies. The starting point is antiquity and how the preserved sources treat women's knowledge with suspicion and neglect. We will explore how these early established stereotypes still play a role when discussing women's capabilities. Finally, recently, feminists have adopted these terms and redefined them. This defense of witches opens new avenues to appreciate women's powers and knowledge.

Biography

Hanna Tervanotko,is an associate professor of Religious Studies at McMaster University, Canada. Her research interests focus on gender, magic, divination, health, healing, and religion. Apart from her academic interests, she writes about academia-related topics, often from a gendered perspective. Her work has been published in journals such as the Chronicle of Higher Education and Women in Higher Education.

Dr Tervanotko describes herself as a feminist, and one of her most important tasks is to help her students see that women's history is not monolithic and restricted to housekeeping and childcare. Ancient sources speak about women of the past in different ways. Trying to narrow various stories down to one narrative is simply wrong.

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