Undergraduate Course: The European Witch-Hunt (SCHI10021)
Course Outline
| School | School of History, Classics and Archaeology |
College | College of Humanities and Social Science |
| Course type | Standard |
Availability | Not available to visiting students |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 10 (Year 4 Undergraduate) |
Credits | 40 |
| Home subject area | Scottish History |
Other subject area | None |
| Course website |
http://www.shc.ed.ac.uk/scothistory/undergraduate/ |
Taught in Gaelic? | No |
| Course description | The age of the Renaissance and Reformation was also the age in which many people throughout Europe, Catholic and Protestant, became convinced that society was threatened by conspiracies of witches. Thousands of people, mostly lower-class women, were executed. The course delves into intellectual, cultural and social history to explain how this happened, and why.
The two central sections of the course are 'Why believe in witches?' and 'Why hunt witches?'. Witch-belief was an essential precondition of witch-hunting and has to be explained; yet witch-hunting had its own dynamics, for plenty of people believed in witches but did not hunt them. The course incorporates a regional survey of how patterns of witch-hunting varied from country to country, including not only Europe but European colonies in America. There is a more detailed case-study of one fairly typical country - Scotland. The final section discusses how witch-hunting came to an end, and what happened to witch-beliefs afterwards. |
Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
|
Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | A pass in 40 credits of third level historical courses or equivalent.
Before enrolling students on this course, Directors are asked to contact the History Honours Admission Secretary to ensure that a place is available (Tel: 503783). |
| Additional Costs | None |
Course Delivery Information
|
| Delivery period: 2011/12 Full Year, Not available to visiting students (SS1)
|
WebCT enabled: Yes |
Quota: 17 |
| Location |
Activity |
Description |
Weeks |
Monday |
Tuesday |
Wednesday |
Thursday |
Friday |
| Central | Seminar | | 1-22 | | 11:10 - 13:00 | | | |
| First Class |
Week 1, Tuesday, 11:10 - 13:00, Zone: Central. Room 3.D04, Forrest Hill |
| Exam Information |
| Exam Diet |
Paper Name |
Hours:Minutes |
|
|
| Main Exam Diet S2 (April/May) | Exam Paper 1 | 2:00 | | | | Main Exam Diet S2 (April/May) | Exam Paper 2 | 2:00 | | |
Summary of Intended Learning Outcomes
At the end of the course, students should be able to:
- demonstrate a grasp of historical causation
- engage at high level with scholarly debate
- evaluate arguments critically
- express their ideas on the above in oral and written form.
More specifically, they should be able to:
- understand the role of witch-beliefs in the culture of early modern Europe
- understand the social processes that led to witch-hunting
- balance the distinctive regional patterns of witch-hunting against the common experience of Europe as a whole
- understand the legal, political, religious and intellectual developments that led witch-hunting first to grow and then to decline. |
Assessment Information
Two 5000 word essays
Two two-hour exams |
Special Arrangements
| None |
Additional Information
| Academic description |
Not entered |
| Syllabus |
Not entered |
| Transferable skills |
Not entered |
| Reading list |
Not entered |
| Study Abroad |
Not entered |
| Study Pattern |
Not entered |
| Keywords | Not entered |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Julian Goodare
Tel: (0131 6)50 4021
Email: J.Goodare@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Ms Rozanne Luty
Tel: (0131 6)50 3783
Email: v1rluty@exseed.ed.ac.uk |
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© Copyright 2011 The University of Edinburgh - 16 January 2012 6:46 am
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