Becoming Enlightened

 

The Enlightenment, also known as the Age of Reason, was a vast intellectual movement that took place during the 17^th and 18^th centuries and that profoundly influenced how people (particularly intellectuals) perceived both the world and humanity.  As a way of perceiving, the Enlightenment was manifested in art, politics, religion, education, science, and economics.  The movement advocated rationality—the use of reason—as a means to discover knowledge, ethics, and aesthetics.  Believing that the world had for too long suffered in ignorance, superstition, and tyranny, Enlightenment thinkers urged to use of reason to move humanity out of fear and irrationality. 

 

Throughout the 1500s and 1600s, Europe had been ravaged by religious wars.  After so much suffering caused by religious sectarianism, there was an upheaval which overturned the notions of mysticism and faith in individual revelation as the primary source of knowledge and wisdom.  By using reason, human beings could discover knowledge for themselves.  Creation was not perceived as being mysterious and unknowable.  Thus the Enlightenment was an age of optimism, believing that progress was inevitable.

 

Sir Isaac Newton became the great hero of the Enlightenment.  Using scientific observation and experimentation, Newton popularized the notion that there were “natural laws” that governed the universe—and that by using reason individuals could discover these laws.  The Enlightenment stressed that the world was comprehensible and orderly.  As a religious philosophy, deism stressed that the Creator could best be perceived by studying creation—not through centuries-old revelations.  God was perceived as the divine and benevolent clockmaker.

 

In his 1784 essay, “What is Enlightenment?” Immanuel Kant stated:

 

            Enlightenment is man’s leaving his self-caused immaturity.  Immaturity is the

incapacity to use one’s own understanding without guidance of another.  Such

immaturity is self-caused if its cause is not lack of intelligence, but by lack of

determination and courage to use one’s intelligence without being guided by

another.

 

In his Age of Reason (1794), Paine stated:

 

            I believe in one God, and no more; and I hope for happiness beyond this life.

I believe in the equality of man; and I believe that religious duties consist in doing justice, loving mercy, and endeavoring to make our fellow-creatures happy.

But, lest it should be supposed that I believe in many other things in addition to these, I shall, in the progress of this work, declare the things I do not believe, and my reasons for not believing them.

I do not believe in the creed professed by the Jewish church, by the Roman church, by the Greek church, by the Turkish church, by the Protestant church, nor by any church that I know of. My own mind is my own church.

All national institutions of churches, whether Jewish, Christian or Turkish, appear to me no other than human inventions, set up to terrify and enslave mankind, and monopolize power and profit.

I do not mean by this declaration to condemn those who believe otherwise; they have the same right to their belief as I have to mine. But it is necessary to the happiness of man, that he be mentally faithful to himself. Infidelity does not consist in believing, or in disbelieving; it consists in professing to believe what he does not believe.

 

 

 

Passages Taken from Malleus Maleficarum

The Hammer of Witches

Heinrich Kramer (and possible James Sprenger)

1487

Malleus Maleficarum is the most influential book written about witches and their prosecution for heresy. Kramer and Sprenger were Dominican Inquisitors with papal authority to hunt, prosecute, and execute witches.  Kramer was particularly obsessed with women suspected of witchcraft, and was particularly harsh during his Inquisition trials.  At this time torture was considered an appropriate and reliable means of obtaining the truth.  Kramer, and many men during this time period, believed women were especially liable to evil seduction and witchcraft, as they are weaker (intellectually and morally) than men.  For over two centuries Malleus Maleficarum was the second bestselling printed book.

 

 

From Part One, Chapter VI, “Concerning Witches who Copulate with Devils.  Why is it Women are chiefly addicted to Evil superstitions?”

 

Let us now chiefly consider women; and first, why this kind of perfidy (treachery, infidelity, betrayal, but here used as witchcraft)) is found more in than fragile sex than in men.

 

It (that there are far more female witches than male) is indeed a fact that it were idle to contradict, since it is accredited by actual experience, apart from the verbal testimony of credible witnesses.

 

Now the wickedness of women is spoken of in Ecclesiasticus xxv: there is no head above the head of a serpent: and there is no wrath above the wrath of a woman.  I had rather dwell with a lion and a dragon than to keep house with a wicked woman. . . . All wickedness is but little to the wickedness of a woman.

 

What else is a woman but a foe to friendship, an unescapable punishment, a necessary evil, a natural temptation, a desirable calamity, a domestic danger, a delectable detriment, an evil of nature, painted with fair colors?

 

(staying married rather than separating/divorcing is) a necessary torture

 

The many lusts of men lead them into one sin, but the lust of women leads them into all sins; for the root of all woman’s vices is avarice.

 

A woman either loves or hates; there is no third grade.  And the tears of woman are a deception., for they may spring from true grief, or they may be a snare.  When a woman thinks alone, she thinks evil.

 

Wherefore in many vituperations that we read against women, the word woman is used to mean the lust of the flesh. (vituperations here seems to mean treatises written by church scholars attacking women; vituperation usually means bitter and abusive language)

 

Others again have propounded other reasons why there are more superstitious women found than men.  And the first is they are more credulous; and since the chief aim of the devil is to corrupt faith, therefore he attacks them. . . . The second reason is, that woman are naturally more impressionable, and more ready to receive the influence of a disembodied spirit. 

 

The third reason is that they have slippery tongues, and are unable to conceal from their fellow-women those things which by evil arts they know . . . since they are weak.

 

But because in these times this perfidy (witchcraft) is more often found in women than in men, as we learn by actual experience, we may add . . . that since they are feebler both in mind and body, it is not surprising that they should come more under the spell of witchcraft (duh, circular logic at best)

 

Women are intellectually like children.

 

But the natural reason is that she is more carnal than a man, as is clear from her many carnal abominations.

 

When a woman weeps, she weaves snares. . . . When a woman weeps, she labors to deceive a man.

 

And it is clear in the case of the first woman that she had little faith (Eve).

 

Therefore a wicked woman is by her nature quicker to waver in her faith . . . which is the root of witchcraft.

 

No might of the flames or the swollen winds, no deadly weapon, is so much to be feared as the lust and hatred of a woman who has been divorced from the marriage bed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Animism

 

Animism is the belief that objects, places, and creatures all possess a distinct spiritual essence. Potentially, animism perceives all things—animals, plants, rocks, rivers, weather systems, human handiwork and perhaps even words—as animated and alive.

 

the attribution of a soul to plants, inanimate objects, and natural phenomena;

the belief in a supernatural power that organizes and animates the material universe.

 

belief in innumerable spiritual beings concerned with human affairs and capable of helping or harming human interests.

 

The term animism denotes not a single creed or doctrine but a view of the world consistent with a certain range of religious beliefs and practices, many of which may survive in more complex and hierarchical religions. Modern scholarship’s concern with animism is coeval with the problem of rational or scientific understanding of religion itself. After the age of exploration, Europe’s best information on the newly discovered peoples of the Americas, Africa, Asia, and Oceania often came from Christian missionaries. While generally unsympathetic to what was regarded as “primitive superstition,” some missionaries in the 19th century developed a scholarly interest in beliefs that seemed to represent an early type of religious creed, inferior but ancestral to their own.

 

Totem

 

A totem is a spirit being, sacred object, or symbol that serves as an emblem of a group of people, such as a family, clan, lineage, or tribe, such as in the Anishinaabe clan system.

 

a natural object or animal that is believed by a particular society to have spiritual significance and that is adopted by it as an emblem.

 

A totem could be a grizzly bear, oak tree, catfish, or just about any other living thing. Like a flag, a totem means a lot to the people it represents

Shaman and Shamanism

 

a person regarded as having access to, and influence in, the world of good and evil spirits, especially among some peoples of northern Asia and North America. Typically, such people enter a trance state during a ritual, and practice divination and healing.

 

A shaman is therefore a specific type of healer who uses an alternate state of consciousness to enter the invisible world, which is made up of all unseen ...

 

Shamanism is a religious practice that involves a practitioner interacting with what they believe to be a spirit world through altered states of consciousness, such as trance.

 

shamanism, religious phenomenon centered on the shaman, a person believed to achieve various powers through trance or ecstatic religious ...

 

Omens

 

An omen is a phenomenon that is believed to foretell the future, often signifying the advent of change. It was commonly believed in ancient times, and still believed by some today, that omens bring divine messages from the gods

 

Amulets

 

amulet, also called Talisman, an object, either natural or man-made, believed to be endowed with special powers to protect or bring good ...

 

An amulet, also known as a good luck charm or phylactery, is an object believed to confer protection upon its possessor. The word "amulet" comes from the Latin word amuletum, which Pliny's Natural History describes as "an object that protects a person from trouble"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Self and Other

 

The Other is an individual who is perceived by the group as not belonging, as being different in some fundamental way. ... Perceived as lacking essential characteristics possessed by the group, the Other is almost always seen as a lesser or inferior being and is treated accordingly

 

The binary of self and other is perhaps one of the most basic theories of human consciousness and identity, claiming, in short, that the existence of an other, a not-self, allows the possibility or recognition of a self. In other words: I see you. I do not control your body or hear your thoughts. You are separate.

 

Othering a natural human reaction – but how we respond to that anxiety is social. When societies experience big and rapid change, a frequent response is for people to narrowly define who qualifies as a full member of society – a process I call “Othering”

 

In philosophy, the terms the Other and the Constitutive Other identify the other human being, in their differences from the Self, as being a cumulative, constituting factor in the self-image of a person; as acknowledgement of being real; hence, the Other is dissimilar to and the opposite of the Self, of Us, and of the Same.

 

The term Othering describes the reductive action of labelling and defining another person as being different and inferior, as someone who belongs to the socially subordinate category of the Other. The practice of Othering excludes persons who do not fit the norm of the inner social group, which is a greater version of the Self; likewise, in human geography, the practice of othering persons means to exclude and displace them from the social group to the margins of society, where mainstream social norms do not apply to them, for being the Other.

 

Mikhail Bakhtin and Concepts of the Dialogical Self and the Other [Self and Other in Constant Dialogue]

 

I am conscious of myself and become myself only while revealing myself for another, through another, and with the help of another.  The most important acts constituting self-consciousness are determined by a relationship toward another consciousness . . . . The very being of man (both internal and external) is the deepest communion.  To be means to communicate . . . .  A person has no internal sovereign territory, he is wholly and always on the boundary: looking inside himself, he looks into the eyes of another or with the eyes of another . . . . I cannot manage without another, I cannot become myself without another; I find myself in another by finding another in myself.

 

“I” can realize itself only on the basis of “we.”

 

Meaning, then, in its most significant form as Truth, is created in dialogue, on the borders where two consciousnesses meet.  It is realized at the intersections of the self and the other.

 

In dialogism, the very capacity to have a consciousness is based on otherness.

Otherness takes many forms. The Other may be someone who is of...

• a different race (White vs. non-White),
• a different nationality (Anglo Saxon vs. Italian),
• a different religion (Protestant vs. Catholic or Christian vs. Jew),
• a different social class (aristocrat vs. serf),
• a different political ideology (capitalism vs. communism),
• a different sexual orientation (heterosexual vs. homosexual),
• a different origin (native born vs. immigrant).

The Other is not necessarily a numerical minority. In a country defeated by an imperial power, the far more numerous natives become the Other, for example, the British rule in India where Indians outnumbered the British 4,000 to 1. Similarly, women are defined and judged by men, the dominant group, in relationship to themselves, so that they become the Other. Hence Aristotle says: "The female is a female by virtue of a certain lack of qualities; we should regard the female nature as afflicted with a natural defectiveness."

The group which is defining the Other may be an entire society, a social class or a community within a society, a family, or even a high school clique or a neighborhood gang.

The Other and the Outsider

The outsider frequently overlaps with the Other, but they are not identical. The outsider has the possibility of being accepted by and incorporated into the group; offspring are very likely to be accepted into the group. The Other, however, is perceived as different in kind, as lacking in some essential trait or traits that the group has; offspring will inherit the same deficient nature and be the Other also. Therefore the Other and the offspring of the Other may be doomed forever to remain separate, never to become part of the group--in other words, to be the Other forever.

 

 

Notes from Kai Erikson, Wayward Puritans: A Study in the Sociology of Deviance

 (New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1966)

 

--accepts general theories of Emile Durkheim and George Herbert Mead that deviance is necessary to society, that deviance performs necessary social functions.  According to Durkheim, crime and other forms of deviance are "an integral part of all healthy societies"

 

--crime/deviance "may actually perform a needed service to society by drawing people together in a common posture of anger and indignation.  The deviant individual violates rules of conduct which the rest of the community holds in high respect; and when these people come together to express their outrage over the offenses and to bear witness against the offender, they develop a tighter bond of solidarity"

 

--"the deviant act, then, creates a sense of mutuality among the people of a community by supplying a focus for group feeling . . . deviance makes people more alert to the interests they share in common and draws attention to those values which constitute the collective conscience of the community"

 

--"deviance refers to conduct which the people of a group consider so dangerous or embarrassing or irritating that they bring special sanctions to bear against the persons who exhibit it."  deviance is culturally specific and is defined by the group

                       

                        Much madness is divinest sense

                        To a discerning eye,

                        Much sense, the starkest madness.

                        'Tis the majority

                        In this, as all, prevail:

                        Assent, and you are sane;

                        Demur, you're straightway dangerous

                        And handled with a chain.     

(Emily Dickinson)

 

--"it is by no means evident that all acts considered deviant in society are in fact (or even in principle) harmful to group life"

 

--as a special place, a community is set apart by its occupation of group space--both geographical and cultural.  Communities, then, have geographical and cultural boundaries.

 

Communities exist by maintaining their boundaries, thus keeping intact a shared identity.

"A human community can be said to maintain boundaries, then, in a sense that its members tend to confine themselves to a particular radius of activity and to regard any conduct which drifts outside that radius as somehow inappropriate or immoral."

 

--"the only material found in a society for marking boundaries is the behavior of its members--or rather, the networks of interaction which link these members together in regular social relations."

 

--"the deviant is a person whose activities have moved outside the margins of the group, and when the community calls him [or her] to account for that vagrancy, it is making a statement about the nature and placement of its boundaries."

 

--"members of a community inform one another about the placement of their boundaries by participating in the confrontations which occur when persons who venture out to the edges of the group are met by policing agents whose special business is to guard the cultural integrity of the community."

 

--"deviant forms of behavior, by marking the outer edges of group life, give the inner structure its special character and thus supply the framework within which the people of a group develop an orderly sense of their own cultural identity."

 

societies, then, do not seek to obliterate or erase deviant behavior, but to contain it.  deviants are assigned a role and are required to maintain this role.  Trials, as an elaborate and formal ritual, are necessary in the public assigning of deviant roles.  Deviants are not really expected to change.

 

--"the deviant and his [her] more conventional counterpart live in much the same world of symbol and meaning, sharing a similar set of interests in the universe around them.  The thief and his [her] victim share a common respect for the value of property; the heretic and the inquisitor speak much the same language and are keyed to the same religious mysteries"

 

--"the deviant and the conformist, then, are creatures, of the same culture, inventions of the same imagination"

 

--"if deviation and conformity are so alike, it is not surprising that deviant behavior should seem to appear in a community at exactly those points where it is most feared.  Men [and women] who fear witches soon find themselves surrounded by them; men who become jealous of private property soon encounter eager thieves.  And if it is not always easy to know whether fear creates the deviance or deviance the fear"

 

 

 

 

 

Spectral Evidence

 

“Spectral evidence refers to a witness testimony that the accused person’s spirit or spectral shape appeared to them witness in a dream at the time the accused person’s physical body was at another location. It was accepted in the courts during the Salem Witch Trials. The evidence was accepted on the basis that the devil and his minions were powerful enough to send their spirits, or specters, to pure, religious people in order to lead them astray. In spectral evidence, the admission of victims’ conjectures is governed only by the limits of their fears and imaginations.  Specters could be seen by those tormented but be invisible to others.

 

Spectral evidence was testimony in which witnesses claimed that the accused appeared to them and did them harm in a dream or a vision. Contemporary witch lore held that witches could project themselves spiritually, either directly or with the aid of Satan, in order to harm their victims from afar.

Spectral evidence is a form of legal evidence based upon the testimony of those who claim to have experienced visions. Such testimony was frequently given during the witch trials of the 16^th and 17^th centuries. The alleged victims would claim to have been tormented by specters invisible to others. This was taken as evidence that the accused witches, and or devils or demons that assumed appearance, were actively tormenting the victims. This testimony was virtually impossible to refute.   

 

Introductory Passages from Wonders of the Invisible World, Cotton Mather, 1693

 

The New-Englanders are a People of God settled in those, which were once the Devil’s Territories; and it may easily be supposed the Devil was exceedingly disturbed, when he perceived such a People here. . . .

 

The Devil thus Irritated, immediately try’d all sorts of Methods to overturn this poor Plantation . . . I believe, that never were more Satanical Devices used for the Unsettling of any People under the Sun, than what have been Employ’d for the Extirpation of the Vine which God has here Planted . . .

 

But, All those Attempts of Hell, have hitherto been Abortive . . . Wherefore the Devil is now making one Attempt more upon us; an Attempt more Difficult, more Surprizing, more snarl’d with unintelligible Circumstances than any that we have hitherto Encountered; an Attempt so Critical, that if we get well through, we shall soon enjoy Halcyon Days with all the Vultures of hell Trodden under our Feet.

 

He [the Devil] has wanted his Incarnate Legions to persecute us . . . he has therefore drawn forth his more Spiritual ones to make an Attacque upon us. . . . An Horrible PLOT against the Country by WITCHCRAFT . . .  [that would] Blow up and pull down all the Churches in the Country

 

An Army of Devils is horribly broke in upon the place . . . and the Houses of Good People there are fill’d with the doleful Shrieks of their Children and Servants, Tormented by Invisible Hands, with Tortures altogether preternatural . . . the terrible Plague of Evil Angels, hath made it Progress into some other places, where other Persons have been in like manner Diabolically handled

 

Several of them have been convicted of a very Damnable Witchcraft; yea, more than one Twenty have Confessed, that they have Signed unto a Book, which the Devil show’d them, and Engaged in his Hellish design of Bewitching and Ruining our Land.

 

Now, by these Confessions ‘tis Agreed, That the Devil has made a dreadful Knot of Witches in the Country . . . That these Witches have driven a Trade of Commissioning their Confederate Spirits, to do all Sorts of Mischief to the Neighbours . . . That at prodigious Witch-Meetings, the Wretches have proceeded so far, as to Consort and Consult the Methods of Rooting out the Christian Religion from this Country, and setting up instead of it, perhaps a more gross Diabolism, than ever the World saw before.

 

 

 

Spellbound: Witches, Witchcraft, and Witch Hunts

Spring Semester 2024

HCOL 40000, 674

Wednesday, 4 PM, Sadler 421

 

And now we have with Horror seen the Discovery of such Witchcraft!  An Army of Devils is horribly broke in . . . and the Houses of Good People there are filled with the doleful Shrieks of their Children and Servants, Tormented by Invisible Hands, with Tortures altogether preternatural. 

--From Wonders of the Invisible World, Cotton Mather, 1693

 

This colloquium will explore the cultural phenomena of witches, witchcraft, and witch hunts with a special focus on the 1692 Salem witch hysteria.  References to witch hunts are now commonplace, and this colloquium will examine how such references evolved from actual historical events and their printed histories.  Belief in witchcraft and magic was widespread for centuries and in many ways supplemented standard religious beliefs.  Moreover, belief in witchcraft remains prevalent today.  Wicca, also known as Pagan Witchcraft, is a fast-growing belief system that has countless followers worldwide, and Salem—once a site of tragedy—is now known as the Home of Halloween and has a month-long annual celebration culminating in a witch parade viewed by thousands.  Far from being hunted down and eradicated, witches and witchcraft are now mainstream and marketable.  Yet, tragically, in certain parts of the world suspected witches are still being hunted down, persecuted, and even murdered.

 

Reading both primary and secondary sources, this colloquium will discuss historical beliefs in witchcraft and, as a specific case study, closely consider the infamous—yet still baffling—events in Salem, where nineteen people were executed, another tortured to death, and more than a dozen died in prison.  Since 1692, countless writers have offered interpretations, yet there is still no single explanation to understand why, in a matter of months, several hundred people were accused of witchcraft in such a small geographic area. 

 

Witchcraft is also a commercially successful subject in numerous popular media, such as fiction, television, film, and now social media, and this colloquium will also study such popular depictions of witches for market consumption, reviewing well-known portrayals from The Wizard of Oz to Bewitched to Harry Potter and beyond.

 

 

 

Course Outcomes:

--a general familiarity with the historical development of belief systems in witches, witchcraft, and witch hunts, particularly as the phenomena and events took place in Europe from the fifteenth to seventeenth centuries

--a general familiarity with the historical events that took place in the village of Salem in 1692, particularly regarding gender issues and social hierarchy

-- a general familiarity with selected primary and secondary texts discussing witches, witchcraft, and witch hunts with special focus on the Salem events and various interpretations of these events

--a general familiarity with depictions of witches, witchcraft, and witch hunts in art and popular media from the eighteenth century to the present, particularly in film, television, and social media

 

Course Outline:

 

Wednesday, January 17

Introduction to course outcomes and requirements

Cotton Mather’s rhetoric (from Wonders of the Invisible World, 1692)

Martha Carrier’s trial, handout (from Wonders of the Invisible World, 1692)

 

Wednesday, January 24

Witches in Popular Media, Popular Media Preview discussion

Two Short YouTube videos

A History of Magic, Witchcraft, and the Occult, 62-119

 

Wednesday, January 31

Witches in Popular Media, Popular Media Preview decisions

A History of Magic, Witchcraft, and the Occult, 122-189

 

Wednesday, February 7

Guest Lecture, Professor Marco Roc, Hoodoo, Voodoo, and Caribbean Occult

A History of Magic, Witchcraft, and the Occult, 192-245

Witchcraft in popular media

 

Wednesday, February 14

Valentine’s Day, Ash Wednesday, Female Demons

A History of Magic, Witchcraft, and the Occult, 248-301

Witchcraft in popular media

 

Wednesday, February 21

Witchcraft, A Short Introduction, 1-44

Witchcraft in popular media

 

Wednesday, February 28

Witchcraft, A Short Introduction, 45-77

Witchcraft in popular media

 

Thursday, March 6

Witchcraft, A Short Introduction, 78-110

Witchcraft in popular media

 

Wednesday, March 13

SPRING BREAK

 

Wednesday, March 20

The Salem Witch Hunt, 1-31, 42-43

Witchcraft in popular media

 

Wednesday, March 27

The Salem Witch Hunt, 49-61

History Channel video, Salem Witch Trials

Witchcraft in popular media

 

Wednesday, April 3

The Salem Witch Hunt, 67-94

Witchcraft in popular media

 

Wednesday, April 10

The Salem Witch Trials, 128-140

Witchcraft in popular media

 

Wednesday, April 17

Salem Today, Home of Halloween

“Redemption,” 247-271 (handout)

Witchcraft in popular media

 

Wednesday, April 24

Witchcraft in the Southwest, 54-94

Witchcraft in popular media

 

May 1 (last day of classes)

Class Performance—A Salem Witch Trial

 

May 8 (Final Exam Day)

Final Presentations

 

Primary Texts (available in the bookstore and elsewhere)

Witchcraft: A Short Introduction, Malcolm Gaskill, 2010

A History of Magic, Witchcraft, and the Occult, DK/Random House Penguin, 2020

The Salem Witch Hunt, Richard Godbeer, 2018

 

Additional Readings will be Taken from the Following Texts:

Wonders of the Invisible World, Cotton Mather 1693

A Salem Witch: The Trial, Execution, and Exoneration of Rebecca Nurse, Daniel A. Gagnon, 2021

Witchcraft in the Southwest, Marc Simmons, 1980

 

Course Requirements:

 

1)     Attendance and Participation.  Discussion and participation are essential requirements of this colloquium. You are required to take an active part in the colloquium and to contribute to its success.  In every class we will discuss the assigned readings and related issues, and in nearly every class there will be some sort of in-class activity (brief writing assignments, group work, assigned research and discussions).  Anyone absent will not receive credit for these activities.  Missing more than three classes during the term will result in failure.

 

2) Familiarity with the Texts.  A reading knowledge of the assigned texts is crucial and expected.  Please read.  I have not assigned a ton of reading, and I will expect a familiarity with the assigned readings for every class. 

 

3) Journals.  Throughout the semester you are required to keep an online journal (a blog) and post a minimum of ten entries—five before Spring Break, and five after.  In these entries you are asked to comment specifically on your learning experiences—particularly about what you’ve read in this course, but also more generally in all of your learning experiences (both inside and outside of classrooms).  In response to our assigned readings and class discussions, please describe what you found interesting, useful, and/or relevant in your learning experiences. You are also welcome to comment on what you did not find to be interesting, useful, and/or relevant.  What you write is up to you, but I ask is that you honestly reflect on your learning experiences and assess the value of these experiences in terms of your own life.  Entries should be a minimum of 1 page in length.

 

Where you keep your journal is up to you.  I guarantee the easiest site to create and maintain a blog is blogger.com, though it’s a twenty-year-old platform.  WordPress and Wix are quite popular but require learning curves.  Recent additions are Squarespace, Web, and Webador.  If you are already familiar with it, Tumblr is a possibility.  My recommendation is still blogger because it’s the easiest.  I will create a central class blog linking all your blogs. 

 

My primary interest is having you keep a record of your learning experiences.  I encourage you to reflect on the relevance of these experiences.

 

4) Popular Media Preview Assignment.  Throughout the semester we will review a number of popular media depicting witches, witchcraft, and witch hunts (primarily films, television, and social media—Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, Pinterest, and TikTok).  Students will work in teams of 2 to preview, introduce, present, and discuss the witch/witchcraft/witch hunt depictions in terms of our course’s subjects and themes.  Each team will preview its film, tv show, or social media site in advance, choose up to 20 minutes of video, and then prepare brief introductions for each of the sequences they’ve chosen. The primary focus of their introductions and discussions should demonstrate how witches/ witchcraft/witch hunts were dramatized (marketed) for popular audiences and as well how these depictions compare to the historical representations in our primary texts.  Teams may also offer critical assessments on their media’s overall quality, representations, techniques, and relevance.  Instead of rotten tomatoes, our class will award broomsticks.  Each team will present twice, and at least one of these will be on a film.

 

5) Witch Trials.  At the heart of the Salem hysteria were the witch trials that resulted in the hanging of 19 people and the deaths of more than a dozen more who died in prison—and one person who was tortured to death.  As we will be reading historical and popular narrations of these trials, it seems only fair that we should hold our own witch trial.  Midway through the semester students will choose a slip of paper out of a hat to discover their historical roles.  These roles will include an accused witch, judges, prosecutors, and witnesses. Once you have your role, you will have the rest of the semester to prepare for the trial.  Some knowledge of the historical trials is expected.   The witch trial will take place on May 1, our last class day. 

 

6) Final Presentation.  For the final course assignment, teams of 2 students will be required to create and present a brief video (8-10 minutes max) that offers a concluding reflection of the team’s thoughts, observations, and experiences throughout the semester.  There is no specific format or formula, but teams are asked to reflect on what they experienced as learners that was relevant.  Teams may reflect on what they liked or disliked, what they were fascinated with or repelled by—and especially what they think were the most relevant things they learned.  These videos should be engaging and creative.  Ultimately, each team must create a video responding to one overall question: What are you going to take away from this course? 

 

These videos will be shown on May 8, starting at 2 PM (our designated final exam slot during finals weeks).

 

7) Never Use the Non-Word “Very.”  For the rest of the semester, at least in our class, the use of this useless non-word is forbidden.  This non-word is used far too frequently, and people who use it a lot tend to demonstrate a lack of vocabulary. 

 

Grading Scale:

Attendance and participation            10%

Journals                                             40%

Popular Media Previews                    30%

Witch Trial participation                     10%

Final Presentation                              10%

 

Please Note: TCU Online will be used for archiving course documents and for grading, but our central course blog will used for online discussions.

 

Dan Williams, PhD

Director, TCU Press, TCU Honors Professor of Humanities

Library 1238 and TCU Press (3000 Sandage)

817-257-5907 office; 817-239-1376 cell

Office Hours, every Friday 11 AM to 1 PM, and other hours by appointment.  I am happy to meet in person or Zoom.  Unless other arrangements are made in advance, I will be available at TCU Press.

d.e.williams@tcu.edu

 

 

Netiquette: Communication Courtesy Code

All members of the class are expected to follow rules of common courtesy in all email messages, discussions, and chats. If I deem any of them to be inappropriate or offensive, I will forward the message to the Chair of the department and appropriate action will be taken, not excluding expulsion from the course. The same rules apply online as they do in person. Be respectful of other students. Foul discourse will not be tolerated. Please take a moment and read the basic information about netiquette. (http://www.albion.com/netiquette/).

Participating in the virtual realm, including social media sites and shared-access sites sometimes used for educational collaborations, should be done with honor and integrity. This site provides guidance on personal media accounts and sites (https://tinyurl.com/PersonalMedia).

 

Academic Misconduct

Academic Misconduct (Sec. 3.4 from the TCU Code of Student Conduct): Any act that violates the academic integrity of the institution is considered academic misconduct. The procedures used to resolve suspected acts of academic misconduct are available in the offices of Academic Deans and the Office of Campus Life and are listed in detail in the Undergraduate Catalog. Specific examples include, but are not limited to:

·       Cheating: Copying from another student’s test paper, laboratory report, other report, or computer files and listings; using, during any academic exercise, material and/or devices not authorized by the person in charge of the test; collaborating with or seeking aid from another student during a test or laboratory without permission; knowingly using, buying, selling, stealing, transporting, or soliciting in its entirety or in part, the contents of a test or other assignment unauthorized for release; substituting for another student or permitting another student to substitute for oneself.

·       Plagiarism: The appropriation, theft, purchase or obtaining by any means another’s work, and the unacknowledged submission or incorporation of that work as one’s own offered for credit. Appropriation includes the quoting or paraphrasing of another’s work without giving credit therefore. 

·       Collusion: The unauthorized collaboration with another in preparing work offered for credit.

·       Abuse of resource materials: Mutilating, destroying, concealing, or stealing such material.

·       Computer misuse: Unauthorized or illegal use of computer software or hardware through the TCU Computer Center or through any programs, terminals, or freestanding computers owned, leased or operated by TCU or any of its academic units for the purpose of affecting the academic standing of a student.

·       Fabrication and falsification: Unauthorized alteration or invention of any information or citation in an academic exercise. Falsification involves altering information for use in any academic exercise. Fabrication involves inventing or counterfeiting information for use in any academic exercise.

·       Multiple submission: The submission by the same individual of substantial portions of the same academic work (including oral reports) for credit more than once in the same or another class without authorization.

·       Complicity in academic misconduct: Helping another to commit an act of academic misconduct.

·       Bearing false witness: Knowingly and falsely accusing another student of academic misconduct.

Support for TCU Students

Campus Offices

·       Brown-Lupton Health Center (817-257-7863)

·       Campus Life (817-257-7926, Sadler Hall 2006)

·       Center for Academic Services (817-257-7486, Sadler Hall 1022)

·       Center for Digital Expression (CDeX) (817-257-7350, Scharbauer 2003)

·       Mary Couts Burnett Library (817-257-7117)

·       Office of Religious & Spiritual Life (817-257-7830, Jarvis Hall 1^st floor)

·       Student Development Services (817-257-7855, BLUU 2003)

·       TCU Center for Writing (817-257-7221, Reed Hall 419)

·       Transfer Student Center (817-257-7855, BLUU 2003)

·       Veterans Services (817-257-5557, Jarvis Hall 219)

 

Anti-Discrimination and Title IX Information

Statement on TCU’s Discrimination Policy

TCU prohibits discrimination and harassment based on age, race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, gender expression, national origin, ethnic origin, disability, predisposing genetic information, covered veteran status, and any other basis protected by law, except as permitted by law. TCU also prohibits unlawful sexual and gender-based harassment and violence, sexual assault, incest, statutory rape, sexual exploitation, intimate partner violence, bullying, stalking, and retaliation. We understand that discrimination, harassment, and sexual violence can undermine students’ academic success and we encourage students who have experienced any of these issues to talk to someone about their experience, so they can get the support they need.

·       Review TCU’s Policy on Prohibited Discrimination, Harassment and Related Conduct or to file a complaint: https://titleix.tcu.edu/title-ix/.

·       Learn about the Campus Community Response Team and Report a Bias Incident: https://titleix.tcu.edu/campus-community-response-team/

 

Statement on Title IX at TCU

As an instructor, one of my responsibilities is to help create a safe learning environment on our campus. It is my goal that you feel able to share information related to your life experiences in classroom discussions, in your written work, and in our one-on-one meetings. I will seek to keep any information your share private to the greatest extent possible. However, I have a mandatory reporting responsibility under TCU policy and federal law and I am required to share any information I receive regarding sexual harassment, discrimination, and related conduct with TCU’s Title IX Coordinator. Students can receive confidential support and academic advocacy by contacting TCU’s Confidential Advocate in the Campus Advocacy, Resources & Education office at (817) 257-5225 or the Counseling & Mental Health Center at https://counseling.tcu.edu/ or by calling (817) 257-7863. Alleged violations can be reported to the Title IX Office at https://titleix.tcu.edu/student-toolkit/ or by calling (817) 257-8228. Should you wish to make a confidential report, the Title IX Office will seek to maintain your privacy to the greatest extent possible, but cannot guarantee confidentiality. Reports to law enforcement can be made to the Fort Worth Police Department at 911 for an emergency and (817) 335-4222 for non-emergency or TCU Police at (817) 257-7777.

 

Obligations to Report Conduct Raising Title IX or VAWA Issues

Mandatory Reporters: All TCU employees, except Confidential Resources, are considered Mandatory Reporters for purposes of their obligations to report, to the Coordinator, conduct that raises Title IX and/or VAWA (Violence Against Women Act) issues.

 

Mandatory Reporters are required to immediately report to the Coordinator information about conduct that raises Title IX and/or VAWA issues, including any reports, complaints or allegations of sexual harassment, discrimination and those forms of prohibited conduct that relate to nonconsensual sexual intercourse or contact, sexual exploitation, intimate partner violence, stalking and retaliation involving any member of the TCU community, except as otherwise provided within the Policy on Prohibited Discrimination, Harassment and Related Conduct.

 

Mandatory Reporters may receive this information in a number of ways. For example, a complainant may report the information directly to a Mandatory Reporter, a witness or third-party may provide information to a Mandatory Reporter, or a Mandatory Reporter may personally witness such conduct. A Mandatory Reporter’s obligation to report such information to the Coordinator does not depend on how he/she received the information. Mandatory Reporters must provide all known information about conduct that raises Title IX or VAWA issues to the Coordinator, including the identities of the parties, the date, time and location, and any other details. Failure of a Mandatory Reporters to provide such information to the Coordinator in a timely manner may subject the employee to appropriate discipline, including removal from a position or termination of employment.

 

Mandatory Reporters cannot promise to refrain from forwarding the information to the Coordinator if it raises Title IX or VAWA issues or withhold information about such conduct from the Coordinator. Mandatory Reporters may provide support and assistance to a complainant, witness, or respondent, but they should not conduct any investigation or notify the respondent unless requested to do so by the Coordinator.

 

Mandatory Reporters are not required to report information disclosed (1) at public awareness events (e.g., “Take Back the Night,” candlelight vigils, protests, “survivor speak-outs,” or other public forums in which students may disclose such information (collectively, public awareness events); or (2) during an individual’s participation as a subject in an Institutional Review Board approved human subjects research protocol (IRB Research). TCU may provide information about Title IX rights and available resources and support at public awareness events, however, and Institutional Review Boards may, in appropriate cases, require researchers to provide such information to all subjects of IRB Research.

911 for an emergency and (817) 335-4222 for non-emergency or TCU Police at (817) 257-7777.

 

Statement of Disability Services at TCU

Disabilities Statement: Texas Christian University complies with the Americans with Disabilities Act and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 regarding students with disabilities. Eligible students seeking accommodations should contact the Coordinator of Student Disabilities Services in the Center for Academic Services located in Sadler Hall, room 1010 or http://www.acs.tcu.edu/disability_services.asp. Accommodations are not retroactive, therefore, students should contact the Coordinator as soon as possible in the term for which they are seeking accommodations.

Further information can be obtained from the Center for Academic Services, TCU Box 297710, Fort Worth, TX 76129, or at (817) 257-6567.

Adequate time must be allowed to arrange accommodations and accommodations are not retroactive; therefore, students should contact the Coordinator as soon as possible in the academic term for which they are seeking accommodations. Each eligible student is responsible for presenting relevant, verifiable, professional documentation and/or assessment reports to the Coordinator. Guidelines for documentation may be found at http://www.acs.tcu.edu/disability_documentation.asp.

Students with emergency medical information or needing special arrangements in case a building must be evacuated should discuss this information with their instructor/professor as soon as possible.