Lawrence University Main Hall Forum Looks at Austrian Witch Trials

APPLETON, WIS. -- Lawrence University historian Edmund Kern examines the role witch trials played in various modes of communication between the ruling elite and the ruled masses in a Lawrence University Main Hall Forum.

Kern, associate professor of history at Lawrence, presents, "Cleaving the Body Social: The 'Public Sphere' and the Execution of Witches," Tuesday, May 8 at 4:15 p.m. in Main Hall, Room 202. The event is free and open to the public.

The address is based on research of 303 investigations for witchcraft involving more than 879 accused witches from the Austrian duchy of Styria between 1546 and 1746. He will discuss how the witch trials served as highly ritualized spectacles of state authority and local control which created a "public sphere" of both unity and separation that was dependent upon a common understanding of what was best for the public good.

A specialist in early modern Europe and religious culture, Kern joined the Lawrence faculty in 1992. He earned his Ph.D. in history at the University of Minnesota.