Posted by Jennifer Farrell
3 March 2025Here at the University of Exeter we have a particularly strong research and teaching presence in the histories of magic, esotericism, and witchcraft. Only last year we advertised the new MA in Magic and Occult Science, spearheaded by Prof. Emily Selove in the Department of Arabic and Islamic Studies (and the subject of last week’s blog post). The first course of its kind in the UK, it reflects the interdisciplinary expertise on offer across various departments and research centres here at Exeter, including of course the Centre for Magic and Esotericism and the Centre for Medieval Studies.
These associations are likely what prompted Seed Talks to reach out to me in 2023 and ask if I would do a few talks for them on ‘The History of Witchcraft and Feminism’. Seed Talks are an independent events company dedicated to sharing interesting and specialist knowledge with as wide an audience as possible, and it was the first time they had ventured into this particular subject area. As someone who specialises in medieval gender and the supernatural, I was very keen to contribute. However, as I was about to have a baby, it wasn’t until September 2024 that I was ready to do my first event. Since then, I have had the pleasure of giving talks in venues across Bristol, Bath, London, and Exeter, as well as running an online workshop.
These events have allowed me to connect with people from across a diverse range of communities and backgrounds who are all connected by a shared passion for the subject. In a change of scene from the usual lecture halls and seminar classrooms with which I am familiar, these talks have taken place in bars, clubs, cinemas, and other events venues, including Exeter Phoenix (which, as an adopted local, I was very excited about!). To my delight, the topic of our talks has proven to be enormously popular: our recent event in London’s Genesis Cinema had a combined online and in-person audience of just over 1100 people, one of the largest events ever run by Seed Talks! Despite the rhetoric we sometimes hear in the media, the humanities continue to be both of interest and importance to people. While the era of the infamous witch hunts has always been popular, having over a thousand people listen to you talk about things found in medieval penitentials, heresy trials, and papal bulls really is an opportunity no medieval historian could resist!
Seed Talks commit to making these events as accessible and affordable as possible, which means that I have been able to see first-hand how subjects such as the history of magic, the occult, gender, and of course feminism continue to resonate with audiences. Magic and witchcraft, far from being relics of past societies, are in fact fundamental to the way many of us view the world today and our place within it. As a form of community outreach and engagement, the experience has really opened my eyes to the myriad ways in which people relate to history and understand its value.
Throughout all of the events I have so far participated in, I have connected with people hoping to pursue postgraduate study in the area, with authors of novels looking to explore the topic in their writings, with community activists looking to place present experiences of female reproductive healthcare within a broader historical context, with festival organisers, with playwrights, and with people who simply love to spend a weeknight socialising with friends and listening to an interesting talk about something they may not have known all that much about. After one such event the online audience initiated the establishment of a witchy book club! Who says online events don’t foster community?!
The energy and enthusiasm which these audiences bring to the events is invigorating and the Q&As which end each session have always been a particular joy for me. It is there that I get a real insight into what it is about the topic that has most captured the interest of that particular audience, and every audience’s interests are different. The questions they ask have often introduced me to new ways of thinking about how the history of both magic and witchcraft intersects with identity and with experiences of community.
Since my first talk in the autumn of 2024, interest in the subject has meant that there are now eight of us in total delivering ‘Witchcraft and Feminism’ talks around the UK and Ireland, a list which includes medievalists, early modernists, modern historians, as well as modern practitioners of magic. (The eagle-eyed among you will also spot our own Dr Tabitha Stanmore in there as well!) We all approach the topic in different ways: as a medievalist, my version of the talk focuses on the long and complex history of magic from the classical era to the end of the fifteenth century, and explores the ways in which medieval gendered ideologies, fears of heresy, and the rise of new forms of ritual magic all combined to shape the evolution of the crime of witchcraft at the end of the Middle Ages. I try to reflect upon how the pre-modern past continues to shape gendered experiences today, and consider some of the reasons why the history of magic and witchcraft appeals to the varied interests of modern feminist movements.
More information about the wide range of subjects covered by Seed Talks is available on Eventbrite. For further updates on these talks and other teaching and research news from Jennifer Farrell, please follow her on Instagram at @medievaljen.