Master of Arts (MA), Ohio University, 2023, History (Arts and Sciences)

The purpose of this study was to examine the works of William Perkins and situate his singular treatise A Discourse on the Damned Art of Witchcraft within his broader theology. This thesis argued that Perkins approached witchcraft not from a superstitious viewpoint but as a means of addressing a broader range of concerns he held about the nature of sin and piety. By analyzing his wider collection of publications as well as the Puritan movement in Elizabethan England this study demonstrated that William Perkins held a very similar view on witchcraft as other Puritans of his time. Perkins did not believe witches had any genuine power but instead were a part of illusions produced by the devil. Perkins argued that the primary issue with witchcraft is that it is a grave sin against God because it breaks the promise Christians make during their baptism. This treatise is an excellent example of Perkins using relevant fears his parishioners would have had to dismiss popular superstitions and translate Scripture into understandable and relatable lessons.

Committee: Michele Clouse (Advisor); Miriam Shadis (Committee Member); John Brobst (Committee Member) Subjects: European History; European Studies; History; Religion; Religious History; Theology

Master of Science in Mathematics, Youngstown State University, 2014, Department of Mathematics and Statistics

The idea of magic and witches was not foreign to the society of Colonial America. Many historical studies have examined the social, political, and economic aspects of witch hunts in Colonial America, especially the infamous Salem witch hunt. During the Salem witch hunt of 1692, over 150 people were accused of practicing witchcraft, 19 people were executed, and countless others were victimized. The object of this paper is to analyze witchcraft accusations of seventeenth-century Colonial America to discover any underlying patterns. Time series count data of witchcraft accusations were used to conduct an intervention analysis to determine whether the Salem witch hunt had an effect on witchcraft accusations in Colonial America.

Committee: G.Jay Kerns Ph.D. (Advisor); Andy Chang Ph.D. (Committee Member); Diane Barnes Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: History; Statistics

Bachelor of Arts, Wittenberg University, 2023, History

Medieval Europe was a period of development and change, none of which is more evident than through the transition of medical authority from women and magic to solely men and medicine. At the start of the Middle Ages, magic and medicine held an interwoven relationship, where women could freely practice and function as medical authorities within their communities alongside men. Their presence as healers provided them with a rare opportunity to escape from the traditional confines of the patriarchal society of the Middle Ages. However, the creation of medical universities, which excluded women from enrolling, sought to eliminate the role which magic held within the medical field. With its usefulness in through medicine relegated, an opposition towards magic begun developing and the connection between magic and witchcraft to the nature of women was solidified. Women's already vulnerable status within society added onto the perceived threat of witchcraft opened the door for direct persecution women. Medical practitioners, ecclesiastical writers, the Christian church, governing bodies, and local authorities all contributed to the curation of stereotypes surrounding witchcraft practitioners. As a result, the Inquisition and larger witch hunt movement developed, specifically targeting women. The witchcraft trials were the final deadly product of this movement and were overwhelmingly disproportionate in their indictment and execution of women.

Committee: Christian Raffensperger (Advisor); Nona Moskowitz (Committee Member); Scott Rosenberg (Committee Member) Subjects: Alternative Medicine; Folklore; Gender; Gender Studies; History; Medicine; Medieval History; Middle Ages; Womens Studies

Bachelor of Arts, Wittenberg University, 2023, Sociology

Alternative spiritualities, or spiritual practices that fall outside of traditional organized religions, have long been viewed as deviant. But with growing religious discontent in the world, more people have begun turning to these alternatives. This thesis explores the lived experience, identity, and community of Americans who practice alternative spiritualities. Interviews were conducted with seven Spiritualist church attendees and three Witchcraft practitioners to further understand the impacts of spirituality on their daily lives and display the present need for these alternatives within society. Participants' lived experiences revealed that religious upbringings and discontent with organized religions directly influenced their motivations for seeking out spiritual alternatives. Moreover, their current spiritual practices actively shape continued motivations to maintain their spiritual beliefs. Spirituality is a critical piece of identity; however, it remains a factor in which people are conscious over due to the negative associations that are inherently attached onto the notion of alternative spirituality. Community remains a central component of alternative spiritualities, as it is a key factor in sustaining one's spirituality. Each of these elements convey that people are seeking out alternative spiritualities due to a present need for religious alternatives separate from traditional organized religions, which provide community and allow individuality, personal spiritual constructions, beliefs, and practices.

Committee: Nona Moskowitz (Advisor); David Nibert (Committee Member); Christian Raffensperger (Committee Member) Subjects: Religion; Sociology; Spirituality

BA, Kent State University, 2021, College of Arts and Sciences / Department of Political Science

This thesis looks into the religious and academic matrix surrounding women, the concept of witchcraft in a colonial Zimbabwean context, and the syncretic development of faith healing, and addresses a gap in the literature concerning Zimbabwe by arguing that the religious blend of Christianity and traditional Shona religion regarding the categories of spirit medium, n'anga, muroyi, and mhondoro changed over time, and developed into new categories. These new categories of Holy Spirit mediums, or syncretic prophetesses enabled women to increase in agency, and connected them to a deeper history of women who inhabited these roles such as Charwe/Nehanda, the seminal figure in the first War of Liberation at the turn of the 20th century. This thesis, by making connections between the figures of Ambuya Juliana and Mai Chaza to Charwe/Nehanda, makes a contribution to the literature in that it shows that these women are operating in historical and spiritual continuity with one another, offering a rich spiritual and historical tradition to women contemporarily who seek to increase their agency through religious means.

Committee: Timothy Scarnecchia Ph.D. (Advisor); Matthew Crawford Ph.D. (Committee Member); Suzy D'Enbeau Ph.D. (Committee Member); Davison Mupinga Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: African History; African Studies; History; Political Science

Master of Arts (MA), Bowling Green State University, 2021, Popular Culture

This thesis investigates the relationship between the body of the witch in popular culture and attitudes and assumptions about the female body. This study was conducted through textual analysis of several popular films and television shows about witches. This analysis is structured around three core archetypes of femininity: the Maiden, the Mother, and the Crone, examining how each of the three archetypes preserve stereotypes about women and how witches can subvert or reinforce those stereotypes. Using the theory of abjection as a foundation, this thesis argues that witches have a strong relationship to abject femininity and can therefore expose the anxieties and fears about female bodies in a patriarchal culture. This is not a comprehensive study of witches in popular culture, and further research into the intersections of gender and race, sexuality, and ability is needed to form any definite conclusions. This study is merely an exploration of female archetypes and how the female body is conceived through the witch's body in popular culture.

Committee: Jeffrey Brown Dr. (Advisor); Angela Nelson Dr. (Committee Member); Esther Clinton Dr. (Committee Member) Subjects: American Studies; Film Studies; Gender; Gender Studies; Mass Media; Religion; Womens Studies

MFA, Kent State University, 2020, College of the Arts / School of Art

Suffering is a universal experience which exists in varying degrees. An injured soul seeks protection from what has harmed it, and can seek safety in withdrawal, isolation, depression or mania. My thesis work is a vessel for coping and healing, and the thinking that lies behind it. I use biomorphic forms that cluster, cover and consume the wearer as the physical manifestation of emotional shelter. These adornments, referencing magic, tarot, and fantasy, are imbued with a protective and healing aura. This sense of protection, in whatever form it takes, acts as armor fortifying the wearer and allowing them to confront their trauma.

Committee: Andrew Kuebeck (Advisor); Janice Lessman-Moss (Committee Member); Shawn Powell (Committee Member) Subjects: Fine Arts; Metallurgy; Metaphysics

M.A. (Master of Arts in English), Ohio Dominican University, 2019, English

Representations of witchcraft and beings of magical power were popular forms of entertainment for William Shakespeare and his contemporaries, despite the less whimsical ramifications faced by actual persons accused of witchcraft at the time. King James I was well known to have an acute fascination with occult studies, as evidenced by his publication of Daemonologie in 1597. The vilification and fear mongering that arose from James's condemnation of witchcraft has had resounding consequences particularly affecting cultural ideology surrounding the autonomy of women for generations thereafter. In the world of the Elizabethan theater, representations of witches could be depicted as entertainment while also either endorsing or critiquing the cultural climate surrounding the subject of witchcraft in society. Shakespeare and his contemporaries portrayed these supernatural characters in a variety of ways: some comical and innocuous, others startling and sinister. But is there a distinction between the male representations of witchcraft as opposed to female (or perhaps gender-fluid) representations of witches? This paper believes there are marked distinctions and will seek to examine this question by exploring characters depicted in Shakespeare's Macbeth, The Tempest, and Henry VI. Attention will also be given to portrayals of witches by Shakespeare's contemporaries, notably Christopher Marlowe's Doctor Faustus and The Witch of Edmonton by William Rowley, Thomas Dekker and John Ford. Consideration will also be paid to the ways in which particularly Shakespeare's depictions of witchcraft and representations of supernatural women have evolved in more contemporary adaptations with the insurgence of feminist ideology over the last century, and a comparative examination of original and adaptive texts will mark the distinctions of how specific performances have transformed from what may have been their original portrayals on the Elizabethan stage.

Committee: Jeremy Glazier M.F.A. (Advisor); Martin Brick Ph.D. (Other) Subjects: Gender Studies; Literature

Master of Arts, Miami University, 2019, Theatre

Rituals have been used throughout history as a way to process change and emotion. In the modern day, people are beginning to turn away from organized religion and to take on more personalized rituals and spirituality. As such, identifying as a witch is a growing phenomenon that serves to empower many personally, politically, and spiritually. This creative thesis takes an autobiographical approach to explore how ritual and the identity of the witch can be used as tools of empowerment, tracing the artist's own journey from Catholicism to a more fluid spiritual life. On February 22nd, 2019, Ceremonials: A Ritual Play opened as part of Miami University's Independent Artist Series. The play was devised with a student ensemble over a period of five months and stands as the culmination of a series of performance projects that sought to combine ritual and theatre. This portfolio spans the breadth of that practice-based research and includes examples from performance experiments and the devising process, as well as reflections on how ritual and devised theatre can help to empower the individual and the artist.

Committee: Saffron Henke MFA (Advisor); Julia Guichard MFA (Committee Member); Christiana Molldrem Harkulich PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Theater

Master of Fine Arts, The Ohio State University, 2019, English

A collection consisting of eight short stories and a novella submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Master of Fine Arts in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University. Situated at the intersection of fantasy and reality, these works explore the power of myth and the everyday fictions that define us.

Committee: Nick White PhD (Advisor); Angus Fletcher PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Literature

Master of Humanities (MHum), Wright State University, 2017, Humanities

This thesis is a survey of contemporary horror films from the perspective of fundamentalist American audiences. Using Judith Butler's work on gender performativity and religious studies scholarship as framework, I investigate how five visual texts perpetuate patriarchal family structures. The five texts I explore are The Last Exorcism (2010), The Conjuring (2013) and The Conjuring 2 (2016), The Witch: A New England Folk Tale (2015), and The Exorcist television series (2016). In each chapter, I analyze a key family member per patriarchal norms, and how violations of these norms contribute to the family's supernatural crisis. The figures I analyze for each text is The Weak Father, The Bad Mother, and The Unstable Daughter. The texts' shared, repetitious message implies that societal order can be (re)established once individuals adhere to fundamentalist patriarchal standards, reinforcing many scholars' conclusions that fundamentalist Christianity continues to be a pervasive, dominant force in American culture.

Committee: Hope Jennings Ph.D. (Advisor); Christine Junker Ph.D. (Committee Member); Andrea Harris M.A. (Committee Member) Subjects: American Studies; Film Studies; Gender Studies; Glbt Studies; Motion Pictures; Religion; Womens Studies

Bachelor of Arts (BA), Ohio University, 2017, History

Isolated accusations of witchcraft were not uncommon in early modern European society, but very rarely escalated into widespread witch-hunting crazes. As the catalysts behind the two largest witch-hunts in English Atlantic history, Matthew Hopkins and Cotton Mather are central to understanding the role an individual could play in turning a uncertain societal situation into a large-scale witch-hunt with a few words. These two men sought to exploit times of uncertainty for their own prestige and gain. Public backlash to their actions resulted in the strengthening of laws surrounding witchcraft trials and legal methods of extracting confessions, making future prosecutions of witchcraft accusations less likely and more difficult.

Committee: Sarah Kinkel PhD (Advisor) Subjects: American History; European History; History

BA, Oberlin College, 2014, History

The changes in the understanding of childhood and children in colonial New England marked a swift and profound departure from English family norms prior to 1630. Casting off the intellectual baggage of childhood and the family mores that had accompanied the Puritans across the Atlantic, New Englanders reconceptualized children as central to the mission in the wilderness. In this thesis, I argue that New Englanders connected, both implicitly and explicitly, the well being of the colony's children directly with the future health of New England and sought to capitalize on this connection in unique, at times self-serving, ways. To best serve their own visions of the future New England commonwealth, religious authorities, secular authorities, and parents and the 'common folk' throughout Massachusetts constructed contested meanings and goals that each group attached to and associated variously with children. Though each group agreed on a new understanding of childhood, their differing interpretations and goals, and the contested ground on which these groups interacted, introduced into New England society intense and ultimately irreconcilable tensions between the community and the family. The interactions between religious authorities, secular authorities, and the 'common folk' introduced fundamental inconsistencies, incompatibilities, and irreconcilable tensions into New England society from an early period.

Committee: Matthew Bahar (Advisor); Renee Romano (Committee Chair); Carol Lasser (Committee Member); Emer O'Dwyer (Committee Member) Subjects: History

MA, University of Cincinnati, 2014, Arts and Sciences: Germanic Languages and Literature

The early-modern period was a time of political, social, religious, and philosophical transitions. This thesis seeks to explore early-modern witchcraft within the framework of these transitions, using ecclesiastical treatises, contemporary art, witch trial transcripts, and literary depictions of witchcraft to ascertain the changing role of the devil in the early-modern conceptualization of witchcraft. At the beginning of this period, the devil was a ubiquitous and concrete presence in virtually all early-modern witchcraft discourse, whether textual or visual. As the period evolves, textual and visual representations develop nuances that reflect the changing philosophical and religious discourses. By the end of this period, texts and art indicate a spectrum of beliefs about the devil's role in witchcraft, from the concrete and dominant presence he had at the beginning of this period, through a middle-ground of equality with the witch in her/his apostasy, through to a growing disbelief in his corporeal existence or influence on human behavior. The images of the devil and witch during this period remain the dominant images of the devil and witch into and throughout the modern period.

Committee: Richard Schade Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Sigrun Haude Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Germanic Literature

Doctor of Psychology (PsyD), Wright State University, 2013, School of Professional Psychology

In response to an identified need in the psychological literature for research on minority religion, especially earth-centered religion, this dissertation was developed to 1) present an overview of the three main branches of contemporary earth religion, 2) illuminate the realities of minority religious identity in the United States of America, 3) collect data regarding the demographic and identity variables of devotees of earth centered religion, and 4) solicit feedback from the earth religious community regarding its understanding of psychological distress, preferred ways of coping with distress, and perceptions and experiences of professional mental health services. A total of 64 self-identified devotees of earth-centered faith completed an online questionnaire about their identity variables, experiences of psychological distress, ways of understanding distress, and experiences, perceptions, and fears pertaining to mental health services. The questionnaire was developed by the researcher based upon a literature review and consultation of the National Council of Schools and Programs of Professional Psychology's developmental achievement levels in diversity. Descriptive and statistical findings pertaining to this religious population are detailed. Additionally, clinical and research implications of the results, as well as limitations and strengths of the current study are identified and discussed.

Committee: Julie Williams PsyD, ABPP (Committee Chair); James Dobbins PhD, ABPP (Committee Member); Eve Wolf PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Clinical Psychology; Counseling Psychology; Psychology; Psychotherapy; Religion; Spirituality; Therapy

Master of Arts, The Ohio State University, 1951, English

Committee: Ruth Hughey (Advisor) Subjects:

Master of Arts, Miami University, 2004, Religion

Witchcraft and sorcery have been a focus of anthropologists, religionists and many other scholars for a long time. The study of witchcraft and sorcery has largely shifted from its evolutionist and functionalist beginnings. In recent years, scholars have become increasingly interested in the connections between witchcraft and sorcery on the one hand, and power, politics, and race on the other. This new scholarly interest has helped to spur a resurgence in the study of witchcraft that focuses in part on demonstrating the modernity of witchcraft and sorcery. This approach is particularly relevant in East Africa, where witchcraft and sorcery are now used to explain global and state politics, the attainment and loss of political power, and other issues relevant to the region. Witchcraft and sorcery have become modern concerns. Over time the phenomena of witchcraft and sorcery have spread beyond the traditional rural setting into the urban East African environment and traditional witchcraft beliefs and practices have been adapted to cope with urban society. This thesis attempts to show that witchcraft and sorcery have adapted to modernization and urbanization as well as how the perceptions of these phenomena have changed. In addition, it seeks to show that witchcraft and sorcery have taken their place in modernity as modern phenomena.

Committee: Elizabeth Wilson (Advisor) Subjects:

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Bowling Green State University, 2007, American Culture Studies/Sociology

What is a Witch? Traditional mainstream media images of Witches tell us they are evil “devil worshipping baby killers,” green-skinned hags who fly on brooms, or flaky tree huggers who dance naked in the woods. A variety of mainstream media has worked to support these notions as well as develop new ones. Contemporary American popular culture shows us images of Witches on television shows and in films vanquishing demons, traveling back and forth in time and from one reality to another, speaking with dead relatives, and attending private schools, among other things. None of these mainstream images acknowledge the very real beliefs and traditions of modern Witches and Pagans, or speak to the depth and variety of social, cultural, political, and environmental work being undertaken by Pagan and Wiccan groups and individuals around the world. Utilizing social construction theory, this study examines the “historical process” of the construction of stereotypes surrounding Witches in mainstream American society as well as how groups and individuals who call themselves Pagan and/or Wiccan have utilized the only media technology available to them, the internet, to resist and re-construct these images in order to present more positive images of themselves as well as build community between and among Pagans and nonPagans.

Committee: Angela Nelson (Advisor) Subjects:

Master of Arts (MA), Bowling Green State University, 2006, English/Literature

This project looks closely at Christopher Marlowe's Doctor Faustus and its relationship to the witchcraft and magic debates in the Renaissance. During this time, witches were considered a manifestation of diabolical evil, which caused massive witch hunts. This same period saw a Neoplatonic revival among humanists who believed that by dedicating their lives to contemplation and God, they could access benevolent magic allowing them to improve the world. Doctor Faustus is unique because it presents the dreams of the Neoplatonists at the same time as it portrays the behaviors associated with witches. By comparing the text with orthodox treatises, popular beliefs, and Neoplatonic writings, I argue that Faustus turns his back on God. Ultimately, this paper concludes that because he participates in the events of a witches' sabbat, he fails to achieve the magic of occult philosophers, and he performs maleficium, Doctor Faustus is a witch not a magician.

Committee: Simon Morgan-Russell (Advisor) Subjects: Literature, English