Universität Wien

070286 SE Seminar - Historical sources and critique (2025W)

Witchcraft on Trial. Analyzing Power, Justice, and Legal Narratives through Digital Tools

8.00 ECTS (2.00 SWS), SPL 7 - Geschichte
Continuous assessment of course work
Moodle

Registration/Deregistration

Note: The time of your registration within the registration period has no effect on the allocation of places (no first come, first served).

Details

max. 25 participants
Language: German

Lecturers

Classes (iCal) - next class is marked with N

This course will be held as an Erasmus Blended Intensive Programme (BIP) and will take place together with history students from Oslo, Bielefeld and Istanbul Universities from 27-31 October 2025 as a 5-day block event at Kadir Has University in Istanbul. Arrival day is Sunday, 26 October, departure day is Saturday, 1 November. Participants in this course will receive an Erasmus Short Term Mobility Fellowship to cover travel and accommodation costs.

In preparation for this seminar week, two compulsory preliminary meetings will take place:
1) Wednesday, 1 October, 11:30-13:00: organisational details of the course, explanation of the performance requirements for successful participation and clarification of the requirements for Erasmus mobility
2) Tuesday, 21 October, 17:00-19:00: Virtual Zoom session together with the course leaders and course participants from Oslo, Bielefeld and Istanbul: Presentation of the international teaching team and the programme for the seminar week in Istanbul and short introductions to the topic, research field and method of the course.

Registration for the course must be completed by Friday 3 October at the latest. Because course participation is linked to EU funding guidelines with strict deadlines, registration after 3 October is binding.

  • Wednesday 01.10. 11:30 - 13:00 Seminarraum 7 Hauptgebäude, Tiefparterre Stiege 9 Hof 5
  • Tuesday 21.10. 17:00 - 19:00 Digital

Information

Aims, contents and method of the course

This Blended Intensive Program (BIP) seminar brings together students from four partner universities to examine how legal narratives are constructed, contested, and preserved in historical court records. Focusing on the Salem witchcraft trials as a central case study, the seminar combines historical interpretation with hands-on training in digital humanities tools to provide participants with both theoretical insight and practical experience.
Participants will work with digitized court records from the Salem trials to investigate how accusations, testimonies, and verdicts were embedded in the cultural, political, and social tensions of the time. Through this focused case study, the program invites students to consider how power was exercised, resisted, and recorded within the legal system, and how historical sources both reveal and obscure the lived experiences of individuals involved.
A key component of the seminar is the introduction to digital humanities methods that enhance and complicate traditional approaches to historical sources. Digital history tools will be introduced as a means to critically interrogate the sources, uncover hidden patterns, and ask new questions about the structures and dynamics of justice.

Assessment and permitted materials

- Active participation
- Thorough reading of the reader texts circulated in the run-up to the BIP week in Istanbul
- Group presentation in Istanbul
- Seminar paper (approx. 20 pages): Deadline for submission is 10 January 2026.

Minimum requirements and assessment criteria

- Attendance and participation
- Submission of the complete seminar paper (approx. 20 pages) by the deadline

Examination topics

no examination

Reading list

- Anja Johansen/Paul Knepper (eds.), The Oxford History of the History of Crime and Criminal Justice (Oxford University Press 2016).
- Claude Chevaleyre/Juliane Schiel (eds.), Work Semantics / Semantiken der Arbeit. In: Österreichische Zeitschrift für Geschichtswissenschaften / Austrian Journal of Historical Studies 34,2 (2023).
- Jonathan Blaney/Sarah Milligan/Marty Steer/Jane Winters (eds.), Doing Digital History. A Beginner's Guide to Working With Text as Data (Manchester 2021).
- Claire Lemercier and Claire Zalc, Quantitative Methods in the Humanities. An Introduction (Charlottesville 2019).
- Catherine D'Ignazio and Lauren F. Klein, Data Feminism (MIT Press 2020).

Association in the course directory

MEd UF GP (Version 2015): UF MA GP 01 Fachwissenschaft , SE Vertiefungsseminar 1: Quellenkunde und Quellenkritik (6 ECTS).
MA Geschichte (Version 2019): PM4 Individuelle Schwerpunktsetzung, SE Seminar aus Geschichte (8 ECTS).

Last modified: We 24.09.2025 08:26