Societas Magica

The Societas Magica is an organization dedicated to furthering communication and exchange among scholars interested in the study of magic, both in the positive contexts of its expression as an area of necessary knowledge or religious practice (as in early modern occultism and contemporary paganism), and in its negative contexts as the substance of an accusation or condemnation (as in sorcery trials, and many philosophical and theological accounts, both early and late). The interests of our membership include, but are not limited to, the history and sociology of magic; theological, and intellectual apprehensions of magic; practices and theories of magic; and objects, artifacts and texts either qualified as magical by their creators, or forming the substance of an accusation of magic by others.

Established in 1994 by Richard Kieckhefer, Claire Fanger and Robert Mathiesen, the Societas originally had the purpose of sponsoring sessions on the history of magic in the middle ages at the annual International Congress on Medieval Studies at Kalamazoo, Michigan. However the activities of the Societas have expanded with its increasingly diverse membership, and our interests are not limited to the medieval period. We continue to sponsor sessions both at the Medieval Congress at Kalamazoo and also at other academic conferences as proposed and organized by members. In the past these have included sessions at the Annual Meeting of the History of Science Society, the Sixteenth Century Studies Conference, and a full conference organized at the University of Waterloo in 2008. From 1995 to 2017 we published a newsletter twice yearly, which has lately returned at two issues a year. Readers are also invited to read (and contribute to) our blog, and other affiliated publications. An email list is available to members who wish to join.