30/10/2026
“Witchcraft has become pretty popular in our culture and society, especially in media. From the 80s/90s witches of Sabrina the Teenage Witch, Charmed and Practical Magic to the more recent phenomenon of Etsy witches, there are now multiple generations of people who have re-defined the label ‘witch’ as a powerful identity.
But there was a period in our collective history where this identity enabled the surveillance, marginalisation, persecution and ex*****on of people, and depictions of witchcraft were just as popular for that audience. So, I’m interested in how the ‘media’ that was produced at the same time as witchcraft ex*****ons interacted with the witch figure.
My project examines how witchcraft suspicions, beliefs and theology developed in England during the late sixteenth and early seventeenth century.
I focus on primary sources such as printed pamphlets, demonologies, court records and religious tracts in order to trace how the representation of women and femininity changes in popular culture as England shifted from Elizabeth I’s matriarchal monarchy to James I’s patriarchal reign. I then place the theatre at the centre of this network of information to explore how drama, written and produced at the same time that witch trials were occurring, reflected, challenged and transformed the reality of the witch phenomenon.
It’s quite interesting how many aspects of culture and folklore (our Banshee, Changelings, Aos Sí, Druids and healers) are re-defined, typically by colonial intervention, as ‘unnatural.’ This dehumanises the subject, distances them from society and allows oppressive structures to more easily exclude and erase their presence.
This occurred in the early modern period, where people could be accused of witchcraft by a vengeful neighbour or a naive child and would endure a systematic process of suspicion, marginalisation and probable ex*****on.
This process still happens today with marginalised groups and misinformation spread by the media. It’s so important to be able to understand who is constructing so called ‘normative’ and ‘alternative’ identities – who defines them, what enforces that definition and who profits from them.”
- Emma Barrett, UL PhD student
