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Sussex Lecturer Dr Laura Kounine on Channel 4 Witch Trials Documentary
Suranne Jones: Investigating Witch Trials. Image credit: Channel 4
Dr Laura Kounine, Senior Lecturer in Early Modern History was interviewed for Suranne Jones: Investigating Witch Trials. The Channel 4 documentary series sees Jones investigating the early modern witch trials that occurred in Pendle, Lancashire; in Salem, Massachusetts; and in Germany.
Kounine provided expert insight about why it was women who were disproportionately persecuted for witchcraft in the early modern era. The Senior Lecturer in the School of Media, Arts and Humanities has extensively researched witchcraft and early modern witch trials from a gendered lens, and provided historical context for the programme.
In May, Kounine was in conversation with Zoë Howe for The Radical, Revolutionary Witch event in the Festival of Ideas strand of the Brighton Festival.
Kounine's publications include Imagining the Witch: Emotions, Gender, and Selfhood in Early Modern Germany (Oxford University Press) and the co-edited Emotions in the History of Witchcraft (Palgrave) and Cultures of Conflict Resolution in Early Modern Europe (Routledge). Forthcoming books include A History of Witches in their Own Words and the co-edited Cambridge Companion to the Witch.
The two-part documentary airs on Channel 4 on Sunday 23 and Sunday 30 June at 9pm. Kounine features in both episodes and in the Witch Trials trailer, and is quoted in The Times' review of the programme.