17 and 18 October 2008
Toronto, Ontario
An international, interdisciplinary conference hosted by the Centre
for Reformation and Renaissance Studies at Victoria College in the
University of Toronto
Keynote speakers include Richard Kieckhefer and Audrey L. Meaney.
This multi-disciplinary conference seeks to examine the broad
trajectory of devil beliefs in the period prior to 1650 in order to
help explain what might be termed the general diabolisation of
European thought as it is refracted through society and culture
arguably from the middle of the fifteenth century. By surveying the
variety in form and function of diabolical and demonic discourses and
their social expression both at a series of particular historical
moments, and over the /longue durée/, the conference aims to advance
our understanding of the changing role of the devil in popular and
elite culture and aetiology from late antiquity to its height in the
early modern period.
The conference organisers invite submissions for individual 20-minute
papers, for panels (generally consisting of three papers), and
workshops or round-tables dealing with any aspect of demonism and its
manifestation in the classical, medieval, and Early Modern
traditions. Some possible topics include, but are not limited to:
Antichrist and the End of the World
Clerical and popular demonism
Constructions of the Sabbat
Demonic magic
Demonic possession
Demonologists—medieval and early modern
Demonology and witchcraft
Demons and heresy
Demons and sceptics
Demons in literature and on the stage
Devil in art
Devil in folklore
Demons in hagiography and /exempla/
Demonisation of the “Other”
Exorcism, lay and clerical
Incubi and succubi
Mysticism and diabology
New World demons
Protestant vs. Catholic demons
Women as healers, mystics, and witches
Abstracts of no more than 150 words should be submitted by 15
December 2007, together with a one-page (max) c.v. to Richard
Raiswell (Univ. of Prince Edward Island) and Peter Dendle (Penn State
Univ.) at:
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