Decisions made by academic institutions throughout the period in question had a major cultural and social impact. Such was the case, for example, of the responsa issued by the College of Theologians of the University of Paris in 1398. They approved twenty-eight articles condemning not only Satan’s snares, the Devil’s Contracts and magical practices used to subjugate devils to his service, but condemned also the scepticism of those who did not believe in the articles’ effectiveness. The articles addressed issues relating to witchcraft and covered intellectuals “as professors”, students’ behaviours, attitudes, doctoral theses and dissertations, as well as university courses.

In the spirit of the above and by way of illustration, the main aspects (12th to 18th centuries) on which proposals for papers should be based are:

1. The reactions of universities to cases in which their students and professors were formally questioned over witchcraft;
2. University courses and responsa / consilia on matters of witchcraft;
3. Doctoral theses and dissertations on witchcraft;

4. Student behaviours, attitudes, and witchcraft (e.g. blasphemy and superstitions ventilating witchcraft; provisions of university college statutes; provisions regarding student behaviour and parties; satirical compositions).

Alongside Italian, conference languages include French, English, Spanish and German.

Proposals (title and abstract of no more than ten lines, together with name, contact details, and a brief curriculum vitae) must be submitted to the Scientific Committee – professors Patrizia Castelli, Marco Cavina, Guido Dall’Olio, Maria Rosa Di Simone, and Vincenzo Lavenia) – by and no later than 16 November 2020 at the following email address: cisui.redazione(at)unibo.it.

Responses to proposals will be sent by 21 December.

CISUI will arrange overnight hotel stay and meals for conference speakers, as well as publication of conference papers in the CISUI series “Studi e ricerche sull’università”, Il Mulino Editore.