Societas Magica

communication and exchange among scholars

Quick Links

You need to enable cookies on your browser for some areas of this site to work properly!
News and Updates
2026-07-26 05:18 PM
Announcements:
We are having more issues with Paypal, and payments with applications submitted now may not work.  

Recent books by members

If you have published a book in the last two years and want to post a notice here, email the secretary with title and publication data.

Fall 2025 newsletter is out! We continue to invite proposals for future issues. We are looking for lead articles (1500-2500 words) announcing new developments deriving from research in the study and teaching of magic and its related topics dealing with all regions and time periods. We are also looking for smaller pieces for our notes and queries column. News about dissertations in progress or completed, manuscript discoveries, or other such items are welcomed. Send your proposals to newsletters@societasmagica.org.

Don't forget that we have a Travel Bursary available for members presenting papers relevant to our interests at conferences. (It can be any conference).

 

Societas Magica Conference Sessions


INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS ON MEDIEVAL STUDIES

2024 Congress Call for Papers

59th Annual Congress
Hybrid (includes in-person sessions, virtual sessions, and some hybrid sessions)
May 9 - May 11, 2024

The Societas Magica has 8 sessions at Kalamazoo in 2024, one of which is co-sponsored with the Research Group on Manuscript Evidence (RGME). To propose a paper, please submit your material though the online portal (click "Make a Proposal") by September 15. All questions should be directed to the session organizer linked below.
 
Alchemical Manuscripts, Early Printed Books, and Other Materials (in person)
Organizer: David Porreca
 
Conjuring Wombs: Magic for Female Reproductive Disorders (in person)
Organizer: Claire L. Fanger
 
Magic and Power in Elite and Popular Culture (in person)
Organizer: Vajra Regan
Contact: vajra.regan@mail.utoronto.ca
 
Magic, Nature, and the Environment (in person)
Organizer: Samuel P. Gillis Hogan
 
Occult Computing (hybrid)
Organizer: Matthew Melvin-Koushki
 
Power in the Blood (in person)
Co-sponsoring Organization: Research Group on Manuscript Evidence
Organizer: Rochelle Rojas
 
The Ismaʿili Conspiracy (in person)
Organizer: Noah D. Gardiner
 
Trans Magic: Reimagining Gender and Sexuality in Theory and Practice (in person)
Organizer: Marla Segol

___________________________

The Societas Magica was originally formed to sponsor sessions at this Congress and it remains our most important administrative locus and the centre of our network.

We acknowledge here the enhancement to our activities provided by annual co-sponsored sessions with the  Research Group on Manuscript Evidence, as well as regular co-sponsored sessions with the Fourteenth Century Society. Others, too many to mention, have co-sponsored or in other ways supported the Societas over the short or long term. We here thank those who have done the most work with least visibility: past and present treasurers Jennifer Stevenson (first secretary-treasurer), John Leland, Amelia Carr (session organizer, too, for some years), and Ed Bever; David Porreca, for many years and still session organizer, newsletter editor, and much else besides; Laura Mitchell past newletter compositor; past newsletter editors Lea Olsan and Richard Kieckhefer (first president, too); Robert Mathiesen (first factotum and good genius, too). Thanks finally to all who faithfully attend our business meetings.

ARCHIVE OF  PAST SESSIONS AT THE INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS ON MEDIEVAL STUDIES (up until 2017; for post 2017, please see https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/medieval_cong_archive/ )

 
OTHER CONFERENCES

MAGIC UN/DISCIPLINED

 

MAGIC: FRONTIERS AND BOUNDARIES, 2008

-- Retrospective of full Societas Magica conference at the University of Waterloo

HISTORY OF SCIENCE SOCIETY MEETING, 2003

 

SIXTEENTH CENTURY STUDIES CONFERENCE, 2003