Malcolm Gaskill
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Malcolm John Gaskill
FRHistS The Royal Historical Society (RHS), founded in 1868, is a learned society of the United Kingdom which advances scholarly studies of history. Origins The society was founded and received its royal charter in 1868. Until 1872 it was known as the H ...
(born 22 April 1967) is an English academic historian and writer on crime,
magic Magic or magick most commonly refers to: * Magic (supernatural), beliefs and actions employed to influence supernatural beings and forces ** ''Magick'' (with ''-ck'') can specifically refer to ceremonial magic * Magic (illusion), also known as sta ...
,
witchcraft Witchcraft is the use of Magic (supernatural), magic by a person called a witch. Traditionally, "witchcraft" means the use of magic to inflict supernatural harm or misfortune on others, and this remains the most common and widespread meanin ...
,
spiritualism Spiritualism may refer to: * Spiritual church movement, a group of Spiritualist churches and denominations historically based in the African-American community * Spiritualism (beliefs), a metaphysical belief that the world is made up of at leas ...
, and the
supernatural Supernatural phenomena or entities are those beyond the Scientific law, laws of nature. The term is derived from Medieval Latin , from Latin 'above, beyond, outside of' + 'nature'. Although the corollary term "nature" has had multiple meanin ...
. Gaskill was a professor in the history department of the
University of East Anglia The University of East Anglia (UEA) is a Public university, public research university in Norwich, England. Established in 1963 on a campus university, campus west of the city centre, the university has four faculties and twenty-six schools of ...
from 2011 until 2020, when he retired from teaching to give more time to writing. In recent years, he has been interested in the history of war and memory, often seen from a personal angle.


Early life

Born in
Suffolk Suffolk ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East of England and East Anglia. It is bordered by Norfolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Essex to the south, and Cambridgeshire to the west. Ipswich is the largest settlement and the county ...
, Gaskill grew up in
Kent Kent is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Essex across the Thames Estuary to the north, the Strait of Dover to the south-east, East Sussex to the south-west, Surrey to the west, and Gr ...
. He was educated at
Rainham Mark Grammar School Rainham Mark Grammar School (previously Known as Gillingham Technical High School) is the only co-educational selective grammar school in the Medway, Kent, England area. It has academy status, along with Twydall Primary School and Riverside Pri ...
and
Robinson College, Cambridge Robinson College is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1977, it is one of the newest Oxbridge colleges and is unique in having been intended, from its inception, for both ...
, where he read History. He was subsequently awarded a PhD at
Jesus College, Cambridge Jesus College is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Jesus College was established in 1496 on the site of the twelfth-century Benedictine nunnery of St Radegund's Priory, Cambridge, St ...
, with a thesis on attitudes to crime in early modern England supervised by Keith Wrightson.


Career

Gaskill was briefly at
Keele University Keele University is a Public university#United Kingdom, public research university in Keele, approximately from Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire, England. Founded in 1949 as the University College of North Staffordshire, it was granted uni ...
as a lecturer for the year 1993–1994, and then at Queen’s University Belfast for the next academic year, before spending four years at
Anglia Ruskin University Anglia Ruskin University (ARU) is a public research university in the region of East Anglia, United Kingdom. Its origins date back to the Cambridge School of Art (CSA), founded by William John Beamont, a Fellow of Trinity College at the Unive ...
. After that, he joined
Churchill College, Cambridge Churchill College is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge in Cambridge, England. It has a primary focus on science, engineering and technology, but retains a strong interest in the arts ...
, as a fellow and as Director of History Studies. In 2007, he transferred as a lecturer to the School of History of the
University of East Anglia The University of East Anglia (UEA) is a Public university, public research university in Norwich, England. Established in 1963 on a campus university, campus west of the city centre, the university has four faculties and twenty-six schools of ...
, where he was appointed as a professor in 2011.Malcolm Gaskill
"DIARY On Quitting Academia"
''
London Review of Books The ''London Review of Books'' (''LRB'') is a British literary magazine published bimonthly that features articles and essays on fiction and non-fiction subjects, which are usually structured as book reviews. History The ''London Review of Book ...
'', Vol. 42, No. 18, 24 September 2020, accessed 17 December 2022
In 2010, he was a visiting fellow in North American studies at the
British Library The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom. Based in London, it is one of the largest libraries in the world, with an estimated collection of between 170 and 200 million items from multiple countries. As a legal deposit li ...
, while researching his book ''Between Two Worlds''. Gaskill’s academic interests are in the cultural and social history of Britain and North America, especially the history of crime, magic, and witchcraft, between 1500 and 1800, and in 20th-century
spiritualism Spiritualism may refer to: * Spiritual church movement, a group of Spiritualist churches and denominations historically based in the African-American community * Spiritualism (beliefs), a metaphysical belief that the world is made up of at leas ...
and supernatural phenomena, with a focus on
psychical research Parapsychology is the study of alleged psychic phenomena (extrasensory perception, telepathy, teleportation, precognition, clairvoyance, psychokinesis (also called telekinesis), and psychometry) and other paranormal claims, for example, those r ...
from 1920 to 1950. He has written chiefly about the history of witchcraft and witch-hunts. His book ''Witchfinders: a Seventeenth-Century English Tragedy'' (2006) is a study of the witch-hunts of 1645–1647 in
East Anglia East Anglia is an area of the East of England, often defined as including the counties of Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire, with parts of Essex sometimes also included. The name derives from the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of the East Angles, ...
. While at the University of East Anglia, Gaskill was available to supervise research students interested in social and cultural history in the
early modern period The early modern period is a Periodization, historical period that is defined either as part of or as immediately preceding the modern period, with divisions based primarily on the history of Europe and the broader concept of modernity. There i ...
in England, especially on topics related to witchcraft and mentalities."Malcolm Gaskill"
uea.ac.uk, accessed 17 December 2022
''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'' called Gaskill’s ''The Ruin of All Witches'' (2021), about a real life witch hunt in
Springfield, Massachusetts Springfield is the most populous city in Hampden County, Massachusetts, United States, and its county seat. Springfield sits on the eastern bank of the Connecticut River near its confluence with three rivers: the western Westfield River, the ea ...
, "a riveting history of life in a 17th-century New England frontier town", noting that a man’s nightmare had led to his being accused of witchcraft, flowing out of the colonists’ isolation stress, disease, and death. In 2022, the book was shortlisted for a
Wolfson History Prize The Wolfson History Prizes are literary awards given annually in the United Kingdom to promote and encourage standards of excellence in the writing of history for the general public. Prizes are given annually for two or three exceptional work ...
, with the judges calling it "a riveting micro-history, brilliantly set within the broader cultural and social history of witchcraft." By this time, Gaskill was a full-time writer. His latest book is entitled 'The Glass Mountain: Escape and Discovery in Wartime Italy', which is based on his great uncle's experiences as a prisoner of war and his subsequent escapes, and the means by which Gaskill uncovered this story.


Retirement

In 2018, his wife accepted a job in
Dublin Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...
and he was able to take a year out to look after their children, finding that he did not miss academic life. In May 2020, during the first
COVID-19 lockdown During the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, a number of non-pharmaceutical interventions, particularly lockdowns (encompassing stay-at-home orders, curfews, quarantines, and similar societal restrictions), were implemented in numero ...
, Gaskill settled his early retirement from his teaching position, noting that universities were already "far from the sunlit uplands" and that they seemed to be about to "descend into a dark tunnel". His retirement was complete a few months later, and he explained his disillusion in an article in the ''
London Review of Books The ''London Review of Books'' (''LRB'') is a British literary magazine published bimonthly that features articles and essays on fiction and non-fiction subjects, which are usually structured as book reviews. History The ''London Review of Book ...
''.


Books

*''Hellish Nell: Last of Britain's Witches'' (Fourth Estate, April 2001) *''The Matthew Hopkins Trials'', ed. (London: Pickering and Chatto, 2003: vol. 3 in James Sharpe and Richard M. Golden, eds., ''Writings on English Witchcraft 1560-1736'', 6 vols. *''Crime and Mentalities in Early Modern England'' (Cambridge University Press, 2000) *''Witchfinders: A Seventeenth-Century English Tragedy'' (John Murray Press, April 2006; Harvard University Press, October 2007) *''Witchcraft: A Very Short Introduction'' (Oxford University Press, 2010) *''Between Two Worlds: How the English Became Americans'' (Basic Civitas Books, 2013; Oxford University Press, 2014) *''The Ruin of All Witches: Life and Death in the New World'' (London: Allen Lane, November 2021)


Some other publications

* "Witchcraft and power in early modern England: the case of Margaret Moore" in ''Women, Crime and the Courts in Early Modern England'' (Routledge, 1994) 125-145 * "Witches and witchcraft prosecutions, 1560-1660" in M. Zell, ed., ''Early Modern Kent 1540-1640'' (Woodbridge: The Boydell Press, 2000) 245-277 * "Witchcraft" in Arthur F. Kinney, David W. Swain, Eugene D. Hill, eds., ''Tudor England: An Encyclopaedia'' (Garland Publishing, 2000) * "Witches and Witnesses in old and New England" in S. Clark, ed., ''Languages of Witchcraft: Narrative, Ideology and Meaning in Early Modern Culture'' (Macmillan, 2001) 55-80 26 p * "Time's Arrows: Context and Anachronism in the History of Mentalities" in ''Scientia Poetica'' 10 (December 2006), 237-253 * "Witchcraft, Politics and Memory in Seventeenth-Century England" in ''
The Historical Journal ''The Historical Journal'', formerly known as ''The Cambridge Historical Journal'', is a peer-reviewed academic journal published by Cambridge University Press. It publishes approximately thirty-five articles per year on all aspects of British, E ...
'' 50, 2 (June 2007), 289-308 * "Witchcraft and evidence in early modern England" in ''Past and Present'' 198 (2008), 33-70 * "Witchcraft, emotion and imagination in the English civil war" in J. Newton, J. Bath, eds., ''Witchcraft and the Act of 1604'' (Brill, 2008) * "The Pursuit of Reality: Recent research into the reality of witchcraft" in ''The Historical Journal'' 51, 4 (December 2008), 1069–1088 * "Masculinity and witchcraft in seventeenth-century England" in A. Rowlands, ed., ''Witchcraft and Masculinities in Early Modern Europe'' (Palgrave, 2009) * "Fear made flesh: the English witch-panic of 1645-7" in D. Lemmings, C. Walker, eds., ''Moral Panics, the Press and the Law in Early Modern England'' (Palgrave, 2009) * "Witchcraft and Neighbourliness in Early Modern England" in S. Hindle, ed., ''Remaking English Society: Social Relations and Social Change in Early Modern England'' (2013) * "Little commonwealths II: communities" in K. Wrightson, ed., ''A Social History of England, 1500-1700'' (Cambridge University Press, 2017) * "Afterword: Passions in Perspective" in L. Kounine, M. Ostling, eds., ''Emotions in the History of Witchcraft'' (Basingstoke: Palgrave Studies in the History of Emotions, 2017), 269–279 * "The Fear and Loathing of Witches" in S. Page, M. Wallace, eds., ''Spellbound: Magic, Ritual and Witchcraft'' (Ashmolean Museum, 2018)


Honours

*Fellow of the
Royal Historical Society The Royal Historical Society (RHS), founded in 1868, is a learned society of the United Kingdom which advances scholarly studies of history. Origins The society was founded and received its royal charter in 1868. Until 1872 it was known as the H ...
Bill Thompson
"Between Two Worlds"
''
The Post and Courier ''The Post and Courier'' is the main daily newspaper in Charleston, South Carolina. It traces its ancestry to three newspapers, the ''Charleston Courier'', founded in 1803, the ''Charleston Daily News'', founded 1865, and ''The Evening Post'', f ...
'', 8 November 2014, accessed 7 January 2023


Notes


External links

*Malcolm Gaskill
Crime and Mentalities in Early Modern England: Contents, Introduction
(
Cambridge University Press Cambridge University Press was the university press of the University of Cambridge. Granted a letters patent by King Henry VIII in 1534, it was the oldest university press in the world. Cambridge University Press merged with Cambridge Assessme ...
, 2000) *
"Witchcraft"
(''In Our Time'', 21 October 2004),
BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. The station replaced the BBC Home Service on 30 September 1967 and broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes from the BBC's headquarters at Broadcasti ...
, with Alison Rowlands, Lyndal Roper and Malcolm Gaskill
"Witchcraft Expert Malcolm Gaskill Breaks Down Famous Witches in Films & TV"
YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gaskill, Malcolm Living people 1967 births People educated at Rainham Mark Grammar School Alumni of Robinson College, Cambridge Academics of Keele University Academics of Queen's University Belfast Academics of Anglia Ruskin University Fellows of Churchill College, Cambridge Members of the University of Cambridge faculty of history Academics of the University of East Anglia Historians of witchcraft Fellows of the Royal Historical Society 21st-century English historians 21st-century English male writers British legal historians