Posted on March 17: Visiting Hooker professor sheds new light on Salem

Mary Beth Norton, a Hooker Distinguished visiting professor from Cornell University, will present two on-campus public lectures this week.

Sponsored by the Departments of History and Women's Studies, the first is a public lecture entitled “Sex, Religion and Violence in Early America; or a 17th-Century Minage-`-Trois and its Consequences” and will be presented Monday, March 17 at 3:30 p.m. in Council Chambers (Gilmour Hall, Room 111). Using evidence from a series of linked court cases, Norton will take a revealing look at life in a 17th century Maryland colony consisting of mostly Protestant Settlers but led by Catholic rulers.

Norton's second presentation will be as the keynote speaker at the Department of History's Annual Graduate Colloquium on Tuesday, March 18 from 1:30  5:30 p.m., in Council Chambers. The topic of this presentation will be “Rethinking Salem Witchcraft”. Norton will discuss the groundbreaking new perspective she has taken in studying the events of 1692.

Norton's new book, In The Devil's Snare: The Salem Witchcraft Crisis of 1692, has been well received in both the academic press and popular media, and was recently chosen as a finalist for the LA Times History Book Prize.

Norton received her B.A. from the University of Michigan, a M.A. and PhD from Harvard University. She has since devoted more than 30 years as a professor at Cornell University, and in 1987 was named the Mary Donlon Alger Professor of American History. She is one of the first researchers to closely examine the role of women in early American history and is highly respected for her related research and publications.