Alison Rowlands

Alison Rowlands is a Professor in early modern European history at the School of Philosophical, Historical, and Interdisciplinary Studies, University of Essex. She holds a B.A. in History from St Hilda's College, Oxford (1987) and a Ph.D. from Clare College, Cambridge (1995). Her research focuses on witchcraft, gender, and power structures in early modern Germany, particularly using legal records from Rothenburg ob der Tauber to analyze non-elite lives and agency.

Her work explores:

• Witch-trials as gendered persecution
• Social responses to trauma in historical legal contexts
• Co-production of historical knowledge beyond academia

Publications predominantly analyze witchcraft trials (1549-1709), emphasizing emotional history, judicial procedures, and cultural representations of witchcraft. Recent works examine demonological texts, Lutheran clerical stereotypes, and defiance narratives in trials.

She has supervised 11 PhD students to completion, including projects on indigenous environmental rights, fossil fuel activism, and sustainable food systems.