A Q&A with Anna Bennett, assistant professor, history
Anna Bennett is a historian of early modern Europe and the world, specializing in social and cultural history. Her research explores how material culture shaped spiritual beliefs and offers insight into the lives of marginalized people in the past. Her award-winning article, “Bagatelle or Stregamenti: The Spiritual Potential of Material Objects and Spaces in Late Rinascimento Venice, 1580-1630,” appeared in the Fall 2020 issue of the Journal of Women’s History. She is currently writing on the domestication of magic and acts of ritual reading as sources of empowerment for Venetian women.
Q: What first inspired you to study history, specifically, the history of early modern Europe, and what continues to captivate you about it?
Studying history has fascinated me since I was a kid. I grew up devouring the Dear America and Royal Diaries book series from the Scholastic Book Fair! I loved stories that reimagined the lives of people, especially young women, who experienced pivotal moments in history. As a history major in college, that early curiosity led me to study the 16th-century monarch Mary, Queen of Scots, and write my senior thesis about how portrayals of her reign have been shaped by religious and political agendas over the centuries. In graduate school, I turned to witchcraft trials and the ways accusations were used to discredit socially and politically prominent women in medieval Europe, like Joan of Arc and Elizabeth Woodville. My doctoral research extended that interest by exploring how witchcraft beliefs, when viewed through the lens of material culture, reveal women’s agency and the gendered anxieties that constrained it in Venice, one of Europe’s most vibrant and bustling port cities.
What draws me most to early modern Europe is its sense of transition—an awareness that the world was opening in exhilarating and unsettling ways. Early modern Europeans were encountering new ideas about religion, science, and the world beyond their borders, and those tensions between transformation and tradition continue to fascinate me. I’m captivated by how individuals—especially women—negotiated power, spirituality, and identity in a world on the cusp of modernity. That ongoing negotiation between change and continuity is what keeps this period so intellectually alive for me and so rewarding to share with students.
Q: How do these courses encourage students to see the past in new ways, and see themselves differently in the process?
At Hollins, some of the courses I teach include: “HIST/GWS 227: The History of Witchcraft in Europe and the Atlantic World,” “HIST 250: The History of Fun and Leisure in Premodern Europe,” and “HIST 350: Europe in an Age of Encounters—Early Modern Microhistories.” Students may come to these classes without much prior knowledge of European history, or with understandable assumptions about it—that European history only includes the stories of elite white men. As a social and cultural historian, it’s my goal for students to challenge these conventional narratives and uncover histories of marginalized people in the past. We do that by exploring a wide array of sources. HIST/GWS 227: The History of Witchcraft centers on student engagement with primary sources, from the fifteenth-century witch-hunter’s manual Malleus Maleficarum to folklore collections and documentaries on today’s self-proclaimed “influencer” witches. Students explore witchcraft history from an intersectional perspective; I emphasize the intertwined influence of gender, race, environment, and class on common witchcraft beliefs, practices, and persecution over time. I also frame my courses and lesson topics as questions. Starting with big questions reminds students that history is constantly being reconsidered and rarely has simple answers. I hope that this framing also gives students the confidence to think like historians by asking critical questions about the past and how it’s presented to us today.
Q: What do you enjoy most about teaching and learning alongside Hollins students, and what makes the Hollins classroom distinct from other places you’ve taught or studied?
I moved to Hollins in fall 2024 from a much larger university, and I immediately appreciated what our small class sizes make possible: substantive group discussions, in-depth source analysis, and genuine community. Now that I’m settling into my second year on campus, one of the most rewarding aspects of teaching here is watching students grow over time—seeing a once-quiet student confidently contribute to discussion or noticing how a student’s research and writing skills evolve from one class to the next. In a close-knit campus like ours, you get to know students as whole people and watch them develop as thinkers and as members of the Hollins community. It is truly rewarding to be a part of that journey.
Q: What do you hope your students carry with them after they leave Hollins as citizens of the world who understand how history shapes the present?
I hope my students leave Hollins with the understanding that studying history is both a rigorous intellectual discipline and a necessary human practice. Historical thinking teaches us to analyze evidence, question conventional assumptions, and hold space for diverse perspectives in tension with each other. By questioning sources, centering overlooked voices, and crafting their own arguments of historical significance, Hollins students learn to think critically and compassionately. I want them to leave our classrooms with the confidence to use those skills wherever they go: to advocate, to create, and to keep reevaluating the stories that define our society.
