H. C. Erik Midelfort

Former Director

Professor Midelfort is C. Julian Bishko Professor Emeritus of History and Religious Studies at the University of Virginia. He is a specialist of the German Reformation and the history of Christianity in Early Modern Europe. His work has concentrated on the history of witch hunting (1500-1700), the history of madness and psychiatry, and the history of demonic possession. He has regularly sought out the reciprocal relations between social conditions and mentalities. Professor Midelfort has also translated several seminal works in early modern German history, works dealing with the Reformation, the German Peasants’ War of 1525, German witchcraft, and the early Enlightenment in Germany. He served as the Program Director from 1982 to 1985. After retiring from the University of Virginia in 2009 he has been working on the history of dissent (both religious and irreligious) in Germany, 1650-1740.