- Owen Davies
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Owen Davies Born 26-8-69
Edenbridge, Kent, UKEducation Sondes Place Comprehensive School, Dorking, Surrey Occupation Professor in Social History Years active 1999- Employer University of Hertfordshire Website http://www.karisgarden.com/cunningfolk/home.htm
http://web-apps.herts.ac.uk/uhweb/about-us/profiles/profiles_home.cfm?profile=D9F0C634-F5FA-4E1A-40E8CF9D0F5A5B9FOwen Davies is a reader in Social History at the University of Hertfordshire. His main field of research is on the history of modern and contemporary witchcraft and magic.[1]
His interest in the history of witchcraft and magic developed out of a childhood interest in folklore and mythology, which was spawned in part from reading the books of Alan Garner. From around the age of sixteen he also became interested in archaeology and began to get involved with field-walking and earthwork surveying. He then went on to study archaeology and history at Cardiff University, and he spent many weeks over the next six years helping excavate Bronze Age and Neolithic sites in France and England, mostly in the area around Avebury. He developed has a strong interest in archaeology in general, and the ritual monuments and practices of the Neolithic and Bronze Age.
From Cardiff he went on to write a doctorate at Lancaster University, working on a thesis looking at the continuation and decline of popular belief in witchcraft and magic from the Witchcraft Act 1735 to the Fraudulent Mediums Act 1951 (1991-1994).
He then spent the next four years looking for lecturing and research jobs, and meanwhile writing articles and conducting further research which eventually led to the publication of two books in 1999, Witchcraft, magic and culture and A People Bewitched: Witchcraft and Magic in Nineteenth-Century Somerset.
Publications
- Davies, Owen (1999). Witchcraft, magic and culture 1736-1951. Manchester University Press. ISBN 0719056551 9780719056550 071905656X : 9780719056567. OCLC 41338629.
- Davies, Owen (1999). A People Bewitched: Witchcraft and Magic in Nineteenth-Century Somerset. Bruton. ISBN 0953639002 9780953639007. OCLC 44989636.
- Davies, Owen (2007). Popular Magic: Cunning-folk in English History. Hambledon Continuum. ISBN 9781847250360 184725036X. OCLC 85830157.
- Davies, Owen (2005). Murder, Magic, Madness: The Victorian Trials of Dove and the Wizard. Pearson Education. ISBN 0582894131 9780582894136. OCLC 63279021.
- Davies, Owen (2009). Grimoires: A History of Magic Books. Oxford University Press USA. ISBN 0199204519 9780199204519. OCLC 244766270.
He co-edited the following collections of essays:
- Davies, Owen; de Blécourt, Willem, eds (2004). Beyond the Witch Trials: Witchcraft and Magic in Enlightenment Europe. Manchester University Press. ISBN 0719066603 9780719066603. OCLC 56344687.
- de Blécourt, Willem; Davies, Owen, eds (2004). Witchcraft Continued: Popular Magic in Modern Europe. Manchester University Press. ISBN 0719066581 9780719066580 071906659X 9780719066597. OCLC 56465533.
He has also written numerous articles on the same subject in various history and folklore journals.
References
- ^ Davies, Owen (2008-04-04). "Owen Davies's top 10 grimoires". The Guardian. http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/apr/08/history. Retrieved 2009-04-08.
External links
Categories:- Living people
- Witchcraft
- Welsh historians
- Alumni of Lancaster University
- Alumni of Cardiff University
- Academics of the University of Hertfordshire
- Welsh people stubs
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