Vampires and Witchcraft

Vampires and Witchcraft

Did Fear of Vampires Inspire Early Scientific Inquiry?  A Discussion with Ádám Mézes

In our third podcast, we host Ádám Mézes, with whom we discuss the fascinating topic of vampire contagion in the Habsburg Empire and its broader impact on the history of science. As in the earlier conversation with Kateryna Dysa on witchcraft trials, the discussion begins with a deceptively simple question: what exactly is a vampire, and who has the authority to define it?

30.03.2026

Vampires and Witchcraft

The Distinct Logic of Ukrainian Witchcraft

In our second podcast of this series, we have as guest Kateryna Dysa, with whom we will discuss her extremely fascinating book Ukrainian Witchcraft Trials: Volhynia, Podolia, and Ruthenia, 17th and 18th Centuries, published by the CEU Press in 2023. In this research, she reconstructs the history of witchcraft in Ukraine, with a particular focus on the three so-called “Ruthenian” palatinates of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth: Podolia, Ruthenia, and Volhynia.

5.03.2026

Vampires and Witchcraft

Digging Up the Dead: What Vampire Panics Reveal About Power

In our first podcast of this series, we discuss with Prof. John Blair, around his latest book Killing the Dead: Vampire Epidemics from Mesopotamia to the New World, published by Princeton University Press. John Blair reconstructs a world in which the dead were not metaphor but menace. His book follows the concept of restless bodies which stirred various social anxieties and created symbolic meanings.

16.02.2026