Andrew Colin Gow is a Canadian historian of medieval and early modern Europe and a noted scholar of early modern witchcraft. He completed his Ph.D. with the Reformation scholar

Heiko Oberman Heiko Augustinus Oberman (1930–2001) was a Dutch historian and theologian who specialized in the study of the Reformation. Life Oberman was born in Utrecht on 15 October 1930. He earned his doctorate in theology from the University of Utrecht ...

. He was previously the Editor-in-Chief of Brill Publishers' series Studies in Medieval and Reformation Traditions but was replaced by Christopher Ocker in June 2020. In 2021, a former student of Gow's initiated a lawsuit against him and the

University of Alberta The University of Alberta, also known as U of A or UAlberta, is a public research university located in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. It was founded in 1908 by Alexander Cameron Rutherford,"A Gentleman of Strathcona – Alexander Cameron Rutherfor ...

, claiming that Gow had sexually assaulted them, as well as other students, and that the University had willfully ignored his behavior. The suit is ongoing.

Work

Gow's early work focused on the

Red Jews The Red Jews (), a legendary Jewish nation, appear in vernacular sources in Germany during the medieval era, from the 13th to the 15th centuries. These texts portray the Red Jews as an epochal threat to Christendom, one which would invade Europ ...

and the German tales of the apocalyptic threat they supposedly presented. His first book ''The Red Jews: Antisemitism in an Apocalyptic Age, 1200-1600'' was published in 1995 by Brill. His later published work focused on early modern witchcraft. Gow co-wrote ''Male witches in early modern Europe'' with Lara Apps. This book critiques historians' assumptions about gender in early modern witch hunts. Gow and his research team have been studying and translating an early modern treatise on witch hunting by Johannes Tinctor, ''Invectives Against the Sect of Waldensians''. This book discusses the origin of many of our contemporary ideas about witchcraft, including flying on brooms and casting spells. This project was featured in an episode of CBC Radio's

Ideas (radio show) ''Ideas'' is a long-running scholarly radio documentary series on CBC Radio One, first broadcast in 1965. it has been hosted by Nahlah Ayed and is broadcast between 8:05 and 9:00 p.m. weekday evenings; one episode each week is repeated o ...

. Newspaper articles were written on this project including in the

Toronto Star The ''Toronto Star'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet daily newspaper. The newspaper is the country's largest daily newspaper by circulation. It is owned by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary of Torstar Corporation and part ...

and the ''

Edmonton Journal The ''Edmonton Journal'' is a daily newspaper in Edmonton, Alberta. It is part of the Postmedia Network. History The ''Journal'' was founded in 1903 by three local businessmen — John Macpherson, Arthur Moore and J.W. Cunningham — as ...

''. Gow and his co-researchers have translated and edited a volume titled ''The Arras Witch Treatises: Johann Tinctor's Invectives contre la secte de vauderie and the Recollectio casus, status et condicionis Valdensium'' ''ydolatrarum'' ''by the Anonymous of Arras (1460),'' co-introduced, co-edited and co-translated with Robert Desjardins and François Pageau, which was published in 2016 by Penn State University Press in the series 'Magic in History'.

Other work

Gow has published in many historical fields. He has written on the history of cartography, German vernacular bibles and the Apocalypse. He also co-edited a collection of writing about the Rocky Mountains: ''Mountain Masculinity: The Life and Writing of Nello "Tex" Vernon-Wood in the Canadian Rockies, 1906-1938.''

Recognition

*2002- Alexander von Humboldt Foundation Research Fellow *2003 Martha Cook Piper Research Prize. *2008 Mercator Visiting Professorship in Medieval History, Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, University of Augsburg *2016 Lansdowne Lecturer, University of Victoria

Select bibliography

* * * * Gow, Andrew Colin; Robert B. Desjardins, and François V. Pageau., eds. (2016) The Arras Witch Treatises: Johannes Tinctor's ''Invectives contre la secte de vauderie'' and the ''Recollectio casus, status et condicionis Valdensium ydolatrarum'' by the Anonymous of Arras (1460). Penn State University Press

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gow, Andrew University of Alberta faculty Historians of witchcraft Place of birth missing (living people) Year of birth missing (living people) 20th-century Canadian historians Living people 21st-century Canadian historians