Tuesday 14 March 2023 9:13am
On the left is visiting Fulbright Scholar Professor Hannah Johnson, with Otago Professor of Medieval Literature Simone Marshall.
One workforce in New Zealand has doubled since the lifting of international travel restrictions due to COVID-19; we can now boast two professors of medieval literature in Aotearoa, and both are at the University of Otago.
We are delighted to welcome Professor Hannah Johnson from the University of Pittsburgh here as a Fulbright Scholar, to work alongside Otago’s Professor of Medieval Literature Simone Marshall.
They are collaborating on a project titled ‘The First Era of Fake News: Witch-Hunting, Antisemitism and Islamophobia’.
“This is an amazing opportunity for our research and for our students to have another expert in the room,” says Professor Marshall.
“This project speaks to our research interests and to really contemporary things that have impacted on us as well.”
Professor Johnson agrees, saying there are strands of this history that extend into the present and back to these earlier moments – for example many manifestos from recent terrorist acts reference the Middle Ages: “the faux medieval stuff gets recycled”.
“Part of what started me down this road was some work I did in the wake of the Tree of Life Synagogue massacre in my hometown of Pittsburgh,” says Professor Johnson, who intends to publish a book on this subject of ‘The First Era of Fake News: Witch-Hunting, Antisemitism and Islamophobia’.
“I had previously worked on the long history of antisemitism, particularly Medieval antisemitic legends. Following that terrible event, colleagues of mine organised a public lecture series looking at this history of antisemitism.
“Interacting with the audience after my lecture really got me thinking about how on the one hand there’s so much good scholarly work and public facing work on this history and yet it’s not always easy to find, or super-accessible for everyone. I’m aiming to do more public facing work on the long history of not only conspiracist rhetoric but thinking about how to translate that for a modern audience and understand how some tropes and stories have survived for a really long time into the present.”
Professor Marshall will also be putting in a section on the Christchurch Mosque shooting.
This is planned as a book for a general audience, with three main focal points of antisemitism, Islamophobia and misogyny.
The two academics have really connected with one another, particularly on the topic of misogyny, and will be writing about the witch hunts, ideas about witchcraft during the pre-modern period and how tied to gender stereotypes and biases that is.
“Some of those stereotypes about women and women’s nature and the kinds of dangers women pose are alive and well,” Professor Marshall says. She cites female colleagues writing and speaking on this subject and the abuse and ire they draw from strangers.
Professor Johnson received this Fulbright scholarship in 2020 however her visit here was delayed due to COVID-19 restrictions. She is now part of a ‘bumper crop’ of Fulbright scholars at Otago this year.