Rate My Professor Jason Coy

Jason Coy serves as Dean of the School of Humanities and Social Sciences and Professor of History at the College of Charleston. He earned a Ph.D. from the University of California, Los Angeles in 2001, an M.A. from The Ohio State University in 1995, and a B.A. from the same university in 1993. Coy joined the College of Charleston faculty in 2003 as an Assistant Professor of History, was promoted to Associate Professor in 2009, and to full Professor in 2016. He directed the Master of Arts in History program from 2010–2016 and 2018–2020, chaired the Department of History from 2020–2024, served as Interim Dean of the School of Humanities and Social Sciences from 2024 to 2025, and was appointed permanent Dean in July 2024. His honors include the Herzog Ernst Fellowship of the Fritz Thyssen Foundation at the Forschungszentrum Gotha (2012), Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (DAAD) Re-Invitation Grant (2011), Eleanore and Harold Jantz Fellowship from Duke University (2009), Maria Sibylla Merian Fellowship from the University of Erfurt (2002), and Excel Outstanding Faculty Award from the School of Humanities and Social Sciences (2007).

Coy's research focuses on early modern Europe, Reformation-era Germany, and European witch-hunts, including the cultural history of magic and witchcraft and the social history of banishment and migration. He is currently investigating the legacy of early modern witch-hunts since 1950, encompassing public memorialization, legal rehabilitation of victims, the emergence of Wicca and neopaganism, and depictions in popular culture, mass media, and social media. His monographs are Strangers and Misfits: Banishment, Social Control, and Authority in Early Modern Germany (Brill, 2008) and The Devil's Art: Divination and Discipline in Early Modern Germany (University of Virginia Press, 2020). He co-edited The Holy Roman Empire, Reconsidered (Berghahn Books, 2010), Kinship, Community, and Self: Essays in Honor of David Warren Sabean (Berghahn Books, 2015), and Migrations in the German Lands, 1500-2000 (Berghahn Books, 2016). Coy teaches courses such as HIST 270: The European Witch-Hunts, 1450-1750; HIST 336: Renaissance Europe; HIST 337: Reformation Europe; and HIST 441: Witch-Hunting in the Atlantic World. He has collaborated on student research projects, including one funded by a SURF grant examining witchcraft accusations and sleep disorders.