Jan Machielsen

I am a senior lecturer in Early Modern History at Cardiff University. I was a Humboldt Fellow at the TU Dresden in Germany in 2020-21 and the Senior Balsdon Fellow at the British School at Rome from April to June 2022.

My research focuses on two areas of early modern religion: the histories of witchcraft and saint-making. I am interested in why early modern communities saw some of their neighbours as particularly holy and wicked. I am completing a book on a witch-hunt that took place in the French Basque country in the early 17th century and developing a project on the papacy's role in Catholic saint-making.