Anna Bennett

Anna Bennett specializes in the histories of material culture, gender, magic, and society in early modern Europe and the Mediterranean world. Her scholarship argues that material objects and spaces gave tangible contours to otherwise abstract spiritual beliefs and that, through their study, we can better understand the richly complex cosmic worlds and daily lives of ordinary people. Her first article, “Bagatelle or Stregamenti: The Spiritual Potential of Material Objects and Spaces in Late Rinascimento Venice, 1580-1630,” received the 2017 Journal of Women’s History Graduate Student Article Prize and the 2018 University of Miami Center for the Humanities Early Modern Essay Prize, and appeared in the Fall 2020 issue of the JWH. More recently, her award-winning dissertation, "The Magic of Things: Matter, Spirit, and Power in Venice, 1580-1730," emphasized that material culture shaped a complex cultural discourse between urban authorities, the Church, and laypeople over the boundaries of religion and magic and offers insight into how Venetians, especially women and immigrants, understood and used spiritual power in everyday life. This research forms the basis of her first book project.

Here at Georgia State, Dr. Bennett teaches survey courses in premodern and modern World History and upper-level courses on European history.