Super Spooky Halloween

01:23:24

Hosts: Anna Reser, Leila McNeill, and Rebecca Ortenberg

Guest: Kate Sheppard 

Producer: Leila McNeill 

Music: Careful! by Zombie Dandies

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The scientific study of the paranormal and supernatural might seem contradictory, but we discuss how fringe sciences have made concerted attempts to break into the mainstream, oftentimes perpetuating the same gender inequalities of modern science and medicine. Historian of science and long time contributing Lady Science editor Kate Sheppard joins in to talk about Margaret Murray and her witch cult hypothesis. 

Show Notes

Visitation and Violence: Gender and the UFO Phenomenon by Anna Reser

Vulgar Women, Queer Men, and Unruly Spirits by Leila A. McNeill

Forced to the Fringe: Margaret Murray’s Witch-Cult Hypothesis by Kathleen Sheppard

#FolkloreThursday

Further Reading

The Darkened Room: Women, Power, and Spiritualism in Late Victorian England by Alex Owen “In the Laboratory of Spirits: Gender, Embodiment, and the Scientific Quest for Life Beyond the Grave 1918-1939” by Beth Robertson

The Life of Margaret Alice Murray: A Woman’s Work in Archaeology by Kate Sheppard

“Margaret Murray: Who Believed Her and Why?” by Jacqueline Simpson

The Resonance of Unseen Things: Poetics, Power, Captivity, and UFOs in the American Uncanny by Susan Lepselter

Transcript

Transcription by Rev.com

Rebecca: Welcome back to the Lady Science Podcast, a monthly deep dive on topics centered on women and gender in the history and popular culture of science. With you every month are the editors of the Lady Science Magazine.

Anna: I'm Anna Reser, co-founder and co- editor in chief of Lady Science. I'm an artist, writer and a PhD student. I study 20th century American culture and the history of the American space program in the 1960s.

Leila: I'm Leila McNeill, one of the founders and editors in chief of the science. I am a historian of science and freelance writer with words in various places on the internet. And currently, I'm a regular writer on women in the history of science at Smithsonian.com.

Rebecca: And I'm Rebecca Ortenberg, Lady Science's managing editor. When I'm not working with the Lady Science team, I can be found writing about museums and public history around the internet, mostly on Twitter, and managing research projects at the Chemical Heritage Foundation in Philadelphia. So for this episode, and in the spirit of Halloween, we're going to be talking about some of the historical connections between the study of the supernatural and the study of science.

Rebecca: And we'll talk about how UFO-ology patterns itself on mainstream science and reproduces all of its problems with women and gender. Leila wil