In the course of the Iron Age, the people of Central Italy, who had been living in hilltop settlements, increasingly started to live in larger groups, often consisting of several older settlements. Jeffrey Day, content strategist in the UC Davis College of Letters and Science, interviewed Deborah Harkness for the fall 2019 issue of the College of Letters and Science Magazine.Latium at the beginning of the fifth century the Volsci lived in the south I suppose, as usual, I will know it when I find it. I’m also researching oracles, though I’m not sure what I hope to discover as yet. I’m studying domestic arrangements for science in the 17th-century Atlantic World (the places and people bordering the Atlantic Ocean). Any magical power you’d like to have?įlight. And I adore Buffy The Vampire Slayer, especially the vampire Spike.
DEBORAHHARKNESS MOVIE
I liked the movie Practical Magic - but I’m dating myself when I say that. I don’t really read modern fiction or watch much television - I’m too busy writing my own stories. Best witches and vampires in popular culture? This is usually the first time we ever talk about the books. Occasionally, after grades are submitted, they return to my office hours with books to sign for their relatives. I’m sure some of them know, but they are very respectful of the fact we are in a scholarly environment and that we are all there to learn and collaborate. Do your students know about your books and do you ever get “student-fans” in your classes? I believe that this approach builds empathy and understanding, two of the greatest boons of a humanistic education. It seems unhelpful to approach history in any other way, or to presume that we have the “correct” story or the “factual” story. I believe, first and foremost, that history is a collection of stories we tell ourselves about the past. How do you make history classes engaging? She is perhaps the only other person on the planet who unfailingly gets all of my scholarly references, buried “Easter eggs,” and the historical arguments I’m making (albeit in a fictional work). Fran has been particularly generous as a keen-eyed and erudite first reader for all my novels. My colleagues Fran Dolan and Margie Ferguson in the English department are kept up to date on all my strange activities. Many of them are engaged in education in some way and I love hearing about their adventures. I stay in touch with both undergraduate and doctoral students. They would either be drinking espresso or sitting in on viticulture and enology lectures hoping to taste some wine.ĭo you stay in touch with your UC Davis colleagues and students? As for the vampires, let’s face it: Davis is a definite haven for coffee lovers.
DEBORAHHARKNESS FULL
I imagine the daemons would love the Quad, which is full of life and energy. Where at UC Davis would the characters in your novels be found?ĭiana would of course hang out at the horse barns, as I did when I was a student. Two classes in the College of Letters and Science explore witch hunts, especially those that took place in Central Europe during the 15th and 16th centuries, resulting in an estimated 60,000 executions.
I’ve been researching and studying the history of science and magic since 1982, so my time at Davis was part of a much longer journey. My time as a student and faculty member certainly informed every word in the books. Did your research while at UC Davis inspire the novels? We recently caught up with Harkness to talk about her time at UC Davis, teaching, research, and supernatural beings.
DEBORAHHARKNESS SERIES
She is also executive producer of a television series based on A Discovery of Witches. Now a history professor at the University of Southern California, Harkness is a widely respected historian of science and medicine from antiquity to today. That should come as no surprise: Harkness earned a doctorate in history from UC Davis in 1994 and was an assistant and then associate professor in the history department from 1997 to 2004. The books - A Discovery of Witches, Shadow of Night, and The Book of Life - have been praised for their rich and accurate historical and literary detail. Among them is the vampire and scientist Matthew Clairmont, who has long been searching for the same long-lost manuscript. Historian brings authenticity to bestsellers about witches and vampires.ĭeborah Harkness is the author of the best-selling All Souls Trilogy, about scholar and reluctant witch Diana Bishop, whose discovery of an enchanted manuscript sets loose an underworld of witches, vampires, and daemons.
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