Leo Ruickbie

Dr Leo Ruickbie holds a PhD from King’s College, London, for his thesis on the sociology of modern witchcraft, building on his research into re-enchantment that won him an MA with distinction from Lancaster University. He is the author of several books on witchcraft, magic and the supernatural, including Witchcraft Out of the Shadows (2004, 2011; new ed. 2019), Faustus: The Life and Times of a Renaissance Magician (2009), and, most recently, Angels in the Trenches: Spiritualism, Superstition and the Supernatural During the First World War (2018). He is the editor of two academic volumes: with Dr Simon Bacon of Little Horrors: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Anomalous Children and the Construction of Monstrosity (2016); and with Dr Antje Bosselmann-Ruickbie of The Material Culture of Magic (forthcoming). From 2008 to 2009 he also curated his own exhibition on witchcraft in France. He has acted as an editorial consultant to the Römisch-Germanisches Zentralmuseum, Mainz, Germany, the Leibniz-Wissenschafts Campus, Mainz, Germany, and the Institute of Art History and Musicology, Johannes Gutenberg Universität, Mainz, Germany. He is a Council Member of the Society for Psychical Research, a Board Member of the Gesellschaft für Anomalistik, a Professional Member of the Parapsychological Association and an Elected Member of the Royal Historical Society. In 2014, he was appointed editor of the Paranormal Review, the magazine of the Society for Psychical Research.