Dr. Sara Beam
Position
Contact
Credentials
BA (McGill), MA, PhD (Berkeley)
Area of expertise
Early Modern European History, Social and Cultural History, Criminal Justice, Gender History
Office Hours
Fall 2026: Tuesday 2:30-4:00 and Friday 2:00-3:30 by appointment
Bio
Born and raised in Toronto, I have since lived in Switzerland, France, India, Japan and the United States. Along the way, I graduated with a B.A. from McGill University in 1990 and a Ph.D. in History from the University of California, Berkeley in 1999. I began teaching at the University of Victoria in 2002.
Selected publications
Books:
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The Trial of Jeanne Catherine: Infanticide in Early Modern Geneva. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2021
Laughing Matters: Farce and the Making of Absolutism in France. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2007.
Recent Articles/Chapters:
“Aggressive Prosecution of Witchcraft in Reformation Geneva,” Sixteenth Century Journal 57 (2026): 639-655
“She Said, He Said in a Seventeenth-Century Infanticide Trial,” in Making Stories in Early Modern Italy and Beyond: Essays in Honour of Elizabeth S. Cohen and Thomas V. Cohen. Edited by John Christopoulos and John Hunt. Toronto: Centre for Renaissance and Reformation Studies, 2024, 99-116
“Torture and Punishment in Reformation Geneva,” in Companion to the Reformation in Geneva. Edited by Jon Balserak. Leiden: Brill, 2021, 322-344
“Turning a Blind Eye: Infanticide and Missing Babies in Seventeenth-century Geneva,” Law and History Review 39 (2021): 255-276
“Violence and Justice in Europe: Punishment, Torture and Execution,” Cambridge World History of Violence. Edited by Robert Antony, Stuart Carroll, Caroline Dodds Pennock. Vol. 3, ch. 20. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2020, 389-407
“Gender and the Prosecution of Adultery in Geneva, 1550-1700,” in Women’s Criminality in Europe, 1600-1914. Edited by Manon van de Heijden, Marion Pluskota and Sanne Muurling. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2020, 91-113
Courses
| HSTR 120 | History of Human Rights |
| HSTR 240A | Europe, Renaissance to the French Revolution |
| HSTR 337A | The Birth of the Renaissance in Italy |
| HSTR 337B | The Religious Reformations of the 16th Century |
| HSTR 346 | France from the Renaissance to Louis XIV |
| HSTR 442 | Criminality and Violence in Europe, 1400 - 1800 |
| HSTR 500 | Approaches to History |
| HSTR 504 | Field in European History |
Topics include:
- Historiography
Grad students
Justine Semmens, PhD “Sex Crime Appeals at the Parlement of Paris, 1565-1655”
Meghan Kort, MA, “The Girls Who Spoke for God: Vocation and Discernment in Seventeenth-Century France”
Axel Schoeber, PhD, “Gerard Roussel: An Irenic Religious Change Agent”
Caitlin Copage, MA, “The Violence of Innocents: Children in the Wars of Religion in France”
Lisa Kuncewicz, MA, “'In this Book There is Nothing of Ours': Women's Spiritual Biographies in Seventeenth-Century France"
Meaghan Trewin, MA, “Cuisine, Customs and Character : Culinary Tradition and Innovation in Eighteenth-Century France”
Axel Schoeber, MA, “The Aspiration of the Cercle de Meaux in the 1520s”
Sheena Sommers, MA, “Infanticide Trials at the Old Bailey”