It’s after Halloween and we’re still talking witches.

As part of International Education Week, Professor Laura Lisy-Wagner opened her Nov. 19 History 336 class to the public to discuss the witch trials in Europe in the 1480's to the 1660's, when 40,000 to 100,000 people were executed – more people than the size of SF State’s student body and an even larger number considering the population at the time.

Due to inconsistent record keeping, fires and other events long past, the numbers are not concrete. One feminist historian, Lisy-Wagner said, has said that the number is as high as 6 million.

Regardless, historians agree that those executed did not fit into the fabric of the community and largely were single or widowed women.

“My interests are not only the time period [that it happened] but gender and sexuality,” said Professor Lisy-Wagner, who teaches early modern history. “The witch hunts are one of the topics that bring all of my interests together.”

As SF State's representative for Academic Council on International Programs, Lisy-Wagner wanted to be involved with the event, which is a "celebration of both international education and intercultural understanding. Its primary focus has been the importance of increasing knowledge and awareness of the world's cultures among students and the wider SFSU community," according to SF State's Web site.

Kayla Allen, 18, is a broadcasting major that came to the event because she has a “huge interest in historical fiction novels.”

“I guess growing up I was always interested in the Salem witch trials,” she said.

Manuals for witch-hunting, like “The Malleus Maleficarum,” which was written by monks in 1486, told readers in a scientific manner about witches dirty deeds. One passage, which a student read aloud in class, spoke of witches who “collected male organs in great numbers ... and put them in a bird’s nest or shut them up in a box, where they move themselves like living members, and eat oats and corn.”

“It was hilarious, but at the same time it’s kind of sad,” said history major Andrew Ward, 22.

These crazy accusations, which are funny now, were serious then. Such allegations could begin with a disgruntled neighbor going into a church and accusing his neighbor of muttering at his cow and causing it to stop producing milk. Then, the accused would stand trial, and be asked questions not only about “Malefefica,” or bad deeds, but about diabolical deeds, such as participating in forest gatherings called “sabbats,” where witched allegedly engaged in activities like having sex with the devil and“producing half-human and half-diabolical children," said Lisy-Wagner.

Or, as “The Malleus Maleficarum” dictated, stealing male organs and perching them in trees.