Profs and Pints Meetup-Metro DC

Profs and Pints Northern Virginia presents: “The Single Lesson,” on myths and misconceptions about singlehood and research and advocacy efforts focused on the unmarried, with Craig Wynne, a professor of English at the University of the District of Columbia and pioneer in the growing field of Singles Studies.

All around us are messages that being “coupled up” is the norm. Shows like The Bachelor, 90-Day Fiancé, and Indian Matchmaking have people rooting and fawning for marriage. J.D. Vance has derided cat-owning single women as a demographic that threatens the fabric of the nation.

Yet, despite its supposed unpopularity, the rate of singlehood is increasing. By 2030, the Pew Research Center has projected, 25 percent of 45- to 54-year-old adults in the United States will never marry.

What’s the real picture when it comes to singles? Is a growing share of the population missing out on marital bliss, or are single people on to something?

Hear such questions tackled by Professor Craig Wynne, co-editor of Singular Selves: An Introduction to Singles Studies and author of How to be a Happy Bachelor.

Dr. Wynne will discuss how stereotypes of singlehood are perpetuated in the media and influence laws, policies, and our daily social interactions in ways that harm not just single people but those who are married, cohabitating, or in a relationship.

His talk will tackle the concepts of “singlism,” the stereotyping and stigma around people who are not married or otherwise unpartnered; “matrimania,” over-the-top societal obsession with marriage and weddings; and “amatonormativity,” the assumption that a romantic relationship must be prioritized above all other kinds.

Finally, Dr. Wynne will discuss the emergence of Singles Studies—a field devoted to granting singlehood validity in an academic context—and look at recent advocacy intended to secure single people equity in a world that still privileges being married or coupled. (Advance tickets: $13.50 plus sales tax and processing fees. Doors: $17, or $15 with a student ID. Listed time is for doors. Talk starts 30 minutes later.)

Image by Canva.

[Advance tickets: $13.50 plus sales tax and processing fees. Available at https://profsandpints.ticketleap.com/boleyn/ .]

“Divorced, beheaded, died; divorced, beheaded, survived.”

This six-word rhyme is often all anyone knows or remembers about the six wives of Henry the Eighth. It’s also the starting point for the acclaimed hit musical Six, scheduled to be performed at Washington D.C.’s National Theatre from November 12th through December 1st.

But as the musical makes clear, these six women were more than just a footnote in Tudor history, and they deserve to be remembered for more than just how their lives ended.

Learn more about them at DC’s Penn Social with the help of Professor Amy Leonard, a scholar of women in Europe in the early modern period, when Henry VIII reigned. Having previously given fantastic Profs and Pints talks about subjects such as prostitution in premodern Europe and feminism and the French Revolution, she’s the perfect guide for this trip back through time to learn what it was like to married to a king who’d stop at nothing to ensure a male heir to his throne.

We’ll look at the history of 16th century-England through the eyes of the women Henry married: Catherine Aragon, Anne Boleyn, Jane Seymour, Anne of Cleves, Catherine Howard, and Katherine Parr. You’ll learn how these women were instrumental in solidifying the Tudor dynasty and both helped instigate and support the Protestant reformation. You’ll also learn the role they played in ushering in one of the most famous monarchs of early modern Europe, Elizabeth I.

Regardless of whether you have seen Six or even plan to do so, you’ll be glad you grabbed a ticket to hear Dr. Leonard discuss the history that the musical is based upon. (Doors: $17, or $15 with a student ID. Listed time is for doors. Talk starts 30 minutes later.)

Image background: Henry VIII in the style of Hans Holbein the Younger. Foreground, clockwise from upper left: Jane Seymour, Catherine Parr, Anne Boleyn, and Catherine of Aragon (artists unknown), Anne of Cleves and probably Catherine Howard (Holbein).

Profs and Pints DC presents: “Spirits Around the Place,” a look at East Slavic beliefs in supernatural creatures and haunted spaces, with folklorist Philippa Rappoport of George Washington University.

[Advance tickets: $13.50 plus sales tax and processing fees. Available at https://profsandpints.ticketleap.com/homespirits/ .]

Traditional beliefs associated with Ukraine, Belarus and Russia hold that we’re seldom alone, even if no people are around. Instead, we’re nearly always surrounded by mythological beings. They can make our lives complicated and sometimes even injure or murder us, sometimes because we’ve annoyed them or, in other cases, just because that’s what they like to do.

Prepare to return to the days when you wondered what’s under your bed with this talk by Philippa Rappoport, an expert on Slavic folklore and rituals. She’ll describe how East Slavic culture long ago gave rise to beliefs in such mythological beings, known as “nature” or “place” spirits, who exert their influence on farmsteads, bathhouses, threshing barns, woods, water, and, yes, our own homes. Their presence was felt daily in the peasant’s world, and it still can be seen today in the ways in which people relate to home, space, and boundaries.

The real frightening fun will come when Dr. Rappoport introduces us to these supernatural beings, discussing their characteristics and the beliefs and traditions surrounding them.

We'll learn about the spirits of the home and homestead, such as the domovoi, a cranky spiritual master and protector of the home and hearth, and his counterpart of the yard, the dvorovoi. We'll talk about the bannik, the bathhouse spirit who presides over bathing and births but also sees saunas as a great place to strangle folks who don’t show him enough respect.

A little farther from home, we'll meet the spirits of the forests, waters, and fields. They include the leshii, master of the forest and its inhabitants, who might appear like a peasant, devil, or beast. Another spirit, the vodianoi, or “water devil,” is a bloated, shaggy, slimy water spirit that you’ll want to avoid at all costs.

We'll examine how these supernatural creatures are related to perceptions of space, boundaries, danger, and people who are categorized as “others” and shunned for it. We’ll gain insights on how people express fear of the unknown, and how such fear connects to xenophobia and some of the worst human behavior imaginable, deeds which render their perpetrators as monsters in their own right. It’s a talk that will give you an entirely new vantage point for viewing Slavic history and culture, and help you better understand the 19th- and 20-century Russian propensity to close borders or punish by exile and gulag. (Door: $17, or $15 with a student ID. Listed time is for doors. Talk starts 30 minutes later.)

Image: A bannik, or Russian bathhouse spirit, as drawn by Ivan Bilibin in 1934 (Wikimedia Commons).

Profs and Pints Northern Virginia presents: “You Better Watch Out,” a look at terrifying holiday folklore around the world, with Brittany Warman, former instructor at Ohio State University and co-founder of the Carterhaugh School of Folklore and the Fantastic.

[Advance tickets: $13.50 plus sales tax and processing fees. Available at https://profsandpints.ticketleap.com/shelfelf/ .]

Today, the December holidays are all about joyous magic, warm evenings curled by the fire, and celebrations of the good in the world. Traditionally, however, the winter season also ushers in the terrors of the dark and the cold, teaching us to bar doors, whisper warnings, and, above all, to be “good for goodness’ sake.”

While many are now familiar with the holiday terror of the Krampus, this talk will explore a few less familiar, but no less frightening, folkloric characters of the season.

You'll hear tales of the Icelandic Jólakötturinn, a gigantic cat that devours naughty children, and learn how to best the Welsh Mari Lwyd, a skeletal horse with a taste for song and poetry. You'll get to know the Eastern European Christmas witch Frau Perchta and trace the history of the sometimes mischievous, sometimes terrifying Yule Lads and their monstrous mother, Grýla.

Join Brittany Warman as she explores the scarier holiday traditions around the world. (Doors: $17, or $15 with a student ID. Listed time is for doors. Talk starts 30 minutes later.)

Image: A statue in Iceland depicts the troll Grýla next to the pot in which she prepares her meals of naughty children.

Profs and Pints DC presents: “What the 2024 Election Results Mean,” a detailed assessment of the outcomes of our nation’s 2024 elections and their likely impact on American government and politics, with Matthew Green, professor of politics at The Catholic University of America.

[Advance tickets: $13.50 plus sales tax and processing fees. Available at https://profsandpints.ticketleap.com/2024results/ .]
Profs and Pints is offering you a chance to go beyond media coverage of the 2024 election results and get a scholarly perspective on them from a scholar of congressional and electoral politics.

Professor Matthew Green, who has given several excellent Profs and Pints talks in the past, will provide an analysis of the results of the presidential election, as well as congressional races, state legislative elections, and state referendums. He’ll explain why things turned out the way they did and where various models for predicting the results were right or wrong

He’ll discuss the elections’ immediate and longer-term effect on national politics and what we can expect in the coming years. He’ll also look at President Trump’s second-term agenda, his prospects of his achieving his legislative goals, and what the election results mean for his influence over the Republican Party.

What might the election results mean for the 2026 midterms? Will he be able to achieve his legislative goals before and after that point? Dr. Green will tackle those questions as well. (Doors: $17, or $15 with a student ID. Listed time is for doors. Talk starts 30 minutes later.)

Image generated on Canva.

Profs and Pints DC presents: “The Gothic Ghosts of Christmas,” a look at the old English tradition of telling terrifying tales at Yuletide, with Marianne Noble, professor of Literature at American University.

[Advance tickets: $13.50 plus sales tax and processing fees. Available at https://profsandpints.ticketleap.com/marlowe/ .]

The ghosts who visited Scrooge had plenty of company. In fact, Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol is just one of many ghost stories from the Victorian English tradition of telling frightening tales during the dark nights of the winter holidays. Whereas today we might read—or watch on television—tales of elves or reindeer or snowmen, those gathered around a fire on Christmas Eve in old England would tell each other stories of ghosts, graves, dead bodies, and murders.

Come to Penn Social to become immersed in this long-lost literary art and learn about its origins and evolution. Your guide on this scholarly journey, Dr. Marianne Noble, writes and teaches courses on nineteenth-century Gothic literature.

She’ll look at how the Christmas ghost story is rooted in the ancient human tradition of telling tales to pass cold, dark winter nights and results from the grafting of a religious holiday onto a secular practice. Shakespeare and Marlowe discussed the practice in the play “A Winter’s Tale,” and in the Arthurian legend the otherworldly Green Knight appeared to Sir Gawain at Christmas time.

Interest in the genre was especially keen in Victorian England, when increased literacy stemming from the rise of the middle class generated more demand for literature. It was a period in which seances were popular, spiritualist societies formed, and people picnicked in cemeteries. Add to that the era’s fantasies of destabilizing the powerful, and it’s easy to see why tales of spiritual visitation and of comeuppance from the beyond held such appeal. A ghost story was commonly featured in the low-cost anthologies of short fiction, known as “Christmas annuals,” published in England this time of year.

We’ll become familiar with major figures in the genre, such as the medievalist scholar M.R. James, who is regarded as one of its best writers, Louisa May Alcott, Edith Wharton, Henry James, and, more recently, contemporary authors like Stephen King.

Dr. Noble will tackle the question of why the practice has waned over time and never really caught on as much in the United States as it did across the pond. She’ll talk about efforts to revive it, and then regale us with a ghost story or two. You’ll find yourself hoping for a chance to tell a tale that frightens others gathered by the fireplace during the holiday season. (Doors: $17, or $15 with a student ID. Listed time is for doors. Talk starts 30 minutes later.)

Image from Pixabay.

Profs and Pints DC presents: “Slavic Solstice Magic,” a look at traditional paganism-based East Slavic rituals to embrace the longest night and the onset of winter, with folklorist Philippa Rappoport of George Washington University.

[Advance tickets: $13.50 plus sales tax and processing fees. Available at https://profsandpints.ticketleap.com/slavicwinter/ .]

Rather than curse the cold and the darkness, people in Ukraine, Russia, and Belarus learned long ago to celebrate it, turning to various festivities and rituals as the days shorten and the snow falls.

With temperatures dropping and the winter solstice just a day away, you too can learn to find new meaning in the season with the help of Professor Rappoport, a folklorist who previously has captivated Profs and Pints audiences with talks on East Slavic nations' mermaids, place spirits, and netherworlds.

She’ll introduce us to a series of pre-Christian rituals performed in such nations between the winter and summer solstices. These included the creation of season-honoring effigies which would be paraded through town, given mock funerals, and then ritually dispatched in some way, with their remains often scattered in the fields as a gesture to help bring about new life. Fortune tellers would describe the futures of marriages. People would gobble up rich and fatty foods to bring a rich new year. Into the picture would pop Snegurochka—the “snow maiden” of a beloved folktale—and her grandfather, Father Frost, who visit at Yuletide to bestow gifts on those who celebrate their arrival with dances and songs.

Throughout their culture death and life were celebrated in tandem or in ways you might not expect. Learning how they geared up for the winter offers a lens for better understanding and appreciating the symbolism of Christmas and Chanukah, and how other traditions greet the darkest time of year and prepare for the return of light. (Doors: $17, or $15 with a student ID. Listed time is for doors. Talk starts 30 minutes later.)

Image: A winter solstice ritual in Russia. Photo by the Union of Slavic Rodnover Communities / Creative Commons.

Profs and Pints Northern Virginia presents: “Slavic Solstice Magic,” a look at traditional paganism-based East Slavic rituals to embrace the longest night and the onset of winter, with folklorist Philippa Rappoport of George Washington University.

[Advance tickets: $13.50 plus sales tax and processing fees. Available at https://profsandpints.ticketleap.com/bonfires/ .]

Rather than curse the cold and the darkness, people in Ukraine, Russia, and Belarus learned long ago to celebrate it, turning to various festivities and rituals as the days shorten and the snow falls.

With temperatures dropping and the winter solstice just a day away, you too can learn to find new meaning in the season with the help of Professor Rappoport, a folklorist who previously has captivated Profs and Pints audiences with talks on East Slavic nations' mermaids, place spirits, and netherworlds.

She’ll introduce us to a series of pre-Christian rituals performed in such nations between the winter and summer solstices. These included the creation of season-honoring effigies which would be paraded through town, given mock funerals, and then ritually dispatched in some way, with their remains often scattered in the fields as a gesture to help bring about new life. Fortune tellers would describe the futures of marriages. People would gobble up rich and fatty foods to bring a rich new year. Into the picture would pop Snegurochka—the “snow maiden” of a beloved folktale—and her grandfather, Father Frost, who visit at Yuletide to bestow gifts on those who celebrate their arrival with dances and songs.

Throughout their culture death and life were celebrated in tandem or in ways you might not expect. Learning how they geared up for the winter offers a lens for better understanding and appreciating the symbolism of Christmas and Chanukah, and how other traditions greet the darkest time of year and prepare for the return of light. (Doors: $17, or $15 with a student ID. Listed time is for doors. Talk starts 30 minutes later.)

Image: A winter solstice ritual in Russia. Photo by the Union of Slavic Rodnover Communities / Creative Commons.

Profs and Pints Northern Virginia presents: “Robert Frost’s Winter Poems,” an exploration of a beloved poet’s thoughts on the season, with Michael Manson, former lecturer on literature at American University and past president of the Robert Frost Society.

[Advance tickets: $13.50 plus sales tax and processing fees. Available at https://profsandpints.ticketleap.com/snowyevening/ .]

“Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.”

So begins “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening,” which ranks as one of the most popular American poems of the 20th century and helped cement Robert Frost's status as of one of our nation’s most beloved poets.

Come to Crooked Run Fermentation in Sterling as we approach the darkest evening of the year for talk that will have you delighting in Frost and embracing the arrival of winter.

Winter challenges modern urban Americans less immediately than it did Frost, who owned several New England farms. Yet the questions Frost raised through the metaphor of winter remain vital. Are humans meant to live and thrive on this planet, or is existence some cruel joke? How do we explain human resilience, the ability to keep pushing through despite the odds? Is there some force above us, in life itself, or some stubbornness at the heart of being human? What does it mean to thrive?

Frost raised questions like these in his poetry without answering them. For him, the answers are to be found in the process of making. Whether we’re writing poems, keeping gardens, playing sports, building careers, or raising families, we are all turning chaos into order. In all pursuits, Frost said, “strongly spent is synonymous with kept,” and he is inspired by those times when humans spend their lives strongly and thus keep them.

Be on hand as Michael Manson, a veteran scholar of Frost, reads and discusses Frost's poems on winter and other subjects. He’ll cover some of Frost’s best-known poems—“Stopping by Woods,” “Desert Places,” “The Wood-Pile”—as well as lesser-known works such as “Afterflakes,” “Questioning Faces,” and “Good-bye and Keep Cold.” The experience will be magical, and you’ll end up with a different perspective on the season ahead. (Doors: $17, or $15 with a student ID. Listed time is for doors. Talk starts 30 minutes later.)

Image by Canva.

Profs and Pints Northern Virginia presents: “Life at Earth’s Poles,” a chance to become more familiar with whales, penguins, polar bears, and other denizens of our planet’s coldest climates, with Chris Parsons, whale and dolphin researcher and associate professor in the Centre for Ecology and Conservation at Exeter University.

[Advance tickets: $13.50 plus sales tax and processing fees. Available at https://profsandpints.ticketleap.com/penguins/ .]

At a time of year when many children eagerly await a visitor from the North Pole, Profs and Pints invites you to learn about both the northern and southern extremes of the earth from a marine mammal biologist who has spent time with their furry and flippered residents.

Chris Parsons, a marine mammal biologist with more than 30 years of field experience, is deeply familiar with the creatures that live as far north and south as humans can possibly venture. He has explored Antarctica and written a textbook on marine mammal biology and conservation, and he’s a member of the scientific committee of the International Whaling Commission. His past Profs and Pints talks have been spellbinding, with plenty of tales of encounters with animals big enough to teach hard lessons those who don’t show them enough respect.

Dr. Parsons will set the stage by discussing how the North and South Poles and their surrounding regions are unique environments in several ways. Their cold waters are rich in nutrients that nurture life, but winter temperatures that drop down to minus 128-degrees Fahrenheit pose a serious challenge to survival. Days annually swing from 24 hours of sunlight to 24 hours of darkness, causing booms and crashes in the phytoplankton populations at the bottom of the food chain and making long migrations a necessity.

Despite such extreme conditions, these regions contain a wealth of wildlife: fluffy white seals and polar bears, miles-wide schools of krill, vast colonies of penguins, and many species of the great whales.

Why do so many species live in these harsh conditions instead of chilling on tropical beaches? How have they evolved to survive the frigid temperatures? He’ll answer such questions by discussing the specialized biology that has enabled them to adapt. He’ll also discuss the threats posed to polar habitats by climate change, pollution, and other human activities, and what the future holds for the residents of these regions. (Doors: $17, or $15 with a student ID. Listed time is for doors. Talk starts 30 minutes later.)

Image: Narwhals surface through a hole in the ice. Photo by Glenn Williams (NIST / Public domain).