What we’re about
Profs and Pints brings professors and other college instructors into bars, cafes, and other venues to give fascinating talks or to conduct instructive workshops. They cover a wide range of subjects, including history, politics, popular culture, horticulture, literature, creative writing, and personal finance. Anyone interested in learning and in meeting people with similar interests should join. Lectures are structured to allow at least a half hour for questions and an additional hour for audience members to meet each other. Admission to Profs and Pints events requires the purchase of tickets, either in advance (through the link provided in event descriptions) or at the door to the venue. Many events sell out in advance.
Although Profs and Pints has a social mission--expanding access to higher learning while offering college instructors a new income source--it is NOT a 501c3. It was established as a for-profit company in hopes that, by developing a profitable business model, it would be able to spread to other communities much more quickly than a nonprofit dependent on philanthropic support. That said, it is welcoming partners and collaborators as it seeks to build up audiences and spread to new cities. For more information email profsandpints@hotmail.com.
Thank you for your interest in Profs and Pints.
Regards,
Peter Schmidt, Founder, Profs and Pints
Upcoming events (4+)
See all- Profs & Pints DC: Mermaid TalesPenn Social, Washington, DC
Profs and Pints DC presents: “Mermaid Tales,” a discussion of the enigmatic water spirits of East Slavic countries, with Philippa Rappoport, adjunct professor of folklore at George Washington University.
[Advance tickets: $13.50 plus sales tax and processing fees. Available at https://profsandpints.ticketleap.com/sinkingfeeling/ ]
Be careful out there. According to Slavic folklore, in the late spring the rusalki, an East Slavic version of mermaids, emerge from lakes and streams to water crops and to claim lives. They're mostly beautiful, with wild hair and blazing eyes, and more than happy to drag smitten young to watery graves.
Join Philippa Rappoport, an expert on Slavic folklore and rituals, for an encore of her springtime discussion of the water spirits of Ukraine, Belarus and Russia and the traditions centered around them. She'll describe how rusalki were both revered and feared by people who would sing songs in their honor while carrying protective charms. You'll learn how East Slavic mermaid lore permeated wedding rituals and parades, inspired the construction of effigies, and reflected beliefs about women that, throughout the world, have translated into a lot of concern over how women wear their hair and cover their heads.
Philippa has wowed crowds with fascinating talks on East Slavic nature spirits and folktales related to the underworld and winter. Her accounts of mermaids promise to be equally entertaining. ( Doors: $17, or $15 with a student ID. Listed time is for doors. Talk starts 30 minutes later.)
Image: Rusalka and her daughter, an engraving by I. Volkov published in 1899.
- Profs & Pints Northern Virginia: Hamilton's History RemixNoVa Bar & Grill, Fairfax, VA
Profs and Pints Northern Virginia presents: “Hamilton’s History Remix,” a critical look at the musical and the people and events it depicts, with Richard Bell, professor of history at the University of Maryland.
[Advance tickets: $13.50 plus sales tax and processing fees. Available at https://profsandpints.ticketleap.com/hamiltonfairfax/ .]
Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Tony-winning musical about Alexander Hamilton has sold out theatres throughout the nation and continues to be a major force on Broadway and stream on Disney Plus. Many of us have the triple-platinum cast album playing on repeat. Its crafty lyrics, hip-hop tunes, and big, bold story have even rejuvenated interest in the real lives and true histories that Hamilton: the Musical puts center stage.
Join historian Richard Bell for a talk has that has made him a favorite of Profs and Pints audiences: a fascinating, critical look at the history underlying the Hamilton musical. He’ll explore the Hamilton phenomenon to reveal what its success tells us about the marriage of history and show business.
His talk marks the debut of Profs and Pints at the Hilton Fairfax Hotel's NoVa bar and grill, a comfortable space with an excellent food and beverage menu.
We’ll learn what the amazing Hamilton musical got right and got wrong about Alexander Hamilton, the American Revolution, and the birth of the United States, and why that matters. We’ll examine some of the choices Hamilton’s creators made to simplify, dramatize, and humanize the complicated events and stories on which the show is based.
We will also talk about Hamilton’s cultural impact. What does its runaway success reveal about the stories we tell each other about who we are and about the nation we made? (Doors: $17, or $15 with a student ID. Listed time is for doors. Talk starts 30 minutes later.)
Image: Lin-Manuel Miranda in the title role of his musical Hamilton, April 20, 2016. (Photo by Steve Jurvetson / Creative Commons.)
- Profs & Pints Northern Virginia: Mermaid TalesCrooked Run Fermentation, Sterling, VA
Profs and Pints Northern Virginia presents: “Mermaid Tales,” a discussion of the enigmatic water spirits of East Slavic countries, with Philippa Rappoport, adjunct professor of folklore at George Washington University.
[Advance tickets: $13.50 plus sales tax and processing fees. Available at https://profsandpints.ticketleap.com/watery/ .]
Be careful out there. According to Slavic folklore, in the late spring the rusalki, an East Slavic version of mermaids, emerge from lakes and streams to water crops and to claim lives. They're mostly beautiful, with wild hair and blazing eyes, and more than happy to drag smitten young to watery graves.
Join Philippa Rappoport, an expert on Slavic folklore and rituals, for an encore of her springtime discussion of the water spirits of Ukraine, Belarus and Russia and the traditions centered around them. She'll describe how rusalki were both revered and feared by people who would sing songs in their honor while carrying protective charms. You'll learn how East Slavic mermaid lore permeated wedding rituals and parades, inspired the construction of effigies, and reflected beliefs about women that, throughout the world, have translated into a lot of concern over how women wear their hair and cover their heads.
Philippa has wowed crowds with fascinating talks on East Slavic nature spirits and folktales related to the underworld and winter. Her accounts of mermaids promise to be equally entertaining. (Doors: $17, or $15 with a student ID. Listed time is for doors. Talk starts 30 minutes later.)
Image: Rusalka and her daughter, an engraving by I. Volkov published in 1899.
- Profs & Pints DC: Yanks in World War II BritainPenn Social, Washington, DC
Profs and Pints DC presents: “Yanks in World War II Britain,” a D-Day anniversary look at Americans' life in the UK in the lead-up to history’s largest invasion, with Kevin Matthews, who teaches courses on 20th century European history as a professor of history at George Mason University.
[Advance tickets: $13.50 plus sales tax and processing fees. Available at https://profsandpints.ticketleap.com/yanks/ .]
June 6th marks the 80th anniversary of D-Day. While we’re likely to hear much about that pivotal invasion, less discussed is the cultural experiment that preceded it, in which nearly 2 million Americans and the people of Great Britain found themselves living together.
Come learn about that fascinating chapter of history with Kevin Matthews, a historian who has given excellent Profs and Pints talks on the Irish Revolution and German attacks on our nation’s coasts.
What happens away from a war’s front lines can be as crucial to military success as what happens in battle. Professor Matthews will discuss the ups and downs of the British-American partnership and how both sides managed Britain’s huge influx of American men, most of whom were young and had never lived so far from home.
American G.I.’s were warned: “The British don’t know how to make a good cup of coffee. You don’t know how to make a good cup of tea. It’s an even swap.” Meanwhile, many Britons’ knowledge of Americans came mainly from Hollywood films, and some complained that their American guests were “overfed, overpaid, oversexed — and over here.”
Some Americans and Brits got along splendidly, however. Tens of thousands of American men and British women finding themselves in romances that gave new meaning to what Winston Churchill called a “special relationship.”
More importantly, the partnership brought victory. Learning about it will give you insights into the role that human relations can play in determining the outcomes of war. (Doors: $17, or $15 with a student ID. Listed time is for doors. Talk starts 30 minutes later.)
Image: American soldiers on an amphibious tank landing craft before D-Day (U.S. National Archives).