Profs and Pints Metro Baltimore

Profs and Pints Baltimore presents: “The Pagan Roots of Late Winter Holidays,” a look at how ancient fertility rituals, Roman myths, and early challenges to Christianity gave us Valentine’s Day and Mardi Gras, with Larissa “Kat” Tracy, scholar of medieval literature, author of several books on the Middle Ages, and visiting assistant teaching professor of English at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County.

[Advance tickets: $13.50 plus sales tax and processing fees. Available at https://www.ticketleap.events/tickets/profsandpints/bmore-late-winter-holidays .]

On the surface, at least, the holidays we celebrate near the transition of winter into spring have confounding contradictions. The beheading of the pious Saint Valentine is commemorated with lovemaking. Fat Tuesday’s debauchery arose as a way for Catholics to brace for the abstinence of Lent.

It all makes more sense, however, when we look back to seasonal celebrations in ancient Rome and Ireland, and account for Christianity’s knack for absorbing and incorporating earlier traditions and mixing them with a host of religious sentiments.

Coming to Section 771 in Baltimore’s Camden Yards to help us make sense of it all is medievalist Kat Tracy. Having written extensively on the synthesis of Christian and non-Christian traditions in medieval literature and culture, she’ll be serving up an assortment of lessons about the strange and dramatic origins of this February’s holidays (sparing George Washington and the presidents, of course.) It’s a talk that will forever change how you think about the season’s celebrations.

Dr. Tracy will talk about how the celebration of love associated with Valentine has its roots in the pre-Christian Roman celebration of Lupercalia—the February 15th Festival of the Wolf—when certain young men ran naked through parts of the city and tapped women with goat-skin whips dipped in blood out of a belief it would make them fertile. Also in the mix is the ancient Irish festival of Imbolc, the February 1st halfway point between the winter solstice and spring equinox, marking the beginning of spring and the season of rebirth. Christians there transformed it into the feast of Saint Brigid, whose story has been found to share common traits with a pagan Irish goddess of the same name.

From there, Dr. Tracy will discuss how Mardi Gras and Carnivale are Christian extensions of earlier Yuletide rites that stretched well into February, filling the time between winter and spring.

Her talk will leave you with a much richer understanding of how much the medieval world shaped our current lives. (Advance tickets: $13.50 plus sales tax and processing fees. Doors: $17, or $15 with a student ID. Bar doors open at 5 pm. The talk starts at 6:30).

Image: Torch bearers at an Imbolc Festival in Marsden, England. (Photo by mrMark / Creative Commons.)

Profs and Pints Baltimore presents: “The Science of Curiosity,” on understanding and cultivating your desire to learn more, with Todd B. Kashdan, professor of psychology and founder of The Well-Being Lab at George Mason University and author of Curious?

[Doors open at 5. The talk starts at 6:30. The room is open seating. Advance tickets: $13.50 plus sales tax and processing fees. Available at https://www.ticketleap.events/tickets/profsandpints/baltimore-science-of-curiosity ]

We’ve all heard that curiosity killed the cat, but in reality, curiosity is the secret sauce behind human achievement, vitality, deep connection, and resilience. Often given minimal attention and regarded merely as one of many useful personality traits, it actually represents a complex, high-octane psychological strategy that can be harnessed to live a life that is happier, richer, and more meaningful.

Move beyond the clichés about curiosity to explore the true mechanics of the “hungry mind” with Dr. Todd Kashdan, whose laboratory at George Mason University serves as an incubator of scientific knowledge on how people can live better and reach their potential.

He’ll begin with a provocative look at how curiosity functions. Then he’ll dive into a discussion of curiosity’s diverse dimensions and its benefits as well as its costs.

From there he’ll explore a few strategies to cultivate this psychological strength and look at the downstream benefits of doing so.

Harnessing the power of curiosity is not just about asking "why?" It’s about understanding the trade-offs we make when we choose where to invest our limited time and energy.

You’ll walk away with practical, science-backed strategies to boost your own curiosity and channel it for success in your career, your relationships, and your daily life. (Doors: $17, or $15 with a student ID.)

Image: Studying the comet NEOWISE in August 2020. (Photo by Palonitor / Wikimedia Commons.)

Profs and Pints Baltimore presents: “‘Kink’ or ‘Disorder’?” a look at how psychology approaches unusual sexual behaviors, with Brian A. Sharpless, licensed clinical psychologist, former faculty member at Penn State and Washington State universities and the American School of Professional Psychology, and author of Psychodynamic Therapy Techniques.

[Advance tickets: $13.50 plus sales tax and processing fees. Available at https://www.ticketleap.events/tickets/profsandpints/baltimore-kink-disorder .]

Few subjects are as interesting – or as sensitive – as sex. Psychology’s history of dealing with sexual behaviors and, especially, the more unusual among them, has been fraught, in many cases resulting in entirely normal and safe behavior being deemed pathological. In recent decades, however, the field has evolved to be far more open-minded, and to use diagnostic standards focused on the well-being of those involved.

Be on hand as Dr. Brian Sharpless, a popular regular on the Profs and Pints stage, discusses how psychologists and psychiatrists approach some of the more unusual sexual behaviors. You’ll learn how the mental-health field historically has thought about, and currently diagnoses and treats, behaviors it deems as crossing the line that separates a quirk or kink from a legitimate psychological disorder.

Dr. Sharpless will start by giving us background on exactly how psychologists and psychiatrists determine that a behavior qualifies for “disorder” status. The short answer is that current diagnostic systems do not consider sexual behaviors to be disorders unless they meet certain criteria such as seriously interfering in the life of the person engaged in them or lacking consent among the involved parties. But there’s a lot of nuance to this, which he’ll cover in a manner that is straightforward and understandable.

The talk will then offer an in-depth discussion of three paraphilias that can cross the line into being considered as disorders that need to be treated and, in many cases, are illegal: voyeurism, exhibitionism, and frotteurism. Finally, he’ll talk about asphyxiophilia, sometimes called autoerotic asphyxiation, the act of enhancing sexual arousal through the intentional deprivation of oxygen. You may be shocked to learn how many individuals are injured or killed each year while engaging in this potentially dangerous activity.

Dr. Sharpless also will discuss fetishistic fantasies and behavior, which are relatively common in the general population but among a small share end up being formally diagnosed as fetishistic disorder. He’ll discuss how fetishes are defined and summarize the research on them. (Doors: $17, or $15 with a student ID. Doors open at 5. Talk begins at 6:30.)

Images of feather and chicken from Rawpixel.com.

Profs and Pints Baltimore presents: “A Feast of Fat Tuesday Knowledge,” on the origins and evolution of a winter holiday, with K. Anne Amienne, former instructor of courses on Reformation and Renaissance popular culture at Duke University, founder and director of Scholars & Writers, and author of Eat Feed Autumn Winter: 30 Ways to Celebrate When the Mercury Drops.

[Advance tickets: $13.50 plus sales tax and processing fees. Available at https://www.ticketleap.events/tickets/profsandpints/baltimore-fat-tuesday .]

Why do people party so hard on a Tuesday night halfway between Christmas and Easter?

Come to an ideal place to get answers—Section 771 bar and restaurant in Baltimore’s Camden Yards—and learn Fat Tuesday’s story.

We’ll start with the medieval origins of an observance that started out as Shrove Tuesday, a name derived from the medieval tradition of “shriving,” or confessing, one’s sins before the beginning of lent. You’ll learn how communities sought to celebrate the day with gusto for reasons related to both religious doctrine and agricultural necessity.
Dr. Amienne will discuss how the day turned into a Renaissance carnival of excess—and even violence—resembling the famously licentious, boozy affairs that are today’s Mardi Gras and Carnival in places like Rio and New Orleans.

The sixteenth-century Protestant Reformation, which swept away many Catholic traditions, left this one intact but throughout Northern Europe transformed Fat Tuesday into a day of domestic celebration—often for children. We’ll look at how the British empire, no matter which faith ruled it, fueled its own growth by honoring the rhythm of feast and fast.

You’ll learn how in Iceland the medieval Catholic self-flagellation of Flengingar­dagur (Spanking Day) has become Bolludagur (Bun Day), during which sons and daughters “beat” their parents with magic wands to receive a cream bun for every blow. In Sweden, almost eight million semlor (cream buns) are sold in bakeries on Shrove Tuesday, while Denmark and Norway have similar pastries that remind us of the old medieval tradition of using up eggs, cream, and butter before the fast.

In tracing Fat Tuesday’s journey from medieval feasts to modern celebrations, Dr. Amienne will bring to life a story of ritual, misrule, and culinary transformation. You’ll leave knowing how to celebrate Fat Tuesday with a touch of British or Nordic tradition. (Doors: $17, or $15 with a student ID. Bar doors open at 5 pm. The talk starts at 6:30).

Image: Carnival as depicted in “Battle of Carnival and Lent,” a 16th Century painting by Pieter Brueghel the Younger