Profs and Pints Metro Baltimore

Profs and Pints Baltimore presents: “The Way of Cosplay,” on the evolution, norms and debates of a worldwide subculture, with Luxx Mishou, cultural historian, former instructor at the U.S. Naval Academy and area community colleges, and author of Cosplayers: Gender and Identity.

[Doors open at 3. The talk starts at 4:30. The room is open seating. Advance tickets: $13.50 plus sales tax and processing fees. Available at https://events.ticketleap.com/tickets/profsandpints/baltimore-cosplay ]

Cosplay, which involves wearing costumes to mimic fictional figures, has grown to be a very real cultural phenomenon, with millions of enthusiasts worldwide estimated to spend at least $5 billion on it each year.

Outsiders, puzzled by the sight of grown adults dressed as Wolverine, Princess Leia, or various Japanese anime characters despite Halloween being months away, might find themselves asking: Who are cosplayers? What are they doing? Why?

Even those deeply immersed in cosplay have questions: What is the future of this? Where’s the divide between my costume and my identity? Is this a political act? Should it be one?

Coming to Baltimore’s Guilford Hall to provide answers is Dr. Luxx Mishou, a scholar of—and participant in—cosplay whose book Cosplayers explores the role of nostalgia, gender, and sexualized fantasy in that scene.

For the uninitiated she’ll offer a crash course on what cosplay is about, and she’ll describe its history from the first science fiction convention to the cosplay-related industries of today. She’ll discuss how it’s an international artform with roots in masquerade, fashion, carnival, theatre, and fandom in which participants use costuming or costume performance inspired by existing fictional characters regarded as international property. Its name a portmanteau of “costume” and “play,” cosplay generally is a social activity, a hobby, and a means of individual expression. It also can be an active identity and a profession.

Dr. Mishou will examine the complicated relationships between the lives of cosplayers and the cosplays they create, challenging other cosplay scholars who equate cosplay with fandom or dress with gender. She’ll share some of the often-unspoken secrets of cosplayers, including real accounts of euphoria and harassment. You’ll learn how cosplay convention rules help determine what cosplays will be found in event halls.

Finally, she’ll show how and why cosplay has become an important vehicle for personal and political expression outside the convention hall. She’ll offer a critical eye to the Batman’s appearance at a Black Lives Matter protest, Wonder Woman at an anti-abortion rally, and frog costumes at anti-ICE demonstrations.

You’ll emerge from the talk with a sense that cosplay represents a lot more than spandex bodysuits and chainmail bikinis. (Doors: $17, or $15 with a student ID.)

Image: The cosplayer Yukari depicts Aria H. Kanzaki from the Japanese light novel series Aria the Scarlet Ammo. (Photo by DPS Photography Studio / Creative Commons.)

Profs and Pints Baltimore presents: “The Baltimore Woman Who Fought Napoleon,” on the independent and unconventional life of Elizabeth Patterson Bonaparte and what it tells us about gender expectations and power in the early American Republic, with Derek Van De Walle, adjunct professor at the University of Baltimore School of Law and scholar of local history.

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

Move over Meghan Markle as well as maybe even Wallis Simpson. When it comes to being the focus of international celebrity and controversy, it’s hard to fill the fashionable French shoes of the Baltimore socialite Elizabeth Patterson Bonaparte, one of the most fascinating women in early American history.

Learn in depth about her with Derek Van De Walle, a lawyer and historian widely praised for lectures that bring historical figures to life.

You’ll learn how Elizabeth Patterson, daughter of one of Baltimore’s wealthiest families, acquired her famous last name by marrying Jérôme Bonaparte, youngest brother of Napoleon Bonaparte, the future French emperor. Their marriage brought her into one of the most powerful dynasties in the world and caused an international scandal, drawing the attention of both European courts and American society.

Napoleon ultimately annulled the marriage, but Elizabeth refused to fade quietly into the background. In an era when women were expected to live within strict social boundaries, she traveled Europe on her own terms, managed her own finances, became extraordinarily wealthy, and carefully shaped her legacy. She passed on her name and wealth to her child and grandchildren, who fought for a claim to the Bonaparte dynasty long after Napoleon's death.

Her life, which has inspired books and movies, intersected with themes of ambition, celebrity, gender expectations, and transatlantic politics in the early republic. You’ll be glad you got to know her. (Doors: $17, or $15 with a student ID. Bar doors open at 5 pm. The talk starts at 6:30.)

Image: From an 1804 “triple portrait” of Elizabeth Patterson by Gilbert Stuart (Metropolitan Museum of Art / Wikimedia Commons).

Profs and Pints Baltimore presents: “Dune and Messiahs,” on word of saviors in religion and science fiction, with Peter Herman, former lecturer in theology and religious studies at Marymount University and scholar of religious and social themes in sci fi.

[Doors open at 3. The talk starts at 4:30. The room is open seating. Advance tickets: $13.50 plus sales tax and processing fees. Available at https://events.ticketleap.com/tickets/profsandpints/baltimore-dune-messiahs ]

Dune: Part Three is scheduled for release in December, and trailers for the epic space opera film have fans of the Dune franchise longing for it like visitors to its desert planet Arrakis long for water. Based on the second volume of renowned science fiction novelist Frank Herbert's Dune saga, the movie depicts the internal and external conflicts of protagonist Paul Atreides, an emperor treated by others as a messiah while being depicted as an antihero.

The film will raise intriguing questions related to the presence of redeeming figures, or messiahs, throughout both science fiction and religious texts. Among them: What exactly do we mean by the term “messiah”? Why have many religious traditions looked for a redeemer to emerge? What happens if the messiah gets it all wrong?

Explore such questions—and prepare yourself to enjoy the upcoming Dune film at a much deeper level—with Dr. Peter Herman, who has given several excellent, thought-provoking Profs and Pints talks on the Dune franchise.

To center Dune in the discussion, we’ll look at the character of Paul Atriedes as a ruler who has launched a jihad across known space to reconquer it. His prescient visions show him that although the spread of religious war is not optimal, neither is it the worst potential future for humanity, and he allows excess and violence to continue in his name out of a conviction that it’s for the greater good. Throughout the book on which the upcoming film is based, Atriedes struggles with his followers' desire to view him as a divine figure.

Dr. Herman, a trained theologian, will set such themes in the broader context of religious studies by discussing messianic figures across various religious traditions. Among them, Christianity names Jesus of Nazareth as the messiah, but he is hardly the first person in the canonical Bible given that title. Mainstream Judaism does not anticipate any similar, deified figure descending from heaven, but messianic strains of Judaism have looked for the arrival of a political liberator. Islam, from which Frank Herbert borrowed terms applied to Paul Atriedes, contains reference to someone serving not as a redeemer but as a heavenly guide. All branches of Buddhism situate within each new age of their cyclical cosmology a Buddha-yet-to-come.

We’ll look at the human tendency in confusing times to seek out direct, uncomplicated answers and to embrace messianism as part of apocalypticism, which foretells a straightforward sorting process in which believers, as good people, see reward while their enemies, as bad people, see punishment.

Dune fans will feel rewarded for coming to this talk. (Doors: $17, or $15 with a student ID. Listed time is for doors. The talk starts 30 minutes later.)

Image by Canva.

Profs and Pints Baltimore presents: “Owl Wisdom,” an introduction to the biology, habits, and conservation of various owl species in Maryland and beyond, with Steve Sheffield, professor of biology at Bowie State University, curator of mammals and birds for the Natural History Society of Maryland, and president of the Maryland Ornithological Society.

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

Who wants to learn about owls?

If you are fascinated by these hunters of the night, you’ll love spending an evening with Steve Sheffield, a biologist who extensively studies owls and works to conserve them.

He’ll start by covering the different types of owls in our region and elsewhere, and the ways in which their bodies and their sizes represent physical adaptations to their environment. He’ll especially focus on the owl species of the United States and Canada, describing their biology, ranges, preferred habitat and prey, behavior, and vocalizations.

You’ll learn how and why field biologists study owls and how owl researchers from around the world assemble periodically to discuss their work. We’ll consider owls' value to ecosystems and, especially, humans and human-dominated landscapes where they serve as especially efficient killers of rodents and other crop-harming pests.

Dr. Sheffield will talk about the many years he has spent researching owls, with much of his work focused on their exposure to environmental contaminants and how they’re affected.

Being top predators, owls serve as sensitive bioindicators of contamination throughout the food chain. Much like canaries in coal mines, they function as an early warning system alerting us to potentially dangerous levels of toxicity. We don’t just study them for their own good, but ours as well. (Doors: $17, or $15 with a student ID. Bar doors open at 5 pm. The talk starts at 6:30.)

Image: Burrowing owls in Florida (Photo by travelingwayoflife / Creative Commons) .