Profs and Pints Meetup-Metro DC

Profs and Pints DC presents: “The Macabre Poe,” a look at Edgar Allan Poe’s most gruesome and horrifying works and what inspired them, with Amy Branam Armiento, professor of English at Frostburg State University, past president of the Poe Studies Association, and editor of two books on the acclaimed American author.

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

Stephen King has said that he and other horror writers are all “the children of Poe,” a reference to how they’re unable to escape his shadow. Although Edgar Allan Poe penned works in a long list of genres, including fantasy, detective fiction, and poetry, his most prominent legacy is as the master of the macabre. Over the nearly two centuries since Poe lived, “The Tell-Tale Heart,” “The Fall of the House of Usher,” “The Pit and the Pendulum,” “The Cask of Amontillado,” and “The Masque of the Red Death” have haunted millions of readers.

Who, exactly, was Poe? Why does he remain as one of the United States’ best-known writers at home and abroad? Why do his works continue to resonate with readers more than 150 years after they were published?

Come hear such questions tackled by Amy Branam Armiento, a leading Poe scholar who edited More Than Love: The Enduring Fascination with Edgar Allan Poe, co-edited Poe and Women: Recognition and Revision, and formerly served as president of an international organization that supports the scholarly and informal exchange of information on Poe’s life, works, times, and influence.

Professor Armiento will look at which people and events influenced Poe’s literary works. His troubled life included the slow deaths of his mother, brother, foster mother, and wife, as well as a problematic relationship with alcohol and a difficult relationship with his foster father. All shaped his relationship with death, horror, and the unknown.

She'll also look at how Poe’s horror tales laid the groundwork for the characters, circumstances, and other conventions of horror stories. We’ll explore how Poe shattered literary conventions of his own time by embracing lurid descriptions of violence, especially violence perpetrated between family members and loved ones. You’ll learn how Poe adapted conventions of the fairy tale to create his memorable, haunting tales, an aspect of his work that is hidden in plain sight.

The presentation will also include examples of evocative artwork used to illustrate editions of Poe's works. Get ready to feel chills down your spine. (Doors: $17, or $15 with a student ID. Listed time is for doors. Talk starts 30 minutes later.)

Image: Poe as depicted in a modern retouched version of a daguerreotype by Mathew Benjamin Brady. (U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.)

Profs and Pints DC presents: “It Came from Within,” a look at the real-life psychological disorders linked to some of your favorite movie frights, with Brian A. Sharpless, former assistant professor at Penn State University and Washington State University, editor of Unusual and Rare Psychological Disorders, and author of Monsters on the Couch: The Real Psychological Disorders Behind Your Favorite Horror Movies.

[Advance tickets: $13.50 plus sales tax and processing fees. Available at https://www.ticketleap.events/tickets/profsandpints/dc-came-from-within .]

Gear up for Halloween with something that will leave you even more rattled by your favorite horror films: A look at real-life psychological conditions connected to movie monsters.

Clinical psychology has a lot to teach us about horror, and horror movies reveal a lot about both psychological distress and some of the fundamental fears that go along with being human. Join Brian Sharpless, a clinical psychologist with a big following among Profs and Pints fans, for a talk that will give new meaning to the phrase “It’s all in your mind.”

In a talk that draws from history, folklore, and film studies, Dr. Sharpless will discuss what clinical psychology and psychiatry have to say about various movie monsters. Starting with those from the golden age of cinema, he’ll discuss famous fiends such as Dracula, and why some people today seek to drink others’ blood. You’ll learn how professionals can detect Renfield's syndrome in people who try to conceal having it, as well as how real vampires behave differently according to sex.

Moving ahead to more recent films such as The Thing, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, and It Follows, he’ll talk about the delusional misidentification disorders, surprisingly common in certain elderly populations, which involves the belief that loved ones have been kidnapped and replaced with imposters. You’ll learn about the relationship between sleep paralysis and films such as Mara or Dead Awake, and how movies depicting alien abduction or “shadow people” are tied to psychological conditions.

Finally, Dr. Sharpless will look at what drives certain monstrous behaviors, such as cannibalism. Just in case you might someday be unlucky enough to find yourself in a “survival cannibalism” situation, Dr. Sharpless will give you practical tips for not becoming someone’s next meal.

You'll end up watching horror movies differently and, perhaps, wondering what might be going on in the heads of people seated in the theater near you. (Doors: $17, or $15 with a student ID. Listed time is for doors. The talk starts 30 minutes later.)

Image: An 1810 engraving by Jean-Pierre Simon depicts a vision like those often associated with sleep paralysis (Wellcome Trust / Wikimedia Commons).

Profs and Pints DC presents: “An Evening with Jack the Ripper,” your chance to become familiar with a mysterious killer, with Luxx Mishou, Victorianist, scholar of Jack the Ripper, and former instructor at the U.S. Naval Academy and area community colleges.

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

In 1888 England was gripped by an “Autumn of Terror” as a wave of shocking and brutal murders took place in Whitechapel, a district in London’s East End. In crowded streets, busy neighborhoods, and lodgings with thin walls, at least five women were ferociously – yet seemingly silently – attacked, their remains left in public spaces to be found by their neighbors. Bold headlines and gruesome illustrations covered the front pages of English newspapers, some of which received “gifts” and confessional letters from a culprit who was never caught or officially named.

For decades historians and Ripperologists have tried to pinpoint who this mysterious killer could have been. Among the curious is Luxx Mishou, a Victorian era and gender studies scholar, who has spent years scouring historical accounts and nineteenth-century newspapers that traced the movements of England’s most notorious, and mysteriously elusive, serial killer.

Join Dr. Mishou for a trip back in time to discuss the infamous Jack the Ripper case. She’ll talk about what really happened in Whitechapel, what Victorian journalists and newspapers knew, and whether the sensational press coverage surrounding the murders helped or actually hindered the search for a perpetrator.

She’ll also discuss what the London public thought of the monster lurking in their midst and why we’re still obsessed with this whodunit over 130 years later.

Finally, we’ll tackle the biggest question of all: Who was Jack the Ripper? Dr. Mishou believes her research has left her ready to point to the killer. (Doors: $17, or $15 with a student ID. Listed time is for doors. The talk starts 30 minutes later.)

Image: A wanted poster published in connection with the Whitechapel murders.

Profs and Pints Northern Virginia presents: “The Power of Folk Horror,” an exploration of an especially creepy subgenre in folklore and film, with Joshua Barton, lecturer in English at Virginia Commonwealth University and scholar of horror.

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

What makes a horror film scare really stick with you? Sometimes, it’s not monsters or jump-scares but the eerie feeling that something ancient, something forgotten, is still lurking just under the surface.

That’s the heart of folk horror, a subgenre that blends folklore, rural isolation, and rituals gone wrong. It takes the past—the truly forgotten past—and makes it come roaring back to bite us.

Venture into the strange and fascinating world of folk horror with Joshua Barton, who has earned a big following among Profs and Pints fans with excellent past talks on cryptids, ghosts, movie monsters, and other things that go bump in the night.

We’ll start by digging down to folk horror’s roots in classic British films like The Wicker Man and Witchfinder General, discussing how these stories introduced us to secretive villages, ominous woods, and old traditions that clash violently with the modern world.

We’ll move on to explore how folk horror has reemerged in recent hits like The Witch, Midsommar, and Lamb. What ties them all together? The feeling that history isn’t dead; it’s just been waiting.

Beyond the scares, this genre taps into something deeper. Folk horror asks what happens when we lose touch with our roots or when we get too close to them. It reflects fears about identity, nature, belief, and the things we can’t explain. And in an age of environmental anxiety, political division, and cultural upheaval, these stories are more relevant than ever.

By the end of the lecture, we’ll see that folk horror goes beyond surface-level eeriness. It’s a mirror for our collective anxieties and a reminder that the past is never as far away as we think. (Doors: $17, or $15 with a student ID. Listed time is for doors. The talk starts 30 minutes later.)

Image by Canva.