Profs and Pints - Nashville

Profs and Pints Nashville presents: “Becoming the Witch,” on witchcraft initiations in folklore and fairy tales, with Cory Thomas Hutcheson, folklorist, lecturer at Middle Tennessee State University, and author of New World Witchery: A Trove of North American Folk Magic.

[Doors open at 6 pm. Talk starts at 7. Advance tickets: $13.50 plus sales tax and processing fees. Available at https://www.ticketleap.events/tickets/profsandpints/nashville-becoming-the-witch .]

Becoming one of the witches of folklore was never as simple a matter as learning a few spells or grabbing a pointy hat. It required a lot more effort than that.

Among the paths some took to get there: Striking a deal with a sinister figure standing at a crossroads. Venturing into a dark forest—with only a doll for protection—to confront a cannibalistic witch. Shooting the moon with a silver bullet to make it bleed magic into you.

Folklore is riddled with methods for becoming a witch, and by coming to Nashville’s Fait La Force taproom on October 30th you can learn where these stories come from and what they tell us about the nature of witches and folk sorcery.

Cory Thomas Hutcheson, a folklorist whose several excellent past talks have earned him a substantial following among Profs and Pints fans, will explore the lore of witch initiations found in folklore, fairy tales, historical accounts, and other sources.

We’ll look at the three key methods by which people become witches: being born into witchery, or being called into it, or learning it through study and practice. You’ll meet examples of sorcerous folk.

We’ll also examine the unique challenges, ethical questions, allies, enemies, and opportunities faced by newly made witches in places ranging from Appalachia to Ukraine.

If you want to gear up for Halloween by learning about all things witchy, you couldn’t ask for a better teacher than Dr. Hutcheson, who along with writing New World Witchery hosts a podcast by the same name and edited Llewellyn’s Complete Book of North American Folk Magic.

If on the way home you encounter a black goat who asks, “Wouldst thou like to live deliciously?” you’ll have a better sense of the consequences of your reply. (Doors: $17, or $15 with a student ID.)

Image: From “The Witches’ Sabbath,” painted by Francisco Goya (Museo Lázaro Galdiano / Wikimedia).

Profs and Pints Nashville presents: “World War I and the Middle East,” on an often-overlooked theater of the Great War and its long-term impact on global affairs, with Andrew Patrick, professor of history at Tennessee State University and scholar of American engagement with the Ottoman Empire.

[Doors open at 6 pm. Talk starts at 7. Advance tickets: $13.50 plus sales tax and processing fees. Available at https://www.ticketleap.events/tickets/profsandpints/first-world-war-middle-east ]

When we think of World War I we often think of filthy trenches, futile assaults, and stagnant battle lines in France and Belgium. The experience was much different, however, beyond the Western Front.

Gain a deep understanding of how the war was fought in Ottoman lands, and how the outcome of the conflict there continues to have a profound impact on our world today, at Fait La Force on the November 11th anniversary of the armistice that officially brought the First World War to an end.

Professor Andrew Patrick, who has written a book and several articles on World War I in the Middle East and teaches courses on World War I and Middle East and global history, will give you a much richer understanding of the war in Ottoman lands than you might have gleaned from watching classic films like Gallipoli or Lawrence of Arabia.

He’ll talk about how historians increasingly place the Ottoman Empire at the center of the First World War’s origins, and how the conflict in Ottoman lands lasted far longer than the war itself, arguably from 1911 until 1922.

You’ll learn how the character of the conflict on Ottoman lands differed substantially from fighting elsewhere—even though it was similarly gruesome. Along with warfare, people in the region faced ethnic cleansing, famine, and even locusts.

By 1922, European imperial powers finally accomplished the violent dismantling of the Ottoman Empire, replacing it with unwanted colonial rule, fragile states, and the beginnings of a “national home” for European Jews. In doing so they gave birth to the modern Middle East and ensured that the region would experience instability in the ensuing century. The consequences of their actions still haunt us today. (Doors: $17, or $15 with a student ID.)

Image: Cameleers from Australia, England, New Zealand and India in Palestine (Australian War Memorial / Public Domain).