Penn Social

<a href="https://www.profsandpints.com/washingtondc" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">Profs and Pints DC</a> presents: “George Washington and the Civil War,” on
 how all sides of a nation-dividing conflict enlisted a long-dead 
founding father, with Anne Sarah Rubin, a professor of history at the 
University of Maryland, Baltimore County who specializes in the study of
 nationalism and memory during the American Civil War.&nbsp;
George Washington died in December 1799, more than sixty years before
 the American Civil War began. Yet in 1860 he seemed to be everywhere, 
embraced by abolitionists and slaveholders, Unionists and Confederates 
alike as a mythical symbol of their own righteousness. All drew on the 
image and iconography of George Washington and the American Revolution 
to claim legitimacy for their respective sides.
Gain insight into how our nation’s history and memory has long been 
weaponized to support disparate causes with Anne Sarah Rubin, an author 
of two books on the Civil War who has given great talks in Baltimore on 
the war’s impact on that city.
Dr. Rubin will describe how memories—both actual and cultural—of 
Washington and the revolution diverged in ways that reflected divisions 
over slavery. Slaveholders and abolitionists each laid claim to the 
parts of the past that they could use and discarded the rest.
The memory of the Founders and the Revolution was malleable. Homages 
to their wisdom and the republican experiment they created could be read
 as conservative. Calls for greater equality could be read in the 
Revolution’s spirit. Washington was portrayed as a benevolent master in
 one popular engraving and as an emancipator in another.
Each side used images, songs, and stories to make their case. When 
the war broke out, Confederates eagerly seized upon popular songs like 
“Yankee Doodle” and “The Star-Spangled Banner” and rewrote them to serve
 their own ends, calling Union soldiers “Hessians” or “Tories” and 
praising the Stars and Bars as the better flag.
With the end of the war and the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, 
Northerners united the two presidents in death, even proposing that 
Lincoln be buried at Mount Vernon. That presidential home itself became a
 symbol of sectional reconciliation. (<a href="https://events.ticketleap.com/tickets/profsandpints/dc-george-washington-civil-war" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">Advance tickets</a>: $13.50 plus 
sales tax and processing fees. Doors: $17, or $15 with student ID. 
Listed time is for doors. The talk begins 30 minutes later.)
Image: A Stephen James Ferris print published in 1865 after Lincoln’s assassination (Library of Congress).

Local Event: Profs & Pints DC: George Washington and the Civil War

District of Columbia

Georgetown

District Of Columbia

Profs & Pints DC: George Washington and the...

Profs and Pints DC presents: “George Washington and the Civil War,” on
 how all sides of a nation-dividing conflict enlisted a...

Profs & Pints DC: George Washington and the Civil War

HIGHLINE RxR

<a href="https://www.profsandpints.com/washingtondc" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">Profs and Pints Northern Virginia</a> presents: “Social Media to Social Reckoning,”
 a talk about how Big Tech social media platforms operate and affect our
 world, with Caddie Alford, leading digital rhetoric scholar, associate 
professor of rhetoric, and co-lead of the AI Futures Hub at Virginia 
Commonwealth University.
Learn what social media platforms attempt to get us to think and 
feel, and assess the impact that their algorithms are having on our 
social lives and democracy, with Caddie Alford, a scholar of persuasion 
vis-à-vis Big Tech’s power.
Applying the ancient art of rhetoric to social media platforms and 
what’s billed as “artificial intelligence,” she’ll offer insights on the
 beliefs held by AI company CEOs and on the changes that Elon Musk made 
to Twitter. She’ll discuss concepts like cyberlibertarianism, 
technofascism, and “data trauma,” and she’ll call attention to the 
relationship between how we talk about social media and how we use it. 
If you started out “surfing the web” but now find yourself 
“doomscrolling,” her talk will help you understand why.
Dr. Alford will shed light on the discrepancies between how Big Tech 
social media companies portray themselves and how they actually operate.
 No matter how much they characterize social media platforms as 
“ecosystems,” the platforms’ true purpose is harvesting our data for 
shareholder value.
We’ll look at how the story of AI is deeply intertwined with the 
story of the internet, and how the political agendas of Big Tech social 
media companies are actualized by the material realities of computing 
infrastructure, contingent labor, and other considerations.
We’ll close by discussing how social media users are pushing back at 
Big Tech and its justifications for its policies and agendas. (<a href="https://events.ticketleap.com/tickets/profsandpints/nv-social-media-social-reckoning" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">Advance tickets</a>: $13.50 plus sales tax and processing fees. Doors: $17, or $15 
with a student ID. Listed time is for doors. The talk starts 30 minutes 
later.)
Image from Pixabay.

Local Event: Profs & Pints Northern Virginia: Social Media to Social Reckoning

Profs & Pints Northern Virginia: Social Media...

Profs and Pints Northern Virginia presents: “Social Media to Social Reckoning,”
 a talk about how Big Tech social media...

Profs & Pints Northern Virginia: Social Media to Social Reckoning

<a href="https://www.profsandpints.com/washingtondc" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">Profs and Pints DC</a> presents: “When Nazis Prowled Our Coasts,” a
 look at how Hitler brought war to America, with Kevin Matthews, 
professor of history at George Mason University and teacher of courses 
on early 20th century European history and World War II.
A German submarine surfaces in New York’s harbor. Nazi saboteurs 
armed with explosives land on a Florida beach with orders to blow up 
factories in Tennessee and dams on the Ohio River. American ships are 
sunk in broad daylight while vacationers look on from New Jersey to 
Virginia Beach, from the Outer Banks to Key West.&nbsp;&nbsp;
It wasn’t the plot of a bad movie. Such events actually happened 
during the early months of 1942, helping to explain why watchtowers 
still stand near the beaches of Delaware and New Jersey today.
Come learn about this forgotten episode of our nation’s World War II 
past with Professor Kevin Matthews, who previously has given excellent 
Profs and Pints talks on the Battle of the Bulge, the rise of Fascism, 
and the history of the Irish Revolution.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
He’ll describe how Nazi Germany sought both to make the United States
 pay for siding with Britain, and defeat us at home before our forces 
could get to Europe, by sending its forces places you now associate with
 boardwalks and bodysurfing. It ordered its U-boats to beat America like
 a “kettledrum” as part of a campaign known as Operation Paukenschlag
 (which translates as “drumbeat.”) And by the spring of 1942 its 
submarines also were prowling the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean.
Aiding the success of Nazi Germany’s campaign were two unwitting 
allies: the U.S. Navy, which refused to change tactics in the face of 
Germany’s attacks; and the leaders of American cities, who refused to 
impose blackouts and thereby created a neon-lit shooting gallery the 
length of the East Coast.&nbsp;&nbsp;
You’ll learn how Britain’s Royal Navy and Royal Air Force helped 
defeat the U-boats at a time when they threatened our entire war effort,
 and how the FBI’s J. Edgar Hoover helped establish himself as the 
nation’s top cop by doggedly tracking down Nazi agents.
It’s a talk that will give you plenty to think about on your next 
trip to the beach. (<a href="https://events.ticketleap.com/tickets/profsandpints/dc-nazis-prowled-coasts" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">Advance tickets</a>: $13.50 plus sales tax and 
processing fees. Doors: $17, or $15 with a student ID. Listed time is 
for doors. The talk starts 30 minutes later.)
Image: The tanker S.S. Dixie Arrow after being torpedoed by a German 
submarine off Cape Hatteras in March 1942 (U.S. Navy photo).

Local Event: Profs & Pints DC: When Nazis Prowled Our Coasts

Profs & Pints DC: When Nazis Prowled Our Coasts

Profs and Pints DC presents: “When Nazis Prowled Our Coasts,” a
 look at how Hitler brought war to America, with Kevin...

<a href="https://www.profsandpints.com/washingtondc" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">Profs and Pints DC</a> presents: “The ‘Gooning’ Lecture,” answers
 to our questions about a growing online sexual practice, with Jenn 
Pollitt, assistant professor in the gender, sexuality, and women’s 
studies program at Temple University.&nbsp;
The term “gooning” has exploded across online spaces, yet many people
 have only a vague or wildly inaccurate sense of what it actually 
references.
Learn about gooning both as a sexual practice and as a cultural 
phenomenon shaped by the internet with Jenn Pollitt, a scholar whose 
research focuses on pornography, digital culture, and the changing 
nature of intimacy in the age of screens.
She’ll provide clear, grounded, and research-informed exploration 
what gooning is, how it emerged within digital porn cultures, and why it
 resonates with so many people in an era defined by screens, algorithms,
 and constant stimulation.
Drawing from media studies, sexuality research, and firsthand 
analysis of online communities, Dr. Pollitt will situate gooning within 
broader conversations about intimacy, attention, and embodiment in the 
digital age. Rather than treating gooning as fringe or purely 
sensational, she’ll frame it as a lens for understanding larger cultural
 shifts, especially in terms of how people navigate loneliness, 
overstimulation, and the search for intimacy in increasingly mediated 
environments.
Among the questions she’ll tackle: What does gooning reveal about how
 technology is reshaping desire and sexual experience? Why does it blur 
the line between pleasure and dissociation? And how does it challenge 
traditional ideas about connection, agency, and control? (<a href="https://events.ticketleap.com/tickets/profsandpints/dc-gooning" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">Advance tickets</a>: $13.50 plus sales tax and processing fees. Doors: $17, or $15 
with a student ID. Listed time is for doors. The talk starts 30 minutes 
later.)
Image: Photo by Terry Johnston / Creative Commons.

Local Event: Profs & Pints DC: The Gooning Lecture

Profs & Pints DC: The Gooning Lecture

Profs and Pints DC presents: “The ‘Gooning’ Lecture,” answers
 to our questions about a growing online sexual practice, with...

<a href="https://www.profsandpints.com/washingtondc" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">Profs and Pints Northern Virginia</a> presents: “Fighting Words, Civil War,”
 on the fiery debates about free speech, political violence, and slavery
 that led to armed conflict between the Union and the Confederacy, with 
Paul Quigley, professor of Civil War History at Virginia Tech and 
director of the Virginia Center for Civil War Studies.
Just like in our own time, the years leading up to our nation’s Civil
 War found Americans wrestling with thorny questions related to free 
speech. Among the questions being asked: Who got to say what to whom? 
Which words were so incendiary as to justify physical reprisal?
These questions became more urgent than ever in 1856, when South 
Carolina congressman Preston Brooks used a cane to beat Massachusetts 
Senator Charles Sumner unconscious in the Senate chamber in retaliation 
for Sumner’s Senate speech denouncing slavery and personally insulting 
Brooks’s relative. Although the caning lasted barely a minute, it 
greatly intensified the fight over slavery that ultimately led to the 
Civil War.
Professor Paul Quigley examined that notorious incident, its impact, and its relevance to today in depth for his book The Man Behind the Cane: Preston Brooks, Political Violence, and the Road to the Civil War. He’ll
 connect the caning to wider struggles over free speech, violence, and 
slavery in a talk that will deepen your understanding of our nation’s 
history and deepest divisions.
He’ll describe how proslavery Americans, realizing that antislavery 
talk could spark slave uprisings, censored abolitionism by any means 
necessary, burning abolitionist pamphlets and carrying out the 1837 
murder of newspaper editor Elijah Lovejoy.
Undeterred, abolitionists embraced the power of provocative language 
as they repeatedly exposed slaveholder brutality and the injustice of 
enslavement. Their heated rhetoric fueled increasing acceptance of 
antislavery violence, culminating in John Brown’s 1859 raid on Harpers 
Ferry.
The spiral of rhetorical and physical violence escalated the conflict
 until it erupted in secession and a war that we’ve never completely put
 in our past. Could today’s political tensions lead to a similar 
outcome? (<a href="https://events.ticketleap.com/tickets/profsandpints/nv-fighting-words-civil-war" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">Advance tickets</a>: $13.50 plus sales tax and processing fees. 
Doors: $17, or $15 with a student ID. Listed time is for doors. The talk
 starts 30 minutes later.)
Image: From a reproduction of a famous John L. Magee cartoon depicting Preston Brooks caning Charles Sumner.

Local Event: Profs & Pints Northern Virginia: Fighting Words, Civil War

Profs & Pints Northern Virginia: Fighting...

Profs and Pints Northern Virginia presents: “Fighting Words, Civil War,”
 on the fiery debates about free speech, political...

Profs & Pints Northern Virginia: Fighting Words, Civil War

<a href="https://www.profsandpints.com/washingtondc" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">Profs and Pints DC</a> presents: “Fighting Words, Civil War,”
 on the fiery debates about free speech, political violence, and slavery
 that led to armed conflict between the Union and the Confederacy, with 
Paul Quigley, professor of Civil War History at Virginia Tech and 
director of the Virginia Center for Civil War Studies.
Just like in our own time, the years leading up to our nation’s Civil
 War found Americans wrestling with thorny questions related to free 
speech. Among the questions being asked: Who got to say what to whom? 
Which words were so incendiary as to justify physical reprisal?
These questions became more urgent than ever in 1856, when South 
Carolina congressman Preston Brooks used a cane to beat Massachusetts 
Senator Charles Sumner unconscious in the Senate chamber in retaliation 
for Sumner’s Senate speech denouncing slavery and personally insulting 
Brooks’s relative. Although the caning lasted barely a minute, it 
greatly intensified the fight over slavery that ultimately led to the 
Civil War.
Professor Paul Quigley examined that notorious incident, its impact, and its relevance to today in depth for his book The Man Behind the Cane: Preston Brooks, Political Violence, and the Road to the Civil War.
 He’ll connect the caning to wider struggles over free speech, violence,
 and slavery in a talk that will deepen your understanding of our 
nation’s history and deepest divisions.
He’ll describe how proslavery Americans, realizing that antislavery 
talk could spark slave uprisings, censored abolitionism by any means 
necessary, burning abolitionist pamphlets and carrying out the 1837 
murder of newspaper editor Elijah Lovejoy.
Undeterred, abolitionists embraced the power of provocative language 
as they repeatedly exposed slaveholder brutality and the injustice of 
enslavement. Their heated rhetoric fueled increasing acceptance of 
antislavery violence, culminating in John Brown’s 1859 raid on Harpers 
Ferry.
The spiral of rhetorical and physical violence escalated the conflict
 until it erupted in secession and a war that we’ve never completely put
 in our past. Could today’s political tensions lead to a similar 
outcome? (<a href="https://events.ticketleap.com/tickets/profsandpints/dc-fighting-words-civil-war" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">Advance tickets</a>: $13.50 plus sales tax and processing fees. 
Doors: $17, or $15 with a student ID. Listed time is for doors. The talk
 starts 30 minutes later.)
Image: From a reproduction of a famous John L. Magee cartoon depicting Preston Brooks caning Charles Sumner.

Local Event: Profs & Pints DC: Fighting Words, Civil War

Profs & Pints DC: Fighting Words, Civil War

Profs and Pints DC presents: “Fighting Words, Civil War,”
 on the fiery debates about free speech, political violence, and...

<a href="https://www.profsandpints.com/washingtondc" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">Profs and Pints DC</a> presents: “Hell and Gone,”
 on American belief in damnation and doomsday, with Lindsay DiCuirci, 
associate professor of English at the University of Maryland, Baltimore 
County and scholar of nineteenth-century spiritualism.
On highways across the American Midwest are giant billboards meant to
 inspire soul-searching. They carry messages such as “HELL IS REAL” and 
“If you died today, where would you spend eternity?” Although the share 
of Americans who believe in hell has been slipping for two decades, 59 
percent of respondents to a 2023 Gallup poll still believed in its 
existence. On a related note, 55 percent of respondents to a 2022 Pew 
Research poll expressed the belief that Jesus Christ will return to 
earth someday as part of the earth’s apocalyptic ending.&nbsp;
Speculation about the afterlife and the world’s end has been the 
pastime of theologians, laypeople and charlatans for millennia. The 
enduring concepts of hell and the apocalypse have served as cultural 
barometers, measuring the status of all kinds of beliefs and behaviors 
far beyond those associated with organized religion.&nbsp;
Join Professor Lindsay DiCuirci, a scholar of early American 
literature and print culture and of the spiritualist movement of the 
nineteenth century, for a fascinating discussion of American beliefs 
about doom and damnation and their connection with broader worldviews.&nbsp;
We’ll start by looking at early colonial America, when Protestant 
Christianity predominated. You’ll learn how back then questions related 
to the end times and our fates after death were not simply personal or 
abstract, but factored into major societal conversations about art and 
literature, social reform, criminal justice, and foreign and domestic 
policy. We’ll discuss Puritan poet Michael Wigglesworth’s famous 1666 
work “Day of Doom,” which scared generations of young Christians with 
its graphic depiction of fire and brimstone. Moving across the 
centuries, we'll look at abolitionist David Walker’s 1829 treatise 
“Appeal to the Colored Citizens of the World,” which called America 
itself “hell upon earth!!!” for people of color. You’ll gain an 
appreciation of how the rhetoric—if not the reality—of hell and the end 
times activated people’s conscience.
We’ll also examine how the concept of hell has always had its 
detractors, even among self-identified Christians. Some of its most 
vocal opponents were nineteenth-century spiritualists, a diverse and 
diffuse group of people who believed that they could speak with the 
dead. For spiritualists, the elimination of hell was a balm for those 
who are mourning but it also had great political potential. Many 
spiritualists were also radical reformers, working on issues like the 
abolition of slavery, women’s liberation, capital punishment reform, and
 indigenous rights. The idea that the soul not only lived forever but 
continued to learn and progress even after it was “disrobed of the body”
 invigorated their quest for social justice on earth.
Today, beliefs about hell and the end of the world remain entangled 
with questions about human suffering, the nature of justice, and the 
future of the planet. You’ll emerge from the talk with a richer 
understanding of how your views on various questions of our day are 
shaped by your assumptions about how it all will end. (<a href="https://events.ticketleap.com/tickets/profsandpints/dc-hell" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">Advance tickets</a>: 
$13.50 plus sales tax and processing fees. Doors: $17, or $15 with 
student ID. Listed time is for doors. The talk begins 30 minutes later.)
Image: From “Pandemonium,” an 1841 John Martin painting of the 
capital of hell as described in John Milton’s “Paradise Lost” (Louvre 
Museum/Wikimedia).

Local Event: Profs & Pints DC: Hell and Gone

Profs & Pints DC: Hell and Gone

Profs and Pints DC presents: “Hell and Gone,”
 on American belief in damnation and doomsday, with Lindsay DiCuirci, 
associate...

<a href="https://www.profsandpints.com/washingtondc" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">Profs and Pints Northern Virginia</a> presents: “Encountering Cryptids,” on
 the cultural, historical and psychological significance of beings that 
may exist only in lore, with Joshua Barton, lecturer in English at 
Virginia Commonwealth University and scholar of horror.
Some started out as anecdotes shared by explorers. Others were 
created as cautionary tales, or literally were just developed as spooky 
stories for kids. Regardless of their origins, they’re now entrenched 
inhabitants of our nation’s landscapes, their lives perpetuated through 
tales told by communities that believe they’re real.
They’re cryptids with names like Sasquatch, Mothman, the Jersey 
Devil, Ogopogo, the Flatwoods Monster, and the Beast of Bray Road. And 
your single best chance to get to know them might be by coming to this 
talk by Joshua Barton, a scholar of horror who has earned a loyal 
following among Profs and Pints fans with incredibly entertaining past 
talks on folklore and horror.
He'll look at the genesis of the tales themselves and what they tell 
us about historic approaches to the unknown. He’ll discuss how tales of 
cryptids reflect societal fears, inspire local legends, and connect 
communities through shared myths, and he’ll examine the impact of 
cryptid tales on modern storytelling and local tourism.
Turning his attention to specific cryptids, Barton will describe how 
the Jersey Devil speaks to our nation’s puritan roots and our collective
 fear of evil. The chupacabra reflects anxieties over the blending of 
cultures, while Bigfoot and Mothman stand out as huge generators of 
tourism revenue.
You’ll learn how the study of such creatures—cryptozoology—exists at 
the intersection of oral folklore and modern belief, and you’ll probably
 emerge from the talk eager to tell cryptid tales of your own. (<a href="https://events.ticketleap.com/tickets/profsandpints/nv-encountering-cryptids" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">Advance tickets</a>: $13.50 plus sales tax and processing fees. Doors: $17, or $15 
with a student ID. Listed time is for doors. The talk starts 30 minutes 
later.)
Image: An 1889 Garrick Mallery sketch of a painted rock encountered 
on the Tule River Reservation in California. Cryptozoologists have 
interpreted the three figures painted on it, generally regarded as 
Native American symbols for negation, as instead representing an entire 
Sasquatch family.

Local Event: Profs & Pints Northern Virginia: Encountering Cryptids

Profs & Pints Northern Virginia: Encountering...

Profs and Pints Northern Virginia presents: “Encountering Cryptids,” on
 the cultural, historical and psychological...

Profs & Pints Northern Virginia: Encountering Cryptids

<a href="https://www.profsandpints.com/washingtondc" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">Profs and Pints DC</a> presents: “Painting’s Pioneering Women,”
 on female artists who overcame barriers and changed their field, with 
Paloma Vianey, lecturer in George Washington University’s Corcoran 
School of the Arts and Design.
Introductory art history courses tend to give short shrift to women, a
 legacy of the many centuries in which art collections 
disproportionately featured the works of men.
As a studio arts teacher, acclaimed interdisciplinary artist Paloma 
Vianey has sought to remedy that imbalance, teaching students about the 
lives and work of inspiring women artists while also encouraging them to
 observe artwork from the painters’ perspectives.
Join Vianey at Washington D.C.’s Penn Social for a look at the 
struggles and cultural contributions of women artists and how they have 
used painting as a tool for expression and healing.
She’ll discuss why learning about the contributions of women is 
imperative to understanding the field of painting and movements such as 
impressionism, surrealism, and conceptual art. She’ll dive into the 
lives and works of fifteen female artists who have had a huge impact in 
the last four centuries, describing how they created their images and 
changed their field.
Among the women you’ll learn about: Aurora Reyes, a poet regarded as 
the first Mexican muralist, who drew upon her impoverished upbringing to
 give her murals authenticity. Clara Peeters, a seventeenth-century 
artist who came to be regarded as a master in the nearly all-male field 
of still-life painting and took the brave step of incorporating 
self-portraits into her depictions of vases, goblets, and food. Emily 
Carr, who eschewed the traditional life she’d been expected to lead in 
the Victorian era to instead spend her life single and using painting to
 document the lives of Aboriginal villages.
Other artists who will be covered in the talk include surrealist 
Remedios Varo, conceptual artist Agnes Martin, modern artist Hilma af 
Klint, and Native American collage artist Jaune Quick-to-See Smith.
You’ll learn how the field of Art History is being revised to give 
female artists their due and how contemporary art museums are 
emphasizing more of their work. (<a href="https://events.ticketleap.com/tickets/profsandpints/dc-painting-women" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">Advance tickets</a>: $13.50 plus sales tax 
and processing fees. Doors: $17, or $15 with a student ID. Listed time 
is for doors. The talk starts 30 minutes later.)&nbsp;
Image: A 1787 painting by Élisabeth-Louise Vigée Le Brun

Local Event: Profs & Pints DC: Painting’s Pioneering Women

Profs & Pints DC: Painting’s Pioneering Women

Profs and Pints DC presents: “Painting’s Pioneering Women,”
 on female artists who overcame barriers and changed their field,...

<a href="https://www.profsandpints.com/washingtondc" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">Profs and Pints DC</a> presents: “Becoming a Better Ally,”
 on research-backed ways to effectively advocate for marginalized 
populations, with Hannah Snidman, assistant professor of psychology at 
Marymount University and director of a Marymount lab focused on 
allyship, social justice, activism, gender, and equity.
Marginalized groups are under extreme pressure in today’s political 
climate, yet some who seek to come to their defense may unintentionally 
be causing further harm.
Learn how you can become a better ally to those who face oppression 
due to gender, race, ethnicity, or other factors with Hannah Snidman, a 
psychologist whose research focuses on allyship and the experiences of 
gender minority members.
Professor Snidman will give her audience a basic understanding of 
Minority Stress Theory, which explains how unique stressors experienced 
by members of marginalized groups often lead to disparities in areas 
such as mental and physical health, substance use, and healthcare 
utilization.&nbsp;
She’ll discuss research on how effective allyship can reduce 
prejudice toward marginalized people and serve as a buffer against the 
stresses it causes. Focusing especially on the transgender population, 
she’ll describe research showing how would-be allies can unintentionally
 cause harm by, for example, invalidating perspectives or failing to 
follow through on promises.
The talk will look at future directions in allyship research, 
including on best practices for helping immigrant communities. (<a href="https://events.ticketleap.com/tickets/profsandpints/dc-better-ally" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">Advance tickets</a>: $13.50 plus sales tax and processing fees. Doors: $17, or $15 
with a student ID. Listed time is for doors. The talk starts 30 minutes 
later.)
Image by Canva.

Local Event: Profs & Pints DC: Becoming a Better Ally

Profs & Pints DC: Becoming a Better Ally

Profs and Pints DC presents: “Becoming a Better Ally,”
 on research-backed ways to effectively advocate for marginalized...

Hill Center at the Old Naval Hospital

<a href="https://www.profsandpints.com/washingtondc" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">Profs and Pints DC</a> presents: “Deer to Us,” on
 more than 12,000 years of interactions between eastern North America’s 
white-tailed deer and human residents, with Elic Weitzel, former 
postdoctoral fellow at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural 
History and adjunct professor of anthropology at George Mason 
University.&nbsp;
Given their abundance in our backyards and along highway corridors, 
few people today would suspect that white-tailed deer were on the verge 
of extinction at the turn of the 20th century mainly as a result of 
commercial hunting.&nbsp;
Learn about the complicated, centuries-old relationship between deer 
and people in our region with Elic Weitzel, who has spent the last 
decade studying the historical ecology of white-tailed deer and other 
species.
He’ll tell the story of our white-tail deer from prehistoric 
abundance to steady decline from the colonial era deerskin trade to 
resurgence under the modern conservation movement.&nbsp;
Combining evidence from archaeological excavations, historical 
sources, and contemporary conservation biology, Dr. Weitzel will 
describe how Native Americans hunted and managed deer for millennia and 
he’ll discuss the reasons why this pre-colonial hunting may have been 
relatively sustainable.&nbsp;
He’ll talk about how deer populations began to decline after the 
arrival of Europeans on our continent, and he’ll discuss the role that 
the deerskin trade and market economics played. Finally, he’ll look at 
how conservation efforts in the 20th century led to the recovery of deer
 and to the (sometimes problematic) abundance we see today.&nbsp;
You’ll learn lessons from the past that can help us better understand
 and promote sustainability in the present and future. (<a href="https://events.ticketleap.com/tickets/profsandpints/dc-deer" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">Advance tickets</a>:
 $13.50 plus sales tax and processing fees. Doors: $17, or $15 with a 
student ID. Listed time is for doors. The talk starts 30 minutes later.)
Image: A white-tailed deer. (Photo by Roy Smith / Wikimedia Commons.)

Local Event: Profs & Pints DC: Deer to Us

Profs & Pints DC: Deer to Us

Profs and Pints DC presents: “Deer to Us,” on
 more than 12,000 years of interactions between eastern North America’s...

<a href="https://www.profsandpints.com/washingtondc" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">Profs and Pints Northern Virginia</a> presents: “The Long Fight Over Voting Rights,”
 on today’s battles over political representation as part of a 
persistent struggle, with Jatia Wrighten, assistant professor of 
political science at Virginia Commonwealth University.
We often talk about election disputes as if they began only recently.
 The reality is that this nation’s fight over who gets to vote did not 
start yesterday and surely will not end with Donald Trump.
Learn how what feels like a modern crisis is actually a recurring 
theme of American history, and how the past offers lessons for the 
present and future, with political scientist Jatia Wrighten, a scholar 
of minority political representation.&nbsp;
You’ll learn how our nation has long been bitterly divided over 
questions related to who gets a voice in our government and how easy it 
should be to vote.
We’ll go back in time to the Reconstruction period after the Civil 
War, when the country engaged in debates over who counted as citizens 
and who had the right to vote. You’ll learn how during the Gilded Age of
 the late 1800s Americans were deeply concerned about the influence of 
big money, media, and corrupt political machines in elections. In the 
more recent past, we’ll look at how Black people fought for access to 
the ballot during the Civil Rights Movement.
To help you better understand what’s at stake in today’s debates, Dr.
 Wrighten will discuss how major shifts in political power can come 
about quietly through minor tweaks in the “machinery” of elections, 
including the rules governing voter registration, identification 
requirements, mail-in ballot management, and polling place locations. 
Gerrymandering—the practice of redrawing political maps to give one 
party an unfair advantage—also can have a huge impact.&nbsp;
This machinery is constantly being adjusted, influencing who finds it
 easy to vote and who faces significant challenges. Small tweaks in the 
rules brought about by politicians or the courts can change the outcome 
of an entire election before anyone even casts a ballot.
You’ll emerge from this talk better equipped to protect your vote by 
weighing in when the rules are debated. (<a href="https://events.ticketleap.com/tickets/profsandpints/nv-long-fight" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">Advance tickets</a>: $13.50 plus 
sales tax and processing fees. Doors: $17, or $15 with a student ID. 
Listed time is for doors. The talk starts 30 minutes later.)
Image: A December 2011 voting rights protest in New York. Photo by Michael Fleshman / Creative Commons.

Local Event: Profs & Pints Northern Virginia: The Long Fight Over Voting Rights

Profs & Pints Northern Virginia: The Long Fight...

Profs and Pints Northern Virginia presents: “The Long Fight Over Voting Rights,”
 on today’s battles over political...

Profs & Pints Northern Virginia: The Long Fight Over Voting Rights

<a href="https://www.profsandpints.com/washingtondc" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">Profs and Pints DC</a> presents: “The Long Fight Over Voting Rights,”
 on today’s battles over political representation as part of a 
persistent struggle, with Jatia Wrighten, assistant professor of 
political science at Virginia Commonwealth University.
We often talk about election disputes as if they began only recently.
 The reality is that this nation’s fight over who gets to vote did not 
start yesterday and surely will not end with Donald Trump.
Learn how what feels like a modern crisis is actually a recurring 
theme of American history, and how the past offers lessons for the 
present and future, with political scientist Jatia Wrighten, a scholar 
of minority political representation.&nbsp;
You’ll learn how our nation has long been bitterly divided over 
questions related to who gets a voice in our government and how easy it 
should be to vote.
We’ll go back in time to the Reconstruction period after the Civil 
War, when the country engaged in debates over who counted as citizens 
and who had the right to vote. You’ll learn how during the Gilded Age of
 the late 1800s Americans were deeply concerned about the influence of 
big money, media, and corrupt political machines in elections. In the 
more recent past, we’ll look at how Black people fought for access to 
the ballot during the Civil Rights Movement.
To help you better understand what’s at stake in today’s debates, Dr.
 Wrighten will discuss how major shifts in political power can come 
about quietly through minor tweaks in the “machinery” of elections, 
including the rules governing voter registration, identification 
requirements, mail-in ballot management, and polling place locations. 
Gerrymandering—the practice of redrawing political maps to give one 
party an unfair advantage—also can have a huge impact.&nbsp;
This machinery is constantly being adjusted, influencing who finds it
 easy to vote and who faces significant challenges. Small tweaks in the 
rules brought about by politicians or the courts can change the outcome 
of an entire election before anyone even casts a ballot.
You’ll emerge from this talk better equipped to protect your vote by 
weighing in when the rules are debated. (<a href="https://events.ticketleap.com/tickets/profsandpints/dc-voting-rights" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">Advance tickets</a>: $13.50 plus 
sales tax and processing fees. Doors: $17, or $15 with a student ID. 
Listed time is for doors. The talk starts 30 minutes later.)
Image: A December 2011 voting rights protest in New York. Photo by Michael Fleshman / Creative Commons.

Local Event: Profs & Pints DC: The Long Fight Over Voting Rights

Profs & Pints DC: The Long Fight Over Voting...

Profs and Pints DC presents: “The Long Fight Over Voting Rights,”
 on today’s battles over political representation as part of...

Profs & Pints DC: The Long Fight Over Voting Rights

Peter Schmidt

Washington Metropolitan Area

Arlington County

Arlington

Rosslyn

Virginia

Clarendon-Courthouse-Rosslyn

Clarendon

Washington DC

Michael O'Connell

Ballston

Fairfax County

Patch AM Team

Seven Corners

Bailey's Crossroads

Alexandria city

Del Ray

Montgomery County

Gaby Arancibia

Bethesda-Chevy Chase

Maryland

Rocklands Barbeque & Grilling Company

Want to tackle climate change in your local community?If you've been wondering what you can do to tackle climate change, EcoAction Arlington invites you to an information session about the EcoAmbassador program.

This climate and energy-centered volunteer training and community engagement program, co-managed by EcoAction Arlington and the Virginia Cooperative Extension, empowers everyday people to lead grassroots environmental efforts. Local residents looking to make a meaningful difference in our community can now apply for the 2026–2027 cohort of EcoAmbassadors. <a href="https://www.ecoactionarlington.org/get-involved/ecoambassadors/ea-training/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">Applications are open online through August 31, 2026</a>.&nbsp;To help you learn more, EcoAction Arlington is hosting an informal summer social. Come out to chat with Program Coordinators Bill Campbell and Kim Fredrich; meet alumni from the past cohort on August 4 at Rocklands BBQ Arlington from 6:30–8:30 PM. RSVP now at ecoactionarlington.org.

Local Event: Let's Talk Climate Action

Let's Talk Climate Action

Want to tackle climate change in your local community?If you've been wondering what you can do to tackle climate change,...

Creative Cauldron

I’m honored to be invited back to the Creative Cauldron Stage 🎉 and excited about this show lineup which will include an appearance by saxophonist Christopher Peterman performing on some material from my next album. Tickets are available now! <a href="https://app.arts-people.com/index.php?performance=%20895411" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">app.arts-people.com/index.php?performance=%20895411</a>

Local Event: Valeria Stewart Album Release 

Valeria Stewart Album Release 

I’m honored to be invited back to the Creative Cauldron Stage 🎉 and excited about this show lineup which will include an...

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Let's Talk Climate Action

Valeria Stewart Album Release