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03oct6:00 pm8:30 pmProfs & Pints: How We Lost Afghanistan6:00 pm - 8:30 pm Bier Baron Tavern

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Event Details

Profs and Pints presents: “How We Lost Afghanistan,” with Christine Fair, professor in Georgetown University’s Securities Studies Program, former political officer for the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, and author of several books on political and military affairs in South Asia.

[Under current District of Columbia regulations attendees will be required to wear a mask except while eating or drinking. The Bier Baron will be requiring proof of Covid-19 vaccination or a negative Covid-19 test from the previous 72 hours for entry. It also will be requiring ticketed event attendees to purchase a minimum of two items, which can be food or beverages, including soft drinks.]

The recent U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan—and the chaos associated with it and the rapid return of the Taliban to power—has raised a host of troubling questions about how our nation handled its dealings with that nation. Had we truly fulfilled our mission there? How could we have so badly misjudged how quickly the Afghan security forces we had trained and equipped would fall? Why did things there go so badly in the end? Are we truly done with Afghanistan? Or will need to go back—and run the risk of repeating the same mistakes?

Come hear such questions tackled by Christine Fair, a professor in Georgetown University’s Walsh School of Foreign Service who has been on the ground in Afghanistan as a U.N. officer and has written several books on the political and military affairs in South Asia, a region she has studied for 30 years.

Dr. Fair will argue that the United States basically “lost Afghanistan on the installment plan.” It and its partners never understood the fundamental drivers of their eventual defeat, much less developed policy measures that would make this loss less likely.

She’ll discuss how the seeds of failure were planted in the earliest weeks of the conflict, when the United States entered Afghanistan under the aegis of “Operation Enduring Freedom.” On October 7, 2002, a small group of special operators went into Afghanistan from Tajikistan with the goal of shoring up the Northern Alliance. Its leader, a murderous warlord known as Ahmad Shah Massoud, had been grievously injured in a suicide attack the month before.

The Americans had not expected that the Taliban would fall quickly, but it did. Nor were the Americans able to deter the Northern Alliance from storming Kabul, which they did. And, in these fateful weeks, the United States ensured its eventual defeat in a war that would stretch out for nearly twenty years, and which would become the longest war in America’s history.

The speaker plans to donate her proceeds from the talk to a program of the Lutheran Social Services of the National Capital Area devoted to resettling Afghan refugees who are coming into our region on special immigrant visas. (Advance tickets: $12. Door: $15, or $13 with a student ID.)

Time

(Sunday) 6:00 pm - 8:30 pm

Location

Bier Baron Tavern

1523 22nd St NW Washington DC 20037

Cost

Advance tickets: $12. Doors: $15, save $2 with a student ID.

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05oct5:00 pm8:00 pmSUNSET SOCIAL AT WILD DAYS DC5:00 pm - 8:00 pm WILD DAYS at Eaton Rooftop

05oct6:00 pm8:30 pmProfs & Pints: Spirits Around the Place6:00 pm - 8:30 pm Church Hall

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Event Details

Profs and Pints presents: “Spirits Around the Place,” a look at Russia’s beliefs in supernatural creatures and haunted spaces, with folklorist Philippa Rappoport of George Washington University.

(Church Hall, where this event is being staged, follows all C.D.C. and Washington D.C. guidelines regarding public health, and D.C. currently requires anyone indoors at a restaurant or bar to wear a mask except while eating or drinking. The venue reserves the right to modify all rules to align with current and future regulations and best practices to maintain a safe and fun environment. In addition to bar service, it provides contactless ordering and hand sanitizer at all tables.)

Traditional Russian beliefs hold that we’re seldom alone, even if no people are around. Instead, we’re nearly always surrounded by mythological beings. They can make our lives complicated and sometimes even injure or murder us, sometimes because we’ve annoyed them or, in other cases, just because that’s what they like to do.

Prepare to return to the days when you wondered what’s under your bed with this spook-filled talk by Philippa Rappoport, an expert on Slavic folklore and rituals. She’ll describe how Russian culture long ago gave rise to beliefs in such mythological beings, known as “nature” or “place” spirits, who exert their influence on farmsteads, bathhouses, threshing barns, woods, water, and, yes, our own homes. Their presence was felt daily in the Russian peasant’s world, and it still can be seen today in the ways in which Russians relate to home, space, and boundaries.

The real frightening fun will come when Dr. Rappoport introduces us to these supernatural beings, discussing their characteristics and the beliefs and traditions surrounding them.

We’ll learn about the sprits of the home and homestead, such as the domovoi, a cranky spiritual master and protector of the home and hearth, and his counterpart of the yard, the dvorovoi. We’ll talk about the bannik, the bathhouse spirit who presides over bathing and births but also sees saunas as a great place to strangle folks who don’t show him enough respect.

A little farther from home, we’ll meet the spirits of the forests, waters, and fields. They include the leshii, master of the forest and its inhabitants, who might appear like a peasant, devil, or beast. Another spirit, the vodianoi, or “water devil,” is a bloated, shaggy, slimy water spirit that you’ll want to avoid at all costs.

We’ll examine how these supernatural creatures are related to perceptions of space, boundaries, danger, and people who are categorized as “others” and shunned for it. We’ll gain insights on how people express fear of the unknown, and how such fear connects to xenophobia and some of the worst human behavior imaginable, deeds which render their perpetrators as monsters in their own right. It’s a talk that will give you an entirely new vantage point for viewing Russian history and culture, and help you better understand the 19th- and 20-century Russian propensity to close borders or punish by exile and gulag. (Advance tickets: $12 plus sales tax and service charge. Door: $15, or $13 with a student ID. Listed time is for doors. Talk starts 30 minutes later. Please allow yourself time to place any orders and get seated and settled in.)

Time

(Tuesday) 6:00 pm - 8:30 pm

Location

Church Hall

1070 Wisconsin Ave NW, Washington, DC 20007

Cost

Advance tickets: $12. Doors: $15, save $2 with a student ID.

Learn More

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12oct5:00 pm8:00 pmSUNSET SOCIAL AT WILD DAYS DC5:00 pm - 8:00 pm WILD DAYS at Eaton Rooftop

19oct5:00 pm8:00 pmSUNSET SOCIAL AT WILD DAYS DC5:00 pm - 8:00 pm WILD DAYS at Eaton Rooftop

26oct5:00 pm8:00 pmSUNSET SOCIAL AT WILD DAYS DC5:00 pm - 8:00 pm WILD DAYS at Eaton Rooftop

02nov5:00 pm8:00 pmSUNSET SOCIAL AT WILD DAYS DC5:00 pm - 8:00 pm WILD DAYS at Eaton Rooftop

13nov7:00 pm11:00 pmTartan Ball 2021A gala celebration of Scottish heritage and culture7:00 pm - 11:00 pm InterContinental Washington D.C.

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