Black Squirrel Club

Profs and Pints Philadelphia presents: “Kafka and Prague,” on how a great author and his works were shaped by the history, culture, and landscape of a city, with Cynthia Paces, professor of history at The College of New Jersey, teacher of courses on European history and Holocaust studies, and author of two books on Prague. Where we’re from can profoundly shape how we think, what we create, and what we end up doing with our lives. Gain a much deeper understanding of Franz Kafka, the acclaimed and influential author whose prophetic work anticipated European totalitarianism and still shapes dystopian visions,

Profs and Pints Philadelphia presents: “America’s Erotic Past,” a journey back through surprisingly queer and kinky centuries, with Rebecca Davis, professor of history and of women and gender studies at the University of Delaware and author of the acclaimed book Fierce Desires: A New History of Sex and Sexuality. When Donald Trump signed an executive order declaring the existence of two biological sexes, he not only was putting his stamp on scientific errors, he also was contravening four centuries of American history. We might assume that we live with a “puritan” legacy of repression. But America’s sexual history is full

Profs and Pints Philadelphia presents: “Philadelphia and the Underground Railroad,” with Andrew Diemer, professor of history at Towson University and author of Vigilance: The Life of William Still, Father of the Underground Railroad. The Underground Railroad has long been cloaked in legend, with that legend only growing over time as filmmakers and novelists have provided their own takes on it and old houses have been claimed to have concealed areas that hid fugitive slaves. Local historians eagerly trace out the tracks of this railroad, identifying its “stations” and “stationmasters” and “conductors,” but other professional historians remain skeptical of such claims.

Profs and Pints Philadelphia presents: “The Life of Barbie,” on a plastic icon and her cultural legacy, with Emily Aguiló-Pérez, an associate professor of English at West Chester University of Pennsylvania who has extensively researched Barbie as a scholar of childhood, media, and popular culture. Few toys have shaped culture quite like Barbie has. From her debut in 1959 to the billion-dollar success of the 2023 film bearing her name, Barbie has been a mirror of society, a lightning rod for controversy, and a symbol of transformation. She often has found herself at the center of society’s evolving conversations about

Profs and Pints Philadelphia presents: “Climate Change 101,” a crash course on the science related to directional climate change and global warming, with Sean O'Donnell, professor in Drexel University’s Biodiversity, Earth and Environmental Science program. We hear and read a lot about climate change and global warming, and it has become pretty hard to ignore the Philadelphia region’s wacky weather patterns with its recent freakily warm winters, vanishing snow, and late spring “heat domes.” Many of us, however, don’t have much of a grasp of the science explaining such developments and can’t answer questions such as: How do we really