Did you know that many of those accused of being witches during the European witch trials of the Early Modern Period were not old women, but actually, they were wealthy men and women with power?
That's one of the myths University of Iowa German literature professor Waltraud Maierhofer hopes to dispel with her lecture, "The Hunted Witch," that she'll give Oct. 22 at the Graduate Hotel in Iowa City.
The spooky season-suited lecture is open to the public and put on by Profs and Pints, an organization based out of Washington, D.C. that invites college faculty to share their knowledge at bars, cafés, company offices and other off-campus venues in 15 cities nationwide. It frequently partners with the Graduate by Hilton and expanded its reach to Iowa City last fall.
"As I researched Iowa City, I saw that it has a very vibrant culture and a strong connection with literature," said founder Peter Schmidt. "That really impressed me."
Schmidt, a former Chronicle of Higher Education journalist, started Profs and Pints in 2017 after seeing the barriers people faced trying to learn and teach at colleges, like high tuition fees and low professor salaries. Profs and Pints lecturers are paid to discuss their interests and research, and the general public can listen without paying the steep price of college tuition or applying for admission. Tickets for Maierhofer's talk cost less than $20.
"You won’t earn college credits but you’ll leave knowing more," the website promises.
The talks are fairly informal, promoting learning in a social setting where patrons can have a drink while interacting with the lecture.
Maierhofer gave Iowa City's first Profs and Pints lecture last year, from her literature class on pacts with the Devil, like the one featured in the Marlowe play, Doctor Faustus, that was based on German stories about the title character, Faust. There have been a handful of other lectures put on periodically in Iowa City since then, and Schmidt hopes to one day make them monthly.
This year, Maierhofer's lecture will look at the "history of belief in witchcraft and attacks on those suspected of practicing it," from one of her classes at the university.
"My interest in witchcraft is mostly about how they are portrayed in fiction, and fiction that claims to be historically accurate," she said.
The lecture will focus mainly on European witch trials that occurred before the infamous ones in Salem, Mass., and will explore similarities between today’s conspiracy theories and historical witch hunts.
You can catch "The Hunted Witch," Oct. 22 at 5:30 p.m. at the Graduate by Hilton in Iowa City.