Join us on Thursday, June 9th as we bring Nerd Nite back to Stardust Video & Coffee for a nostalgic evening of thinking and drinking.
Nerd Nite is an evening of entertaining yet thought-provoking presentations– all while the audience drinks along in a casual atmosphere. Speakers present for 15-20 minutes each on a fascinating subject of their choice, often in an uncanny and unconventional way. Following each presentation is a brief Q&A with the audience.
Live Nerd Nite presentations in Orlando are always the second Thursday of every month. Come meet up, drink, and learn something new!
Speakers:
Omar Khateeb
Susanna Miller
Michael McConville
Hosted by Ricardo Williams
When: Thursday, June 9, 2016. 7pm
Where: Stardust Video & Coffee, 1842 Winter Park Rd, Orlando, FL 32803
RSVP is Required: http://www.ticketbase.com/events/nerd-nite-orlando-xxxx
Presentation List:
“Habits of the Mind: Waging War Against Yourself” by Omar Khateeb
Omar is an artistic scientist that is intellectually curious. The thing that drives Omar’s curiosity is connection. He likes to connect books, ideas, and people. The arc of his work isn’t about doing what’s easy or common. It’s about legacy and trust. His life experiences are a spectrum of curiously interesting things: Carnegie Hall soloist, former medical student, and marketer in surgical robotics. He has recently launched a fashion inventions company named p.s. mister. He also has an uncontrollable addiction to reading books and collecting knowledge. His road to recovery was stalled the moment Amazon Prime was invented. Connect with him on twitter (@okhateeeb) or Snap Chat (@okhateeb).
“Talking Tolkien: How Language Makes Culture, and How that Translates into Fictional Languages” by Susanna Miller
Susanna grew up moving between the US and Kenya, and found a home in books. She is the Orlando Campus Director for The Iron Yard, a coding bootcamp, and enjoying her newfound knowledge of the world of tech. In her free time, she reads a lot of books, tweets very occasionally, and cooks as much as she can.
“Talk, Dark, and Hairy: The Role of the Monster in American Culture” By Professor Michael McConville
For as long as humans have walked on Earth, we have feared that which we can’t see or what we don’t understand. The shadows of the forest, the depths of the seas – just beyond our control and comprehension exists a world of myth and monsters. While other regions of the world have stories of fanciful creatures and thousands of years of folklore, North America’s “monster culture” is much more grounded in the land and the people that inhabit it. It is even more starkly reflected in the popular culture of the United States, where monsters can be the stars of movies, television shows, and comics. Fear is replaced by familiarity, but the stories at the foundation of the American monster are largely forgotten. We’ll explore the roots of our monster mythos – and all become armchair cryptozoologists, as well!
Michael McConville has always been fascinated with the mysterious and the unknown, the stories and discoveries that raise more questions than they answer. This love of the unexplained – and the urge to learn and understand as much as possible about it – directly led Michael to teaching. Today, Michael serves as a professor of American History at the University of Central Florida, as well as the coordinator of the Buehler Planetarium at Seminole State College. In both pursuits, Michael is tasked to be a storyteller, to take what can be mysterious and interpret it in new and exciting ways. This is Michael’s third time as a Nerd Nite presenter, also taking part in Nerd Nite XXX and XXXV.