NERD NITE Hudson Valley - March 20th

Badass Women Warriors! Building & Breaking Dictators! Surveillance Capitalism! March 20th

March Madness! Three fun-yet-informative visual presentations with music, prizes, refreshments and guaranteed good company.

Kicking off Women's History Month, Professor of History and Director of Medieval and Renaissance Studies at Vassar College Nancy Bisaha presents "Badass Women Warriors of the Middle Ages." When you think about the Middle Ages (as one often does!), you probably envision warfare and a lot of knights running around. But you may be surprised by how many historical and literary sources from the period feature dozens of incredible women warriors outside of Joan of Arc.

Next, we hear from Comedian and Writer Luke Strathmann who runs the communications team at Yale's Department of Economics with "Surveillance Capitalism & Digital Secrets You Wish Your Family Didn't Know About You." Tech companies track, profile, and monetize us, but sometimes the real risk and embarrassment comes not from Big Tech, but from the people who can see our digital behavior up close: our families who we share passwords with.

Finally, investigative journalist and author Cillian Dunne brings us "How a Dictator Is Built and Broken: My Time Living With Noriega’s Right-Hand Man." This talk uses Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega as a case study to show how dictators are not born but carefully engineered through intelligence agencies, money, and foreign policy. This talk takes the audience behind the scenes of how the same system that builds strongmen eventually turns on them.

Be there and be square! 
Read more about our presenters: hudsonvalley.nerdnite.com