Friday September 11, 2026 at Unicorn Bar, Kingston
Get your #2 pencils sharpened and those spectacles polished: we’re back to school! Three fun-yet-informative visual presentations on diverse nerdy topics with music, prizes, refreshments and guaranteed good company. Dr. Hanna McCaslin brings us Queer Ecology, Dr. Cara Marta Messina presents Critical Fandoms: How Fanfiction Helps Us Imagine Better Worlds and Nerd Nite NYC host Ben Taylor rounds out the nerdy goodness with a talk on Insect Queens! “Mama, I’m just having fun…on the stage in my heels, it’s where I belong”…down at the UNICORN BAR!
Tickets $15 in advance and $20 at the door (if available), but get your spot now before it sells out. If seated tickets sell out, there will be a few standby and standing room tickets available.
Tickets Here!
Talk #1: “Queer ecology: Shedding the story of straight science” by Dr. Hannah McCaslin
What do Netflix, Charles Darwin, and the world’s longest-lived lesbian birds have in common? What can they teach us about how we see nature? Bridging queer theory, ecology, and the science of science, this talk will explore how heteronormativity and rigid gender binaries slipped from society into research and became engrained as “objective truth.” Come out with us to detangle how science sensationalized straightness in a resoundingly queer world and leave with a new perspective on your own gay agenda.Â
Dr. Hanna McCaslin is an urban ecologist, wildlife biologist, and statistician surprised to find herself living east of the Rocky Mountains. She has taught courses in ecology and conservation biology at Marist University, Colorado State University, and Front Range Community College and is currently the coordinator for a partnership between SUNY Ulster and the NYC Department of Environmental Protection, training students in land management and ecological research. Her research at the intersection of ecological research, conservation, and social justice uncovers how patterns of social inequity limit our ability to understand and conserve nature and its benefits for all people. According to her interns, if she were a beverage she’d be kombucha.
Talk #2: “YAS QWEEN but make it insects” by Ben Taylor
It’s an entomological fact that the Queen Bee is always Queen A. But how does Queen A get that way? Let’s hit the scene with bees, ants, and termites and find out what it takes to become insect royalty. Believe me, it isn’t all honey, honey.
Ben is the guest host of Nerd Nite NYC, and has been presenting at Nerd Nites since 2012. He works at the American Museum of Natural History. He has been stung in the face three times on a single occasion.
Talk #3: “Critical Fandoms: How Fanfiction Helps Us Imagine Better Worlds” by Dr. Cara Marta Messina
With over 15 million fanfictions published on Archive of Our Own, fanfiction is more popular than ever. The act of writing and reading fanfiction is deeply personal and intertwined with larger social, cultural, and political questions. Based on her new book, Critical Fandoms: Representations of Race, Gender, and Sexuality in Fanfiction, Dr. Messina will share stories of fans of all ages navigating the chaotic, beautiful, and complicated world of fandom. Why are tagging practices so important? How do fans deal with conflict within their communities? And why do people love queer pirates and hockey players so much?Â
Dr. Cara Marta Messina is an assistant professor of English at Marist University. She received her PhD in English with a focus on Writing and Rhetoric from Northeastern University, and received her MA from St. John’s University. She has lived in New York for most of her life, first in Queens and now in Poughkeepsie. Her work centers around the intersections of writing and technology, particularly how technology shapes communities and vice versa. While much of her work focuses on fandoms and fanfiction, she is a strong anti-AI advocate and co-created a Discord server with 400+ like-minded academics and professionals.
Friday September 11th at 7:30pm at Unicorn Bar
224 Foxhall Ave, Kingston, NY 12401
Doors at 7pm. Be there and be square!