The Advantages of Deafness
It’s common to talk about “overcoming” a disability. But what about making it into a positive advantage? Michael, a UT-Austin PhD grad, will discuss how his deafness and cochlear implants have shaped how he wrote his two books and novel-in-progress. Being deaf, and having technology integrated into his body, gives him a fresh perspective that has proven to be fascinating and valuable.
About our speaker:
Dr. Chorost is a book author and public speaker. His first book, Rebuilt: How Becoming Part Computer Made Me More Human (Houghton Mifflin, 2005) is a memoir of going deaf and getting a cochlear implant. It won the PEN/USA Award for Creative Nonfiction in 2006 and was applauded by the L.A. Times as “the first cyborg memoir.” His second book, World Wide Mind Free Press, 2011) is about the science of brainscanning and the prospect of enabling direct communication from one brain to another. He has written for Wired, Technology Review, New Scientist, Slate, the Chronicle for Higher Education, among others. He has a B.A. from Brown University and a Ph.D. in Rhetoric & Composition from the University of Texas at Austin. After graduating in 2000 he worked at a dot-com in San Francisco and then at SRI International, a research institute in Silicon Valley. He now lives in Washington, D.C. with his wife and their two cats. He is working on his third book, a science-fiction novel with a deaf protagonist.
