I will be headed to Vancouver, British Columbia to particpiate in and present at HASTAC 2019. This year’s theme is “Decolonizing Technologies, Reprogramming Education.” I will be presenting a pedagogy workshop with Ashlee Bird (Native American Studies, UC Davis) on “Teaching (with) Queer & Indigenous Games.” The description of our workshop reads:
Session 1C: Teaching (with) Queer & Indigenous Games
Friday | May 17, 2019 | 9-10 AM
Room 2301 | AMS Student Nest | UBC Vancouver
HASTAC 2019 | Vancouver, BC
In Gaming (2006), Alexander Galloway argues, “Video games render social realities into playable form” and “play is a symbolic action for larger issues in culture.” As gaming communities, industry, even scholars and teachers attempt to address the need for diversity and inclusion in games, how might we locate, include, theorize, and teach games of color, queer games, and games of difference? Specifically, how might we look at the representation and algorithmic underpinnings of queer and Indigenous identities, narratives, bodies, and cultures in games? This workshop will include: a definition and demonstration of close playing or critical ways of analyzing, engaging, and teaching games to address gender, sexuality, and race in digital games; how to develop a teaching with games philosophy; hands-on activities to address queerness and indigeneity in games and the classroom; and resources to develop queer and games of color syllabi.
Here are the slides for the workshop:
And here is a link to the workshop handout in PDF form.