Scholarly practice:
I am an Assistant Professor in Game Design & Development at Wilfrid Laurier University (PhD—Information 2018, University of Toronto). I research how game designers render their first-person mental health narratives into computer games during a game jam (a gameathon). My principal research contributions are to game studies, the health humanities, and disability studies. As a transdisciplinary theorist, I draw on phenomenology, narratology, and the philosophy of art. As a qualitative researcher using arts-based methods, I organize game jams to study the creative processes of makers. I have published on a variety of topics including game design, machinima filmmaking, and autism in virtual worlds.
Artistic practice:
My multimedia and documentary filmmaking practice importantly informs my scholarship. I have 20 years of experience working as an independent documentary filmmaker and multimedia artist/designer. My documentary machinima on female self-image, avatar identity, and mental health/disability--Second Bodies--won Best Documentary at the New Media Film Festival in San Francisco and the Gordon F. Keeble Award at Ryerson University. My previous documentaries explored immigrant narratives set within historical and contemporary contexts; Portrait of a Street: The Soul and Spirit of College (funded by the National Film Board of Canada and Toronto Arts Council) and Just Arrived (commissioned by Rogers Media) were respectively broadcast on PBS and Rogers OMNI Television. I am also a member of Toronto's game development collective Dames Making Games and have an experimental game design practice.
I am an Assistant Professor in Game Design & Development at Wilfrid Laurier University (PhD—Information 2018, University of Toronto). I research how game designers render their first-person mental health narratives into computer games during a game jam (a gameathon). My principal research contributions are to game studies, the health humanities, and disability studies. As a transdisciplinary theorist, I draw on phenomenology, narratology, and the philosophy of art. As a qualitative researcher using arts-based methods, I organize game jams to study the creative processes of makers. I have published on a variety of topics including game design, machinima filmmaking, and autism in virtual worlds.
Artistic practice:
My multimedia and documentary filmmaking practice importantly informs my scholarship. I have 20 years of experience working as an independent documentary filmmaker and multimedia artist/designer. My documentary machinima on female self-image, avatar identity, and mental health/disability--Second Bodies--won Best Documentary at the New Media Film Festival in San Francisco and the Gordon F. Keeble Award at Ryerson University. My previous documentaries explored immigrant narratives set within historical and contemporary contexts; Portrait of a Street: The Soul and Spirit of College (funded by the National Film Board of Canada and Toronto Arts Council) and Just Arrived (commissioned by Rogers Media) were respectively broadcast on PBS and Rogers OMNI Television. I am also a member of Toronto's game development collective Dames Making Games and have an experimental game design practice.
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