Scholarly practice:
I am an Assistant Professor in Game Design & Development at Wilfrid Laurier University (PhD—Information 2018, University of Toronto). I research autobiographical game design as a mental health practice and a medium of self-expression. In particular, I study how game makers render their illness and trauma narratives into computer games during a game jam (a game making workshop). My principal research contributions are to game studies, the health humanities, and disability studies. As a transdisciplinary theorist, I also 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—especially those who belong to underserved communities and vulnerable populations. I have published on a variety of topics including abstract board games, game design, machinima filmmaking, and autism in virtual worlds. Currently, I am the lead researcher (PI) on a qualitative study exploring the sense-making processes of young adults making autobiographical games based on their experiences with opioid addiction (funded by Canada's The Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council–SSHRC).
Multimedia practice:
I am currently lead designer of an educational mobile app called "Dreamer" for the Laurier Career Centre, which will be released on iOS and Android in the near future. This journaling app helps students reflect on their competencies while seeking career counselling at the centre. I have at least 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 an Assistant Professor in Game Design & Development at Wilfrid Laurier University (PhD—Information 2018, University of Toronto). I research autobiographical game design as a mental health practice and a medium of self-expression. In particular, I study how game makers render their illness and trauma narratives into computer games during a game jam (a game making workshop). My principal research contributions are to game studies, the health humanities, and disability studies. As a transdisciplinary theorist, I also 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—especially those who belong to underserved communities and vulnerable populations. I have published on a variety of topics including abstract board games, game design, machinima filmmaking, and autism in virtual worlds. Currently, I am the lead researcher (PI) on a qualitative study exploring the sense-making processes of young adults making autobiographical games based on their experiences with opioid addiction (funded by Canada's The Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council–SSHRC).
Multimedia practice:
I am currently lead designer of an educational mobile app called "Dreamer" for the Laurier Career Centre, which will be released on iOS and Android in the near future. This journaling app helps students reflect on their competencies while seeking career counselling at the centre. I have at least 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.
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