Game Changer Lab at Critical Making Collaborative, Jan. 26, 2023

I am happy to announce the inaugural event of the Critical Making Collaborative at Stanford — a new initiative that my colleagues Jean Ma (Film & Media Studies), Matthew Wilson Smith (Theater and Performance Studies/German), and myself established to probe the intersections of theory and practice:

Please join the Critical Making Collaborative at Stanford University in the Clark Center Auditorium at Bio-X (318 Campus Drive) on Thursday, January 26th, from noon to 1:30 pm for a presentation by collaborators Melissa L. Gilliam and Patrick Jagoda. The Clark Center Auditorium is located below the Clark Center Courtyard, accessible by the courtyard staircase or by the elevators in the east wing lobby.

In this talk, Dr. Gilliam and Dr. Jagoda will present the Center for Interdisciplinary Inquiry and Innovation in Sexual and Reproductive Health (Ci3), with a particular emphasis on the Game Changer Chicago (GCC) Design Lab, which they co-founded at the University of Chicago. This interdisciplinary collaboration brings together high school youth from the South Side of Chicago, graduate and undergraduate students, and full-time game design staff. Together, they create digital stories and games about health and social justice issues to improve young people’s health and well-being. 

Projects include a suite of board games that tackle health issues in Chicago (Hexacago), a game-based narrative about sexual violence (Bystander), a mobile game about HIV testing among men who have sex with men (The Test), a roleplaying video game to encourage youth underrepresented in STEM to explore this area (Caduceus Quest), a multimedia intervention based in India (Kissa Kahani), and a birth control counseling tool (Tangible Tool). These research projects raise questions about intersections among the humanities, arts, and sciences, digital media and learning, emerging cultural and narrative genres, and the social and emotional health of youth.

This event is co-sponsored by the Department of Art and Art History at Stanford, as well as the Digital Aesthetics Workshop and the Medical Humanities Workshop, both of which are sponsored by the Stanford Humanities Center.