Current students

Gustavo Tondello, GI resident and Computer Science PhD student, was featured on the UWaterloo YouTube channel in a GRADimpact profile video about his research.

Emma Vossen, alum of the Games Institute and former Editor in Chief of First Person Scholar, ran the Refiguring Innovation in Games (ReFiG) conference in Vancouver on October 25, 26, and 27, 2018. Vossen also presented a talk about teaching games related classes.

Lennart Nacke, faculty member of the Games Institute and director of the HCI Games Group, spoke on a panel, entitled "Keeping the Human in Artificial Intelligence", on December 3 at the Kitchener Public Library.

Mark Hancock, Associate Director of the Games Institute and Director of the UW Touchlab, was honoured with the 10-Year Impact Award on Tuesday, Nov. 27 at the ACM International Conference on Interactive Surfaces and Spaces (ISS) in Tokyo.

Elise Vist presented a paper at the Fan Studies Network North America (FSNNA) 2018 Conference at DePaul University in Chicago, October 25-27, 2018. Vist is an English PhD candidate studying fans, immersion, and queerness at the Games Institute, as well as the producer for First Person Podcast.

Dr. Lennart Nacke joined reporter Brian Bourke from Kitchener Today to weigh in on the societal value of games. Nacke was invited to join Bourke because interest in the negative effects of violent videogames is reemerging in the media following the publication of a meta-study showing the results of 24 studies looking at heightened physical aggression post-gameplay in youths from 9-19.

Sarah Stang, Essays Editor for First Person Scholar and PhD student in the Communication and Culture program at York University, delivered a co-presentation with Dr. Aaron Trammel at ReFig 2018.

Their presentation, entitled "The Misogynist Ludic Bestiary: How Women are Made Monstrous in Dungeons & Dragons (D&D)" was a condensed version of a longer article the two co-authored: