The Games Institute (GI) was established under one simple principle: if you are a graduate student, postdoctoral fellow, or faculty member focusing on interactive, immersive media, games or other game-like interactions and technologies, we invite you to join us.
That principle still holds ten years later and the overarching “welcome” embraces the principles of equity, diversity, and inclusion, in all its manifestations. As such, the GI places major importance on the well-being of its members with the ultimate goal that they feel welcome, they are treated well, and as an Institute learn from them and their experiences. We actively engage and support individuals identifying as women, non-binary, LGBTQIA2S+, Indigenous, First Nations, Métis and Inuit, people of colour, and people with various abilities. Researchers guide the GI, and it’s the Institute’s goal to provide the best possible environment – physically, socially, and culturally – for their work.
The GI is a research ecosystem devoted to advancing the study, design, and purpose of interactive immersive technologies and experiences which has already expanded beyond games and game-like interactions to including but not limited to:
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VR/AR/XR
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Social Media and Digital Communities
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Health Technologies and Rehabilitation Studies
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Rhetoric and Computational Linguistics
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Haptics and Technological Accessibility
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Social Justice Interventions in Design
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Experimental Digital Media
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Historical Pedagogy and Digital Interventions
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Virtual Green Spaces and Environmental Networks
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Theatre Performances
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Hybrid Technology
The GI ecosystem encourages UWaterloo students and faculty from disparate disciplines to interact with one another and explore cross-disciplinary connections. From its very inception, the GI’s goal was to offer a place where academic knowledge is intertwined with life experiences and wisdom. In contrast but – importantly – not in opposition to the more traditional metric-based approach present in disciplinary scholarship, the GI exists to foster researchers and research processes and to enhance researchers’ lived experiences. The Institute provides an environment where people want to be and where they are constantly encouraged to expand their understanding of research and engage in collaborations beyond traditional areas of academic specialization.