• A Gathering, with and without Avatars: exploring the feminist play of
learning with games
Week of 22 October:
“A Gathering, with and without Avatars”
is inspired by the Feminists in Games Workshop which takes place in British Columbia. For A Gathering you will
create either • a paper (with enough handouts for each member of the class) or • a
poster (and document it with digital pics): which one determined by lot early
in the semester. You may work on these individually or with a partner.
With the help of
three books (McGonigal, Reed, Flanagan) you will “Grow a Game,” and discuss its
feminist implications. • Identify
a theme from the book that most captures your imagination, interconnect it with
ideas from the other two, • make your game, and • share in either poster
or written analysis why it matters for feminist learning. ALWAYS make a
point of connecting projects to class readings, activities, and discussions.
ALWAYS use a standard model for citation and bibliography, even on posters. NOTICE
how useful the website Not Your Mama’s Gamer will be here!
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| women & technology: body>data>space: click image |
Tuesday of
Gathering week, we will meet during class time to share our projects, displaying
posters and handouts on the walls of our room, walk and talk one-on-one with
each other, share questions, observations, excitements! On that Thursday, we will continue to work with
the energy generated by the first day of the con, collectively coming up with
reflective analysis and more ideas for what comes next!
Full credit for each set of con assignments requires: • having begun work several weeks ahead of time, • writing
and postering in several drafts, • displaying paper & handout or poster
during first day of con and • actively participating both days of the con, • turning in electronic copies of poster pics
or paper and handout to Katie’s gmail account by class time Thursday of the
week of the con (you are allowed to revise anything between the two classes, but what
you bring in on Tuesday should still be like
a final version and complete), • and documenting each piece of the
assignment as completed in your logbook, which must be turned in electronically
with everything else by the evening of Friday of the week of the con for
credit. If for any reason whatsoever you miss any piece of this, you will need
to document that in your logbook, with explanations, and perhaps notes of any
discussions you have with Katie about it all. If you miss either day of the con, you will need to arrange with
three fellow students your own little mini-con, where you all meet together
outside class to share your work and discuss it, and you write a two-page
report on your meeting and discussion.
• Gaia: Worlding and feminist action
Week of 19 November:
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| Gaia Union: peer to peer worlding: click image |
With the help of
Nardi, Pearce & Artemesia, or Taylor, you will analyze feminist processes
of play, worlding and games as activist actions. You will either begin from • the most urgent feminist issue you
care about, exploring gaming and/or virtual world practices that might speak to
it; or you will begin from • your own most valued game or virtual world,
and analyze its possibilities for the feminist values you most care to embody. ALWAYS
make a point of connecting projects to class readings, activities, and
discussions. ALWAYS use a standard model for citation and bibliography, even on
posters. NOTICE how useful the website Not Your Mama’s Gamer will be here! You may also want to use the web to
follow-up or look in greater detail at the kinds of worldings feminisms explore
today and ways all of these are promoted in popular and scholarly media.
Remix additions: flip cameras at WMST: Papers and posters
may include a range of media creativities, in addition to their analytic
aspects. Media fandoms are known for creative work: drawing, mashups, remix,
vids, machinima, and more. Any of these may be ADDED to a project if you like.
Women’s Studies now has a library of flip cameras for video projects, and you
can check one out for a week at a time on a first come, first served basis.
Notice that these techno-crafty things are enhancements to the basic project,
not a substitute for one, or the only platform! They must be accompanied by a
paper or poster no matter what. This is an opportunity to enjoy media learning
in alternative forms, but these additions are entirely at your own discretion
and pleasure!
Exploring these topics and themes as if at a con means that
by attending and listening we will all benefit from the hard work of everyone.
Notice that both sorts of projects in both cons should be begun several weeks
ahead of their due dates. Not only do you need this time to do any additional
research or reading, but to get good grades you need to • write papers in at
least three drafts, and • plan out posters carefully to demonstrate both the
results of your research and also how you got to those results.
Obviously attending class faithfully and taking good notes
will make all this work a lot easier. Lecture materials are displayed on the
class website, to be reviewed at any time. In
college courses ALWAYS use your projects to demonstrate how you uniquely put
together, or synthesize, class readings, mini-lectures and discussion. Make a
point of displaying that you are doing all the reading and attending all the
classes. Doing this clearly and carefully will demonstrate that this is your
own work, and ensure your credit for honesty and for real engagement with the
course.
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