Month: February 2019

We are excited to co-host Anita Sarkeesian of Feminist Frequency at American University on March 6th, 2019. Details follow…

I Am So Tired: The Costs of Online Harassment

What is it like to be a public figure who is known more for the targeted acts of aggression and hate directed at you than for the creative or scholarly work you produce? Anita Sarkeesian, creator of Feminist Frequency video series, will recount the formative experiences that made her into the activist she is today before she unpacks the ways that the behavior of online harassers upholds and furthers a reactionary political agenda and silences the voices of women everywhere.

Who’s Anita Sarkeesian?

Anita Sarkeesian is an award-winning media critic, host, and the creator and executive director of Feminist Frequency, an educational nonprofit that explores the representations of women in pop culture narratives. Her work focuses on deconstructing the stereotypes and tropes associated with women in popular culture as well as highlighting issues surrounding the targeted harassment of women in online and gaming spaces. Anita has been interviewed and featured in publications such as Wired, The Guardian, Rolling Stone, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Good Morning America and The Colbert Report. Anita was named one of TIME’s 100 most influential people in the world in 2015. Anita’s first book History vs Women: The Defiant Lives That They Don’t Want You To Know, co-written with Ebony Adams is out now. See: http://www.anitasarkeesian.com

What’s Feminist Frequency?

In 2009, Anita Sarkeesian borrowed a camera and some lights, tacked a piece of fabric up on her living room wall, and started making videos examining pop culture from a feminist perspective. Those early videos were short and simple, but the core of Feminist Frequency was already visible in them: the belief that media has the power to change the world. Today, Feminist Frequency is a not-for-profit educational organization that analyzes modern media’s relationship to societal issues such as gender, race, and sexuality. We strongly advocate for the just treatment of all people online and believe that media and media literacy are essential tools for eradicating injustice and creating a more equitable world. https://feministfrequency.com (Some particularly great videos are about gender and the Smurfs, gender and Lego, and women in Hollywood are at these links.) 

Sponsored by the College of Arts & Sciences, School of Communication, Anthropology, AU Game Lab, Communication Studies, Film & Media Arts, Humanities Lab, Office of Campus Life & Inclusive Excellence, Sociology, Women’s, Gender, & Sexuality Studies 

Andy Phelps, currently Game Scholar In Residence at the AU Game Lab, will give a research colloquium on Wednesday, March 6th from 10:30 am to 12 pm in the Game Lab (room 117).

Talk abstract:

This talk explores the integration of teaching, research, and creative practice as a basis for computing and arts education though a retrospective of the design, development, history and analysis of the programs, projects, related work of Professor Andrew Phelps at the Rochester Institute of Technology. Specific focus is placed on the integration of computing and the arts, the role of and support for multidisciplinary teaching and research, and lessons learned, current challenges, and related national and international trends in games development education. This session features numerous examples from curriculum design, current research projects, creative practice, student work, and academic/industry partnerships.

More on Andy Phelps:

Andrew “Andy” Phelps is a Professor of Art & Design at Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT). He is the also the founder of the RIT School of Interactive Games & Media, the founder of the RIT Center for Media, Arts, Games, Interaction & Creativity (MAGIC) and the founder of the related campus-wide studio and production organization, MAGIC Spell Studios. He led the design and establishment of the RIT Masters of Science in Game Design & Development, as well as the Bachelors of the same name, both of which have been ranked in the top 10 in the nation since their creation by the Princeton Review.

Andy’s alumni can be found at major studios worldwide including Microsoft/343, Activision|Blizzard, Bungie, Sony, Zynga, and more, as well as numerous other engineering, art, design, and interactive media companies. His students have also gone on to successful careers in graduate and doctoral programs, government agencies at the local, state, national and international level, non-profits, and several philanthropic foundations. His work in game design, game development, game art and game education is recognized internationally, has regularly been presented at numerous academic conferences and in related journals, has been supported by grants from multiple federal agencies, numerous state and local agencies, and research labs at private corporations. These include the Library of Congress, the National Science Foundation, the US Department of Education, Microsoft Research, and more. His work has also been extensively covered in the popular press and trade literature, including USA Today, CNN, the New York Times, Polygon, Gamasutra, Inside HigherEd, the Chronicle, Campus Technology, etc.

In addition to his roles at RIT, he currently serves as president of the Higher Education Video Game Alliance (HEVGA), which he co-founded with colleagues in 2014, and which now represents over 310 colleges and universities with games curricula world wide. In the spring of 2019 Phelps is serving as a Games Scholar in Residence at the School of Communications at American University, working with faculty and staff at the School and the AU Game Lab. He maintains a website featuring his work as an artist, researcher, and educator at https://andyworld.io/