GLS Conference 5.0 Call for Papers

Games+Learning+Society 5.0: Learning Through Interaction
June 10-12, 2009 Madison, WI

The GLS conference in beautiful Madison every summer is one of the highlights of the year for many game researchers. Constance Steinkuehler, Kurt Squire, and the gang of incredibly capable GLS students somehow combine high-level discussions, fascinating presentations, and (most important) great gaming time and time again. The coming year's theme is "Learning Through Interaction," and I've put the full call for papers after the jump.

Games+Learning+Society 5.0: Learning Through Interaction
http://glsconference.org
June 10-12, 2009 Madison, WI
CALL FOR PAPERS

Back by demand and now expanded to accommodate last year’s waiting list, the GLS conference this year will features substantive discussion and collaboration among academics, designers, and educators interested in how videogames –- commercial games and otherwise -– can enhance learning, culture, and education. This year’s theme of “Learning through Interaction” highlights the expansive nature of our definition of games & game culture to include research and design in areas including popular culture and fandom, interactive design more generally, and digital/visual cultures. This three-day conference will be held at the UW’s historic Memorial Union, overlooking downtown Madison's beautiful Lake Mendota.

Conference highlights also include keynotes by leaders in both academics and industry, interactive workshops on game design and games research, both individual and symposia presentation sessions, “chat n’ frags” in the arcade for hands-on gameplay, an evening poster session over cocktails & hors d'oeuvres, an evening machinima festival in the playhouse theatre, and fireside chats that enable thorough, cozy conversations among speakers and attendees. We encourage the submission of traditional paper sessions as well as innovative talk formats which focus on game design, game culture, and games' potential for learning and society more broadly.

Confirmed Speakers include: James Paul Gee, Idit Caperton, Alex Chisholm, Doug Church, Mia Consalvo, Elonka Dunin, Drew Davidson, Lisa Nakamura, Bonnie Nardi, Kurt Squire, Constance Steinkuehler, Steve Thorne, Eric Zimmerman.

Submissions are due online by February 16, 2009. Complete submission guidelines can be found on the submissions site at http://glsconference.org.

The Games+Learning+Society (GLS) Conference is sponsored by the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the Academic ADL Co-Lab. For information on how to sponsor this event, contact the conference coordinator at gls(at)seanmichaeldargan(dot)com.

Comments

[alex]

1.

save to my Bookmarks :)

[Andrei]

2.

Sounds very interesting

[Constance Steinkuehler]

3.

Losers. All of them.

In truth, when this event started in 2005 we figured it would be a one-off thing. But the demand was really overwhelming. This year, for the first time, we're going to get rid of the waiting list to get in & expand it to let another 100 in the door (gasp! 450 rather than 325) but we're changing venues which promises to preserve the cosy, small feeling. We want to keep it "boutiquey" but open up the number of voices we hear from.

Anyway, its been a real honor chairing this thing each year & I'd love to see some of the voices here included (esp. industry, which is right now woefully under-represented imho).

FWIW, the title says "Games, Learning & Society" but we emphatically treat learning as a very broad issue (not just classrooms, and not just prescriptive crap) and consider the "society" part, in many ways, the most crucial.

Const

[Moses Wolfenstein]

4.

Thanks for getting the CFP up here Thomas!

We're looking forward to an especially awesome conference this year with a whole extra day, and much more flexibility at our new location to accommodate gaming into the wee hours.

For those of you who haven't made it out here before, Madison is pretty awesome during the summer too so get those proposals rolling in =)