[Air-L] Lecture: “Researching Disability and Play – Where’s the fun in that?” with Dr. Katta Spiel

[Gerald Voorhees]

The lecture by Dr. Katta Spiel has been postponed due to circumstances
beyond our control. It is rescheduled for Thursday March 23 at 2:30-3:30 PM
(EDT/UTC-4).

The (free) registration link
<https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/researching-disability-and-play-wheres-the-fun-in-that-tickets-553685597527>
for the event will be updated shortly.

Best regards
Gerald

On Fri, Mar 3, 2023 at 2:54 PM Gerald Voorhees <dr.g.voorhees at gmail.com>
wrote:

> Dear Colleagues,
>
> Please join the Games Institute <https://uwaterloo.ca/games-institute/> at
> the University of Waterloo for a Lecture on “Researching Disability and
> Play – Where’s the fun in that?” with Dr. Katta Spiel on Thursday, March
> 9th, 2023 at 2 -3 PM!
>
>
> This is a free and hybrid event! *Registration is required.
> <https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/researching-disability-and-play-wheres-the-fun-in-that-tickets-553685597527>*
>
>
>
> *About the event: *
>
>
>
> Games research is slowly diversifying in matters of representation as well
> as accessibility related investigations. Similarly, a materialist and
> embodied understanding of play (also digitally) seeps in more on a
> theoretical basis. However, we need to critically examine what kind of
> bodies are invited to participate in play and how.  Where games and play
> are mostly conceptualised as entertainment for the majority of bodies,
> disabled people are often relegated to playing for  externally motivated
> purposes that are often driven by deficit oriented medical models of
> disability. Using the theory on the surrogate body in play, I illustrate
> how it can be instrumental to critically engage with norms governing
> digital play and identifying design opportunities playing with said bodily
> norms to holistically cater to disabled audiences. I do so by focusing on
> the critical analytical category of disability not just through an access
> oriented lens per se, but rather to bring principles of disability justice
> to play.
>
>
>
> *About the speakers:*
>
>
>
> Katta Spiel is an FWF Hertha-Firnberg scholar at the HCI Group of TU Wien
> (Vienna University of Technology), where they work on the intersection of
> Computer Science, Design and Cultural Studies. Katta researches
> marginalised perspectives on technologies to inform interaction design and
> engineering in critical ways so they may account for the diverse realities
> they operate in. Drawing on methods from (Critical) Participatory Design
> and Action Research on a background heavily shaped by Queer Theories and
> Disability Studies, they collaborate with neurodivergent and/or nonbinary
> peers in conducting explorations of novel potentials for designs,
> methodological contributions to Human-Computer Interaction and innovative
> technological artefacts.
>
>
>
> --
> ------------------------------
>
> Gerald Voorhees, Ph.D. (he/him)
>
> Associate Professor
>
> Department of Communication Arts
>
> University of Waterloo
>
> 257A ML, Waterloo ON, N2L 3G1
>
>
> President, Canadian Game Studies Association
> ------------------------------
>
> *I acknowledge that I live and work on the traditional territory of the
> Attawandaron (Neutral), Anishinaabeg and Haudenosaunee peoples. The
> University of Waterloo is situated on the Haldimand Tract, the land
> promised to the Six Nations that includes ten kilometers on each side of
> the Grand River. *
>