This talk will feature summaries of my sabbatical projects, including work on gaining agency within determinist systems via playful systems literacies, co-creating and opening the Acadia Centre for Critical Play (a space for video game studies at Acadia), using AI to collaboratively create open source tools for digital humanities work, and exploring the relationship between control and sublimity in video game experiences. 

Biography: Jon Saklofske is a literature and media studies Professor at Acadia University in Nova Scotia, Canada and member of the nationally funded INKE Open Social Scholarship partnership. Motivated by the desire to interrupt competitive, combative, and cruel paradigms in human social systems , his critical curiosity about the intersections between media forms and cultural perceptions has led to experiments with virtual environments and games as tools to remodel and reimagine academic research, communication, and pedagogy. His other research interests include environmental storytelling in theme parks, values-based game design, alternative platforms for community-based open social scholarship, and the critical potential of feminist war games. 

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Every week during the academic semesters, we invite ALL members and members of our local community to join us for a free, casual ALLways Learning Series (formerly Lunchtime Learning Series).

We cover topics both big and small in scope, from local to international, and from arts to sciences. We aim to offer lively talks from engaging speakers that anyone in the audience can enjoy. No registration is required.

See the full schedule here!