The department of Game Design at Uppsala University, campus Gotland
Category: Guest Lectures
We use our ever-growing network to lure speakers from the game- & movie industry, academia and independent scene to the island. Unfortunately we’re very poor with keeping this category up to date; including the Gotland Game Conference we average 1 guest lecture every 14th day! Some of these are recorded – check the youtube channel. If you wish to speak with Sweden’s strongest game design students (or their staff), contact Ulf!
The programme and registration for the Transformative Play Initiative Seminar 2025: Games, Conflict, and Education is now available!
This hybrid outreach event is co-funded by the Erasmus+ ROCKET project; the Uppsala Forum on Democracy, Peace and Justice; and the Department of Game Design.
Dates: June 12-13, 2025, 8-16 CEST
Location: Hybrid online and in person in Visby, Sweden
Registration is free. In-person spaces are limited to 60 spots including presenters, so register ASAP here
We’re delighted to announce the lecture “Queer and Mad Readings in Video Game Studies” by Cecilia Rodéhn and Marie Dalby! This event is the next in our series Transforming Games: Behavior, Identity, Culture, and Community (TAG), a research network funded by the Centre for Integrated Research on Culture and Society (CIRCUS) at Uppsala University. The network connects researchers from Game Design, Gender Studies, and Psychology in a joint research agenda focusing on the impacts of society on games and vice versa.
Link will be provided to registrants on the day of the event. Make sure to sign in with the same name you used to register.
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Description:
In this talk, Cecilia Rodéhn will discuss mad reading: a mad studies centred method for analysing games. Mad studies is an interdisciplinary field that critically discusses how the social and medical systems create mental illness. Rodéhn will explore mad reading as (1) a situated reading, (2) challenging sanist representations, (3) reading the explicitly mad, (4) revealing where madness is not clearly visible, and (5) maddening games. As a method, it seeks to illuminate sanist representations, but it also has a more utopian and empowering agenda.
Marie Dalby will discuss Dark Souls (2011), a genre-defying video game that has achieved an almost mythical status and is synonymous for difficulty. For the uninitiated, Dark Souls might appear as an odd choice to put in conversation with queer theory. In this talk, Dalby will not investigate representations of queer subjects or queer modes of play; instead, she will employ a Lacanian psychoanalytic perspective to explore what happens to queer readings of games when we abandon identification and look to desire.
Presenters bio:
Cecilia Rodéhn is an associate professor and a senior lecturer at the Centre for Gender Research and Department of Game Design, Uppsala University. Her research focuses on representations of madness and psychiatric hospitals.
Marie Dalby is a Ph.D. student at the Centre for Gender Research and Department of Game Design, Uppsala University. Her research explores the video game Dark Souls (2011) from a queer theory perspective.
This series is hosted by the Games & Society Lab at the Department of Game Design, Uppsala University Campus Gotland. The series explores the use of analog role-playing games as vehicles for lasting personal and social change.
Join us for our lecture in the Erasmus EDGE Event Series: “Immersive Aesthetics: VR, Larp, and Art” by Nadja Lipsyc! This bonus event is part of our Erasmus+ Cooperation Partnership for curriculum development in transformative game design.
When: Monday, June 17 from 7:00-8:30pm CEST Where: Online on Zoom
Link will be provided to registrants on the day of the event. Make sure to sign in with the same name you used to register.
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Description: This research explores the aesthetics of immersive and interactive storytelling in Virtual Reality, around the development of a role-playing game inspired by the film Stalker (1979) by Tarkovsky. Named Lone Wolves Stick Together, this VR experience borrows from larp (live action role-play), video games, sound installations, and film to explore how to use the full creative potential of digital immersion. As the first larp fully developed as a standalone VR experience, Lone Wolves Stick Together poses as a proof of concept of the viability and intuitivity of the form, but also opens reflections on ethics of technology and co-creation. The wider discussion around VR and larp will bridge towards transformation: through role-play, but also through virtual bodies and prosthetics, and through reality-testing as a mean to seek personal and social change.
Presenter bio: Nadja Lipsyc is a game designer, artist, and researcher with an education in neuroscience and audiovisual production. She recently completed her PhD in Artistic Research at the The Norwegian Film School. She works with videogames, film, VR stories, experimental theater, installation art, larp and teaches at the Oslo school of Architecture and Design. Her work often stages surreal and symbolic universes tied to contemporary critical questions.
The presenter is a volunteer for Erasmus EDGE, a joint Higher Education Cooperation Partnership project between Uppsala University, Turku University of Applied Sciences, Dragons’ Nest, Chaos League, and Avalon Larp Studio.
This series is hosted by the Games & Society Lab at the Department of Game Design, Uppsala University Campus Gotland. The series explores the use of analog role-playing games as vehicles for lasting personal and social change.
Join us for our lecture in the Erasmus EDGE Event Series: “Game Technologies in Larp and Tabletop RPGs” by Taisto Suominen from Turku University of Applied Sciences! This event is part of our Erasmus+ Cooperation Partnership for curriculum development in transformative game design.
When: Tuesday, May 7 from 7:00-8:30pm CET Where: Online on Zoom
Link will be provided to registrants on the day of the event. Make sure to sign in with the same name you used to register.
Erasmus EDGE is a joint Higher Education Cooperation Partnership project between Uppsala University, Turku University of Applied Sciences, Dragons’ Nest, Chaos League, and Avalon Larp Studio.
