UH Manoa Academy for Creative Media hosts video game scholar

HONOLULU — The University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa‘s Academy for Creative Media (ACM), with the support of the Aloha Island, Inc. Excellence Fund, is hosting James Paul Gee for a Master Class on video games as an art form. Gee, a professor at the University of Wisconsin—Madison, is widely recognized as a leading scholar on the role of video games in education, culture and thinking.

"Stories in Video Games: Toward a New Art Form" will be presented Wednesday, Feb. 28, from 3 to 4:30 p.m. in Kuykendall Hall, Room 410. Gee will explore how narrative works in games as a key to understanding the potential of games as a new art form.

"Video games can be a foundation for an innovative digital media and intellectual property economy for the state," said ACM Director Chris Lee. "ACM can help make that foundation real through producing game designers grounded in story-telling and critical thinking. Professor Gee is a true beacon for us."

Gee‘s most recent books deal with video games and learning. "What Video Games Have to Teach Us About Learning and Literacy" (2003) offers 36 reasons why good video games produce better learning conditions than many of today‘s schools. "Situated Language and Learning" (2004) places video games within an overall theory of learning and literacy and shows how they can help people to better understand deep human learning and lead people in thinking about the reform of schools. His new book, "Why Video Games Are Good for Your Soul," shows how good video games marry pleasure and learning and have the capacity to empower people.

"We are honored to sponsor this event," said Mark Loughridge of Aloha Island, Inc., "and we are pleased to contribute to the already strong bonds the Academy for Creative Media has forged with the video gaming industry. Please continue to graduate those dedicated video game developers!"

Aloha Island, Inc. creates original games for education and entertainment. It is owned in part by Foundation 9 Entertainment, the largest independent video game developer in the world. Loughridge, a member of Aloha Island, Inc.‘s management, is a founder and former co-chairman of Foundation 9 Entertainment

Gee‘s UH Mānoa presentation is co-sponsored by the Departments of English, Art, Information and Computer Sciences, Political Science, Speech, Educational Foundations and the International Cultural Studies Program.

The Academy for Creative Media is the university‘s primary place for the production and study of digital media in film, animation, game design, indigenous and critical studies.