Category Archives: Announcements

Announcements, Blog

BMCC Students to Display Games about Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde on Dec. 17

On Monday, December 17, 11:00am-12:00pm in the Richard Harris Terrace at BMCC, Prof. Tali Noimann’s English 201 students will present their group projects. They have been working on original board games based on the R.L. Stevenson novella Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Please come to support their hard work and play six incredibly creative games. (Two of them are “drinking” games; bring your own “booze”).

I hope to see many of you there. Please share this announcement with anyone you think will be interested in coming!
Announcements

CUNY Games Network @ the CUNY IT Conference

Headed to the CUNY IT Conference this week? Come see CUNY Games Network members discuss games-based learning!

Thursday, November 29, 2:15-3:15pm:
College Quest: A Game-based LMS and Social Network

This session will showcase College Quest (CQ), a new web-based application developed for CUNY. CQ combines the features of a learning management system (LMS) with a social network and game-based learning to enhance student engagement, preparedness and success in online and hybrid courses. The panelists will provide an interactive demonstration of CQ, explore opportunities for implementation at CUNY and discuss how game-based learning technologies in general are impacting higher education.

Joe Bisz, Associate Professor of English, Borough of Manhattan Community College
Francesco Crocco, Assistant Professor of English, Borough of Manhattan Community College
Janey Flanagan, Director of E-Learning, Borough of Manhattan Community College

Friday, November 30, 2:15-3:30pm:
Gaming across the Curriculum

This workshop will provide a fun, hands-on introduction to the principles of game-based learning. The session will begin with examples of learning games designed and tested by CUNY faculty across multiple disciplines and continue with “What’s Your Game Plan?,” a game designed by members of the CUNY Games Network to help educators brainstorm learning games for their students. Attendees will have the opportunity to explore the fundamentals of game-based learning and educational game design.

Joe Bisz, Associate Professor, English, Borough of Manhattan Community College
Francesco Crocco, Associate Professor, English, Borough of Manhattan Community College
Robert O. Duncan, Assistant Professor, Behavioral Sciences, York College and Graduate Center
Kathleen Offenholley, Associate Professor, Mathematics, Borough of Manhattan Community College
Maura A. Smale, Associate Professor, Library, New York City College of Technology

Image by Asbjørn Floden

Announcements

CUNY Graduate Center Seminar: The Hunger Games and the Instrumentalization of Play

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CUNY Graduate Center

Seminars in the Humanities

Possible Worlds, Alternative Futures Seminar

The Hunger Games and the Instrumentalization of Play

Francesco Crocco

Thursday, September 13, 4:15pm 

Room 8301

Can play be involuntary? Can it contribute to alienation? Can it be the basis for dystopia? Join Francesco Crocco (Assistant Professor of English at the Borough of Manhattan Community College, CUNY) to discuss Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games and other dystopian films and texts in which play is used as a form of social control. This seminar will explore how these examples challenge existing theories about the nature of play and its relation to utopia. Though fictional, these examples point to similar uses of play today with the gamification of everyday life, a process in which game mechanics are exploited to condition certain desired behaviors (better test scores, more consumerism, greater workplace productivity, etc.). We will explore how these examples of fictional and real play complicate the theory of play put forward by  Johan Huizinga et al and challenge  Bernard Suits theory that play is the basis for utopia.

Click here to access readings and for further information about this seminar.

Free and open to the public. All events take place at The Graduate Center, CUNY, 365 Fifth Ave btwn 34th & 35th. The building and the venues are fully accessible. For more information please visit http://centerforthehumanities.org/ or call 212.817.2005 or e-mail [email protected]