[acc-cca-l] Two upcoming CCA-RISN Talks in May

[Sibo Chen]

[△EXTERNAL]


Dear Colleagues,

On behalf of the CCA Racialized and Indigenous Scholars Network, it's my great pleasure to announce two upcoming online talks, featuring Dr. Sarah Christina Ganzon (SFU) and Dr. Samar Sabie (UofT, Mississauga). Please find the event details and registration links (the Zoom link will be sent to attendees on the day of the event) below.

We would appreciate it if you shared the events with your colleagues and graduate students.

Best regards
Sibo, on behalf of CCA-RISN

--- Registration Links ---
CCA-RISN Talk (1): Dr. Sarah Christina Ganzon
When: May 15, 2024 06:00-7:00 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)

Register in advance for this webinar:
https://torontomu.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_jRZCSRhzRICh3KngpRMtVw

CCA-RISN Talk (2): Dr. Samar Sabie
When: May 21, 2024 06:00-7:00 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)

Register in advance for this webinar:
https://torontomu.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_IEn5YaiRQL6frS3RgM-9jA

--- Event Details ---

I: The Diplomacy Patch: Diplomacy and Neo-Colonialism in Civilization 6 and Victoria 3
by Sarah Christina Ganzon

Discussants: Sebastian Zhao (York) Nansy Khanano (TMU)

Within game studies, scholars have addressed colonial mechanics and tropes not only in strategy games, but also roleplaying games, war games, survival horror games, and mobile games. Scholars have also addressed how discourses of diplomacy in games create tropes such as the multicultural manager or cartographers helping indigenous others. Moreover, scholarship on game patches demonstrates how games are unstable objects that tend to change over time.

This paper is a part of a larger project examining colorblind racism or softer forms of racism within games and game cultures. Focusing on Civilization VI and Victoria 3, the paper continues those examinations of colonial game mechanics and game patching by focusing on how developers choose to address or patch up the colonial mechanics of previous iterations of their games by introducing more gameplay mechanics that encourage diplomacy. By choosing to patch up colonialism with diplomacy, these games mask neo-colonial discourses, colorblind racism and post-racial myths that frame colonial Others as those always in need of guidance and education. Moreover, I highlight the importance of examining patches in examining discourses of colonialism. These patches indicate the ongoing process of addressing colonialism in games.

Speaker Bio: Dr. Sarah Christina Ganzon is an Assistant Professor of the School of Communication at SFU. Her research revolves mostly around the areas of game studies and digital fandom. Recently, she finished her thesis on otome games in English, and otome game players.

II: Mediating Difference through Design in Community-based Urban Contexts
by Samar Sabie

Discussants: Parastoo Mazaheri (York), Leslie Salgado Arzuaga (UCalgary)

Difference is a fundamental aspect of life, especially within urban communities. This difference stems from a multiplicity of factors around age, gender, ethnicity, standards of living, organizational affiliations, and cultural traditions among others. Each individual/societal group could therefore hold a different, even conflicting, claim for what it means to have a good life. This raises the question of how diverse urban communities can learn to design together and shape the future of their shared environments. My doctoral work, spanning three years of fieldwork with various community groups in New York City, investigated how communities can leverage design to mediate difference in urban contexts. This work is informed by three stances that I identify from democratic and feminist techno-science theories. The first stance sees a resolution to differences in deliberations during which diverse groups could enjoy moments of commonality as they work towards a shared goal. The second stance advocates opening up our minds, hearts, and institutions to other points of view through tolerance and making time for care. The third stance envisions a distributive power model where diverse voices enact contestational labor through arenas and design contexts specifically designated for conflict. In this talk, I will discuss how I have interpreted these stances in my work through a design lens, share some research findings on their affordances and limitations, and reflect on what a shared idea of “progress” actually means in light of my focus on difference.

Speaker Bio: Dr. Samar Sabie is an Assistant Professor at the Institute of Communication, Culture, Information, and Technology at the University of Toronto. Her research investigates how design as a socio-material practice can contribute to developing adaptive capacity in civic communities towards sustainable change.


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Sibo Chen (he/him)
Assistant Professor & Graduate Program Director
School of Professional Communication
Toronto Metropolitan University (Formerly Ryerson University)

We acknowledge that Toronto is in the 'Dish With One Spoon Territory’. The Dish With One Spoon is a treaty between the Anishinaabe, Mississaugas and Haudenosaunee that bound them to share the territory and protect the land. Subsequent Indigenous Nations and peoples, Europeans and all newcomers have been invited into this treaty in the spirit of peace, friendship and respect.
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