The Critical Play Lab is an intellectual space for critical play, creative game design, and transformative research and pedagogy in digital and analog game studies. We are a community of scholars, students, and members of the gaming industry and local game design community collaborating to support and facilitate new research, knowledge mobilization activities, and game design initiatives.
Critical Play Fellowships
The Critical Play Fellows comprise a community of UBC scholars engaged in various aspects of researching and enacting critical play. Fellows commit to participating in the monthly Critical Play Lab Seminar Series events and developing open-access teaching materials, such as a lesson plan or teaching module, that meaningfully integrate game studies, game design, or critical play into teaching and learning for the Pop Pedagogies Archive. Each Critical Play Lab Seminar Fellow receives mentorship, access to a like-minded scholarly community, and publishing opportunities on the PopCC website. A limited number of contingent faculty and graduate students will receive a $500 honorarium for their participation.
Applications closed.
Critical Play Speakers Series
These monthly events will take place on the UBC Vancouver campus and in the local Vancouver area and will be co-hosted by various programs and units on campus and in the community, such as the UBC Green College Leading Scholars Program. The event will feature local, national or international speakers presenting on analog or digital game studies, innovative approaches to game design, or other aspects of critical play.
Check our Event Listings for more information.
Games and Social Justice Lecture Series
In 2024-2026, the Pop Culture Cluster is hosting a series of speaker events that examined the intersections between digital and analog gaming cultures and the work of social justice. We commissioned local artist Sarah Heng Hartse to live draw the events and provide a graphic recording of our time together.
