UCLA Hosts Events Focused on Women And Games

UCLA will host a workshop entitled "Beyond Barbie and Mortal Kombat: New Perspectives on Gender, Games and Computing", aimed at examining issues surrounding girls and women and their relationship with video games. The workshop will take place on May 8th, the week of the E3 Expo, at 3340 Moore Hall on the UCLA campus. The workshop, hosted by the UCLA Graduate School of Education & Information Studies, will include input from event organizer associate professor Yasmin Kafai from UCLA's Graduate School of Education & Information Studies, as well as Nichol Bradford, global director of strategic growth at Vivendi Universal Games, MIT professor Henry Jenkins, Brenda Laurel, chair of the Graduate Media Design Program at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, CA, and a variety of gaming experts from Europe, Asia and North America. The gathering is designed to bring together researchers, designers and industry professionals to discuss and review current trends in game design and marketing, and outline a new research agenda. "Until recently, boys and men dominated the digital games world, but the idea that computer games are only toys for boys is slowly changing. Newer games, such as the Sims, attract a huge number of female players," Kafai said. "The workshop and conference will examine new issues around gender, games and computing and develop an agenda for the next generation of research." In addition, attendees of the workshop will also have the opportunity to attend "Girls 'n' Games," a conference focused on examining where girls and women are in games and what they want. The conference will take place on May 9 at the Experimental Digital Arts (EDA) space in the North Kinross Building. For those unable to attend in person, the conference will be streamed live over the Internet. For more information on the workshop and conference, interested parties can visit their official website.