Dear Colleagues, Please join the Games Institute <https://uwaterloo.ca/games-institute/> at the University of Waterloo for a (rescheduled) Lecture on “Researching Disability and Play – Where’s the fun in that?” with Dr. Katta Spiel on Thursday, March 23rd, 2023 at 2:30 - 3:30 PM! This is a free and hybrid event! *Registration is required. <https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/researching-disability-and-play-wheres-the-fun-in-that-tickets-585746492527?aff=erelexpmlt>* *About the event:* Games research is slowly diversifying in matters of representation as well as accessibility related investigations. Similarly, a materialist and embodied understanding of play (also digitally) seeps in more on a theoretical basis. However, we need to critically examine what kind of bodies are invited to participate in play and how. Where games and play are mostly conceptualised as entertainment for the majority of bodies, disabled people are often relegated to playing for externally motivated purposes that are often driven by deficit oriented medical models of disability. Using the theory on the surrogate body in play, I illustrate how it can be instrumental to critically engage with norms governing digital play and identifying design opportunities playing with said bodily norms to holistically cater to disabled audiences. I do so by focusing on the critical analytical category of disability not just through an access oriented lens per se, but rather to bring principles of disability justice to play. *About the speakers:* Katta Spiel is an FWF Hertha-Firnberg scholar at the HCI Group of TU Wien (Vienna University of Technology), where they work on the intersection of Computer Science, Design and Cultural Studies. Katta researches marginalised perspectives on technologies to inform interaction design and engineering in critical ways so they may account for the diverse realities they operate in. Drawing on methods from (Critical) Participatory Design and Action Research on a background heavily shaped by Queer Theories and Disability Studies, they collaborate with neurodivergent and/or nonbinary peers in conducting explorations of novel potentials for designs, methodological contributions to Human-Computer Interaction and innovative technological artefacts. -- ------------------------------ Gerald Voorhees, Ph.D. (he/him) Associate Professor Department of Communication Arts University of Waterloo 257A ML, Waterloo ON, N2L 3G1 President, Canadian Game Studies Association ------------------------------ *I acknowledge that I live and work on the traditional territory of the Attawandaron (Neutral), Anishinaabeg and Haudenosaunee peoples. The University of Waterloo is situated on the Haldimand Tract, the land promised to the Six Nations that includes ten kilometers on each side of the Grand River. *