I’m delighted to announce MITH as an official sponsor of the January 2012 THATCamp Games, a themed humanities and technology unconference covering the research, teaching, and playing of games of all kinds (read more about the idea of the unconference here). The focus of THATCamp Games is “hack over yack” (!); we hope you’ll leave the unconference knowing how to do something new. To ensure that happens, we encourage all unconference-goers to attend our full day of basic- and advanced-track Bootcamp workshops, including Darius Kazemi on making HTML5 games, Matt Kirschenbaum on learning game design from war games and conflict simulations, Todd Bryant on modding Civilization IV, and workshops on educational ARGs/RPGs from research teams at both the University of Maryland and University of Connecticut.
You can’t have a good games conference without games, so we’ll be running a conference-long ARG, a games lounge/lab where you can take a break and play games with fellow attendees, and a Sunday games design jam where you can show off your latest games work. Following the Bootcamp workshops, MITH will host a reception where you can tour the DH center, hear about UMD’s gaming research, and play games on some of our platforms old and new.
We welcome everyone to apply, whether you’re a seasoned gamer or “n00b”; undergrad, tenured professor, or alternative academic. Applications are open now through 10/31, and the unconference will take place January 20th to 22nd at the University of Maryland in College Park. The event is co-organized by MITH Webmaster and Literature Ph.D. student Amanda Visconti (@literature_geek) and University of Baltimore Assistant Professor Anastasia Salter (@AnaSalter).
Please contact THATCampGames@gmail.com with any questions.