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The University of Illinois System will host a symposium in August that will feature speakers and panel discussions on topics including book banning, censorship, and the importance of reading and books to fostering public dialogue, inclusion, and engaged citizenship. An opening keynote conversation, moderated by UIUC faculty member and Urbana poet laureate Ruby Mendenhall, will feature authors Clint Smith and George M. Johnson. The second day will open with a keynote from writer, activist, and professor Tony Diaz, who led the 2012 Librotraficante Caravan to smuggle banned books back into Arizona in defiance of the state’s ban of Mexican American studies at that time. Other features of the symposium are panel discussions and presentations addressing issues around book banning, censorship, and the importance of reading to inclusion and citizenship. We will also have U. of I. theater students presenting performative readings from banned books, and other fun participatory activities. The opening keynote will take place in the Tryon Festival Theatre at the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts in Urbana. The rest of the symposium will take place in the Illinois Ballroom at the I Hotel in Champaign.  Attendance is free but advance registration is required. Box lunches are available for purchase during registration.  Registration and full details

Playful by Design Symposium 2024 CALL FOR PROPOSALS Conference Date:  Nov 7-9 2024 Submission Deadline: July 30, 2024 Conference Location:  University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Playful by Design is a local and global academic community of practice with shared and overlapping interests in game-relevant research, design, pedagogy, and technology. As a network, it welcomes multidisciplinary activities pursued by teachers, scholars, artists, designers, and 3rd space professionals, within their own disciplines and in their own ways. Through creative collaborations, the sharing of resources, the development of team-based studio work and other experiential learning, this approach facilitates the emergence of transdisciplinary and glocal aspirations among students and faculty. These include shared values of accessibility and inclusion, which are reflected in how we teach and conduct research, and in the design and creation of games, simulations, and other interactive and immersive experiences that address the critical shared challenges of our times. The 2024 Symposium theme is GLOCAL – local communities of practices with global impact – and we’re calling for talks that illuminate the ways in which games, gaming, and gameful learning are becoming integrated into teaching, research, and design practices, and how they are being with applications that  across our campus. We’d like to invite you to share and showcase what’s happening in your departments, courses, studios, and labs right now, as well as what you imagine your work and the campus of the future may look like. We are particularly interested in presentations that address issues related to the following (but other topics are also welcome):How AI tools are changing game design practicesGameful pedagogies and classroom practicesImmersive storytelling across media and cultureAccessibility and inclusion in game-adjacent technologiesThe role of maker-spaces in addressing gender issues in gamingDesign and evaluation of socially transformative games in areas of global concern (inequality, conflict, sustainability) Submit a proposal to share an individual or panel presentation, poster, demo, or workshop (one proposal per submission please). Proposals will be accepted until July 30, 2024. Submit a proposal: https://playfulbydesign.web.illinois.edu/symposium/