‧₊˚🧩✩ Key Players ₊˚🧩⊹♡

🧩✩Key Players

This is a unique University-wide initiative, with funding from the University of Chicago Library and the Division of the Arts and Humanities, plus support from the University of Chicago Women’s Board, the Franke Institute for the Humanities, UChicago Arts, and individual benefactors.

The Division of the Arts & Humanities is one of the four graduate divisions of the University of Chicago, offering 19 degree programs across 16 departments and committees, with approximately 650 students from around the world enrolled in our PhD, MFA, and MA programs.

The University of Chicago Library enables the serious study of gaming–and the fun, creativity, problem-solving, and community building connected with game making and playing. It offers staff support for research, teaching, and learning about games, and collections of games, ephemera, and secondary gaming literature—including its exceptional collection of video games for systems such as Playstation and Xbox. The Library will offer a robust program of events for all for the Year of Games, beginning with Special Collections’ exhibition, Charting Imaginary Worlds: Why Fantasy and Games are Inseparable.

The Logan Center for the Arts is a place of possibility to experience, create, and contemplate art, connecting The University of Chicago with artists and communities on the South Side and beyond. As a space for experimentation, learning, collaboration, and discovery, it brings together people of all backgrounds to engage with the arts in meaningful ways. A presenting partner of the Year of Games, the Logan Center is the administrative home of the Weston Game Lab.

Established through a gift from Dr. Shellwyn Weston and Bradford Weston, JD’77, the Weston Game Lab (WGL) is a place where students, faculty, and staff collaborate on the research and development of games. including digital, board, card, and alternate reality games. WGL is particularly committed to games that produce social impact or experiment with form. Members of the community also research the history of games from technical and theoretical perspectives, attend workshops that afford new development skills, and organize collaborative groups for game-based experiments.

Career Advancement empowers UChicago undergraduates to find fulfilling careers through professional experiences, expert advising, and a global employer network. Career Advancement’s Careers in Gaming initiative prepares students for successful careers in game design, UX/UI research, programming, writing, production, and so much more. The program welcomes students of all majors and class years. Careers in Gaming works closely with the University’s Media, Arts, and Design major to prepare students for meaningful
employment and graduate school opportunities.

We create and perform the same way we test and interpret—with an intellectual passion that expands your thinking and leads to breakthrough work. Opportunities to lead a rich, creative life are everywhere—at the University, in the city of Chicago, and in our surrounding neighborhoods.

Planning Group Members

University of Chicago Libraries

Torsten Reimer, University Librarian and Dean of the University Library
Chelsea Kaufman, Library Exhibition Designer
Holiday Vega, Librarian for Health, Psychology, and Social Work
Amber Cullen, Associate Dean of Development and Strategic Initiatives
Danielle Mcconnell, Director of Community Engagement
Kristy Lueshen, Student Success Librarian
Jamie Gentry, Undergraduate Research Support Librarian
Rachael Kotarski, Associate University Librarian for Digital Strategy and Services
Rachel Rosenberg, Director of Communications

Alumni Relations and Development

Tempris Daniels, Senior Associate Director, Alumni Events & Programs
Tunisia Jones, Associate Director, Global Alumni Engagement
Brittany Wisniewski, Deputy Director, STEM and Entrepreneurship Programs

Arts + Public LIfe

Sabrina Craig, Assistant Director of Engagement and Partnerships
Alyssa Gregory, Communications and Community Engagement Manager

Art History

Ellen Larson, CAEA Postdoctoral Instructor, Modern and Contemporary Asian Art

Career Advancement

Elena Sanchez, Assistant Director, Careers in Computer Science
Steph Avalos-Block, Program Director, Careers in Computer Science

Center for Leadership and Involvement

Jimmy Brown, Director

Cinema and Media Studies

Katherine Buse, Assistant Professor
Dan Morgan, Professor and Director of Graduate Studies
Bret Hart, PhD Student
Jiyoon Kim, PhD Student
Ziyi Lin, PhD Student

Court Theatre

Jarrett King, Director of Education
William Nalley, Director of Development

Divinity School

Emily D Crews, Executive Director of the Martin Marty Center for the Public Understanding of Religion
Alireza Doostdar, Associate Professor of Islamic Studies and the Anthropology of Religion

Film Studies Center

Douglas McLaren, Assistant Director
Jane Keranen, Events and Program Coordinator

History

Ada Palmer, Associate Professor of Early Modern European History and the College

Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures (ISAC)

Marc Maillot, Director/Chief Curator
Kea Johnston, ISAC/Field Museum Postdoctoral Scholar
Kate Ayres, Assistant Director of Programs and Education
Madeleine Roberts- Ganim, Youth and Family Program Coordinator

IT Services

Padmaja Raghavapudi, Chief of Staff to the CTO

Law School

Rachel Vouvalis, Executive and Administrative Assistant to the Dean

Media Arts, Data, and Design Center/Weston Game Lab

Kate Peteet, Program Manager, Weston Game Lab

Middle Eastern Studies

Ghenwa Hayek, Associate Professor of Modern Arabic Literature

Music

Paula Claire Harper, Assistant Professor

Neubauer Collegium

Mark Sorkin, Associate Director of Communications

Parrhesia Program for Public Thought and Discourse

Nora Titone, Senior Director of Programming and Undergraduate Research

Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts

Emily Hooper Lansana, Senior Director of Programming and Engagement
Ben Chandler, Director of Arts Technologies
Dominique Boyd-Riley, Associate Director of Education and Family Programs
Adriana Zavala, Communications Manager
Lupé García Quíles, Director of Facilities and Operations

Roman Family Center for Decision Research

Chris Partridge, Communications Director

Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts

Meg Jackson Fox, Director of the Feitler Center for Academic Inquiry and Head of Education
Arthur Weiss, Campus and Community Engagement Associate
Jillian Huttel, Museum Educator, K-12 and Family Programs
Cooper Long, Museum Educator, Academic Initiatives

Smart Museum of Art

STAGE Center at the Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering

Nancy Kawalek, Professor and Distinguished Fellow in the Arts, Science and Technology
Sonja Coates, Assistant Director

Theater and Performance Studies

Heidi Coleman, Senior Instructional Professor

UChicago Arts

Jessica Musselwhite, Executive Director

University of Chicago Press

Sierra Wilson, Book Production Specialist

Vice Provost Office

Catriona Mcleod, Deputy Dean in Arts & Humanities and Senior Advisor to the Provost for the Arts
Geraldine Cole-Heard, Office Assistant
Aurora Parra, Executive Assistant