Conferences

[Augustyn Surdyk]

We invite you to participate in the second edition of the Polish Larp Conference- an event created for the development of and discussion about live gaming, a very new form of expression, which gets more and more popular in Poland and in the World.

During „KOLA” you may expect guests from all around Poland, discussions, lecturs and workshops. This is the place, where you may meet specialists and creators of many LARP, ARG and freeform scenarios.

We plan also integration parties and several games for the evenings.

The conference will start on Friday, the 11th of January 2013 and will be held in Wrocław, Poland (Vratislav/Breslau). Details, news and practical information will be published on http://larpowa.pl – the most important information also in English. We put all our effords into making you feel as comfortable as possible in Wrocław. If you have any questions - just ask.

See You on KOLA

Details: http://larpowa.pl/?p=27

[Augustyn Surdyk]

EXTENDED DEADLINE: Games of Late Modernity (Leusden 15-17 January 2014)
Location: Netherlands
Call for Papers Date: 2013-10-01 (in 14 days)
Date Submitted: 2013-09-13
Announcement ID: 206595

The end of this year will be marked by the 75th anniversary of Johan Huizinga’s classic study of the Homo Ludens. Its main thesis is as striking as it is simple: Culture is founded on and as a form of play. Huizinga’s historical, philosophical and anthropological aim was to understand play as a ‘totality’. The element of play can be observed in all different aspects of culture, ranging from seemingly innocuous leisure activities to the uttermost serious and advanced systems, such as the financial world, political institutions, mass media and warfare.

Though, self-evident as Huizinga’s thesis still seems to be with regard to multiple Huizinga-quotations in various fields of contemporary scholarship, the modern-day situation also raises a pivotal problem: it seems impossible to keep thinking of game and play as a humanistic principle of knowledge, ethics and aesthetics in the exact same sense as Huizinga did. Modern day experiences such as warfare and economical and scientific fraud, wherein every rule of the game is being postponed, force us to revise and amplify Huizinga’s thesis, in order to rediscover Huizinga’s far-reaching significance today. The purpose of this three-day conference is to bring together experts from a number of disciplines to shed light on Huizinga’s thesis. Participants are asked to address at least one of the following issues:

1. Playing after Auschwitz: how is it possible to formulate a theory of play that is able to deal with culture not only in its elegant and innocuous appearances, but in its most cruel and tragic forms as well?
2. To play or being played with: The power of the culture industry tells us that we are playing all of the time, from the first until the very last minute. But one has to come to terms with the fact that this can hardly be the free-play Huizinga has proclaimed.
3. From cultural history to structuralism and sociology: intellectuals such as Levi-Strauss, Derrida and Foucault and many more have deployed an idea of game as the of structure society. How can they revise and strengthen Huizinga’s concept of game and play?
4. The ethos of play: to play means to play by the rules. But isn’t the disappearance of any rules whatsoever precisely late modernity’s main characteristic? How to deal with those who cheat?

We welcome individual abstracts as well as panel proposals, from every relevant field, such as sociology, anthropology and criminology, history and historiography, economy and management studies, ethics, philosophy, comparative literature, aesthetics and cultural studies, biology and psychology.

Confirmed key-note speakers are: Elena Esposito, Thomas Macho, Helmut Lethen, Joyce Goggin, Jos de Mul, and Joost Raessens.

If you are interested in participating, please submit a 300-words paper proposal and a short résumé of your current research by October 1, 2013 to Léon Hanssen, Professor of Life Writing and Cultural Memory, Tilburg University, email: info@gamesoflatemodernity.org

Participants will be informed of acceptance by October 15 2013. The conference fee will be €585 and INCLUDES, a stay for two nights in a comfort hotel room with breakfast (additional nights cost €51), three lunches, two diners, receptions and refreshments during the conference and electronic publication of the presented paper. Together with the keynotes a number of papers will be selected for a book to be published by Amsterdam University Press and an affiliated international academic publishing house.
prof. Léon Hanssen
info@gamesoflatemodernity.org

Tilburg School of Humanities
Department of Culture Studies
Warandelaan 2
5037 AB
Tilburg
The Netherlands

Email: info@gamesoflatemodernity.org
Visit the website at http://www.gamesoflatemodernity.org

[Augustyn Surdyk]

Call for Papers


Fantastic Games: Ludic imaginary spaces and their socio-cultural impact


Fifth annual conference of the Gesellschaft für Fantastikforschung e.V.
[Association for Research in the Fantastic]
at the Alpen-Adria-Universität Klagenfurt
September 11 – 14, 2014
In Homo Ludens (1938), his essential and seminal study that is frequently seen as the beginning of Game Studies as we understand them today, Johan Huizinga claimed an ontological connection between culture, as the quintessentially human endeavour, and play. Refuting the constantly raised accusations that play is a futile and escapist activity, Huizinga in contrast attributed it a significant function, both in its metaphorical (i.e. “it is important”), as well as its literal (i.e. “it signifies”) meaning (1971: 1). By its very nature, play opens up spaces and worlds beyond primary, everyday reality, new frameworks of meaning that are, however, not devoid of meaningful interactions with it. Culture, Huizinga argues, needs the free space of play to come into existence in the first place, to change and to adapt.
This intricate and complex web of interconnections between ludic otherworlds and the everyday life of individuals and groups is the core interest of the fifth annual conference of the Gesellschaft für Fantastikforschung e.V. [Association for Research in the Fantastic]. We have deliberately chosen the very open and inclusive phrasing “ludic imaginary spaces” for the objects of the papers, so that the range of media fitting the description is as wide as it can be: hypertext and other ludic forms of text, board- and card games, pen&paper role-playing games, live-action role-playing games (LARPs), video and computer games, alternate reality games, and gamified activities of all kinds are possible, but this list must in no way be seen as exhaustive. No matter the medium chosen, what is essential is that there is this “free space of movement within a more rigid structure” that exists “because of and also despite the more rigid structures of a system ” that Eric Zimmerman has identified as essential to any definition of play (2004: 159). The organisers of this conference also would like to send a strong message that the conflicts over interpretive authority between Ludologists and Narratologists in playable media that have hindered Game Studies since the late 1990s are a thing of the past, so papers suggesting ways to bridge this gap will be especially welcome.
As the second focus of the conference, according to its title, is on the social and cultural exchanges between the secondary, or even tertiary realities created and the primary reality in which they are in turn created, played, and observed, possible approaches to these media reach from the implicit and explicit social and cultural politics of games and playable media on both the content and the structural level, to the regimes of representation and configuration present, the psycho-social phenomena surrounding the experiences created, to the political and social regulation of playful behaviour, and beyond. Game Studies are necessarily “a multidisciplinary field of study and learning with games and related phenomena as its subject matter” according to Frans Mäyrä (2010: 6), so theoretical perspectives from the whole range of academic disciplines and contributions from those working practically in the design and creation of ludic spaces would ideally come together to provide this fifth annual conference of the GFF with a kaleidoscopic overview of the full range of possibilities, problems, and the future potential of games and playable media in negotiating between the realms of the fantastic and everyday life.
As usual for GFF conferences, there will be an additional Open Track for all papers not directly related to the conference topic to safeguard a pluralism of perspectives in our research in the Fantastic. We thus invite papers of all aspects of the fantastic for this open track.
In the same vein, the GFF is happy to announce the availability of two student grants of €250 each as support of travel arrangements to the conference for the two most interesting student projects handed in. Apply for the student grant with abstract and bionote at the address below.
If you would like to contribute your voice to such a discussion of ludic imaginary spaces, we cordially invite you to send us a 350-word abstract to gff2014@aau.at detailing your projected 20-min paper in either German or English. Please do not forget to include your contact details, as well as a short bionote. The deadline for abstracts is December 31st, 2013.

Contact:
René Schallegger
Department for English and American Studies
Alpen-Adria-Universität Klagenfurt
Universitätsstraße 65 - 67
9020 Klagenfurt am Wörthersee / Austria

References:
Huizinga, Johan. 1971. [1938] Homo Ludens: A Study of the Play-Element in Culture. Boston/MA: The Beacon Press.
Mäyrä, Frans. 2010. [2008] An Introduction to Game Studies: Games in Culture. Los Angeles/CA, London et al.: Sage.
Zimmerman, Eric. 2004. “Narrative, Interactivity, Play, and Games”. In: Noah Wardip-Fruin and Pat Harrigan [Eds.]. 2004. First Person: New Media as Story, Performance, and Game. Cambridge/MA and London: MIT Press. 154 – 164.

[Augustyn Surdyk]

Conference: Stretegic Managament Games - innovative teaching method for business education (15.01.2014, Poznań)

In a knowledge-based economy the effectiveness of training is one of the core features of human resource management. Training is the main method of developing employees' skills, which in the long term leads to companies achieving a competitive advantage. The most important problem is not connected with the information which the trainees need to acquire, but with the methods of training. Training methods determine the effectiveness of the training, the involvement of the employees, and the durability of the outcomes.


The closer the training is to the real world of work, the greater its effectiveness. Analysing the materials and good practises of a number of training providers, the most effective methods for reducing the gap between theory and practise are experiential methods based on ICT, like virtual strategic games. Virtual strategic games as an educational method are based on the involvement of the employees being trained, analyses of business world situations, creating a process of decision making by the trainees and feedback on the results of business decisions.


The aim of the conference is to discuss such innovative teaching methods from both a theoretical and a practical point of view. Discussions on the effectiveness of business education, especially using virtual strategic games as a teaching method, are particularly welcome. Good training practices, the challenges and obstacles connected with this method, as well as comparisons with other innovative methods will be presented and analysed.


Read more: http://leonardo.ue.poznan.pl/smg/conference

[Augustyn Surdyk]

Games of Late Modernity
Johan Huizinga’'s Homo Ludens: 75 Years Later
(Leusden, NL: January 15-17 2014)

Organizing partners: Huizinga Research Institute, Tilburg University, International School for Philosophy (ISVW), Utrecht University, Netherlands Research School for Literary Studies, and De Buren.


The end of this year will be marked by the 75th anniversary of Johan Huizinga'’s classic study of the Homo Ludens , possibly the single most important Dutch contribution to the international scholarly field of the twentieth century. As the subtitle – A Study of the Play Element in Culture – indicates, Huizinga inquires into a fundamental characteristic of human culture and society: the element of play is present and can be observed in all different aspects of culture, ranging from seemingly innocuous leisure activities to the uttermost serious and advanced systems such as legal or political institutions.

To play, according to Huizinga, means to shape the playing ground by certain structures and rules to be taken seriously, to guarantee a safe haven where enjoyment is possible for the players. This perspective implies a specific understanding of the project of modernity. Ever since the beginning of the nineteenth century western man appeared to be ill equipped for the future. A tension arose between the requirements of a rapidly modernizing society and the adaptive capacities of each individual human being. Industrialization, rationalization, mechanization, urbanization, and dynamization in a variety of fields demanded a dedication and flexibility that the individual citizen could hardly muster. The crisis of modernity manifested itself not merely in negative expressions of estrangement. Intellectuals, artists and artisans responded creatively to the civilization offensive, designing the contours of a human culture better equipped for the new world. The starting-point for many of such designs for future man was the thought that culture and society must be understood in terms of play and that man is a symbolizing creature par excellence. Quite a few of these new visions of man and future-oriented types of design of physical and spiritual experience were meant as scenarios for interventions in the public sphere.

However, three quarters of a century after its first publication, the question arises if Huizinga’s historical, philosophical and anthropological idea of game and play is adequate enough to understand the stage of modernity that can be described as ‘Late Modernity’, ‘High Modernity’ or ‘Liquid Modernity’ (Zygmunt Bauman). When Huizinga’s book was published, the worst nightmare of the twentieth century, the Holocaust, was yet to come. Other events and developments that have occurred since the Holocaust seem to undermine the basic assumptions of Huizinga’s notion of play ‘as a moment of elegant and pleasant sublimation’, as Umberto Eco has phrased it. One could think of the tremendous growth of the culture industry, the power of the media, mass-consumerism, globalization, capitalism impinging upon the cultural space et cetera. According to Huizinga, to play means to have fun, even in the harshest game situations. But on the other hand playing, in the sense of a cultural activity, implies a certain element of seriousness. The biggest challenge for any cultural system is to maintain a balance between fun and seriousness. The predominance of seriousness over fun will ultimately lead to cultural decay or even the breakdown of culture.

Is it still appropriate to speak of culture as being played, when the game is extremely violent and the outcome has been manipulated? This question raises issues that go far beyond the coincidental occasion of the commemoration of the publication of this celebrated book: they go straight to the very heart of the debate on modernity’s culture. Time and again the Homo Ludens has led important cultural critics and historians to reassess Huizinga’s ideas. The work of scholars such as Jacques Ehrmann, Umberto Eco, Wendy Doniger and many others sounded the call for an international interdisciplinary congress on Johan Huizinga's Homo Ludens: 75 Years Later. Based upon their critiques the idea has arisen for a re-evaluation of Huizinga’s study along the lines of four paradigmatic issues:

1. Playing after Auschwitz : is it possible to formulate a theory of play that is able to deal with culture, not only in its elegant and innocuous appearances, but in its most cruel and tragic forms as well? Could the disastrous experience of the Holocaust be integrated into the concept of play?

2. To play or being played with : is the freedom of play being threatened by the upsurge of the culture industry, which, since Huizinga published his book, seems to have gained power and control over all spheres of life? Or does the play of culture create its own freedom, precisely in opposition to the driving force of the culture industry?

3. From cultural history to structuralism and sociology : it seems that Huizinga in his inquiry into the idea of play only focused on cultural activity, but is it perhaps possible to translate and apply his ideas to human society and its manifestations as a whole? Are there indeed rules of play which make the existence of a society possible (Lévi-Strauss)? If so, would it be feasible to investigate and decode the matrix of play, thereby uncovering the multiple connections between play and society?

4. The ethos of play : to play means to play by the rules. But isn’t the disappearance of any rules whatsoever precisely late modernity’s main characteristic? How to deal with those who cheat?

The purpose of this three-day conference is to bring together experts in various disciplines, ranging from the social sciences, the arts, religious studies, philosophy, history, anthropology, psychology, economy, to media studies and gaming. All scholars are invited to shed their light on Huizinga’s thesis, while paying special attention to the post-Second World War and present-day situation. The four issues raised above function as focal points around which the experts from various disciplines come together. The idea is, following the wish expressed by Huizinga himself, to create not only a multi-disciplinary but also a truly interdisciplinary scholarly exchange on one of the most important ideas for the understanding of contemporary society.

Source: http://www.gamesoflatemodernity.org

[Augustyn Surdyk]

​1st International Academic Conference

Edutainment: Games and ICT in Education

2-3.06.2015 University of Wrocław (Poland)


Edutainment is an international interdisciplinary conference for the researchers of edutainment, gamification of education, and the use of games, ICT and other innovations in teaching and learning.




The language of all proceedings (lectures, papers, discussions) is English.

The conference workshops will be conducted in English and Polish.



The organisers of the conference are:

· Research Team “Games and Innovations in Education: Edutainment”

· Foundation “Pro Scientia Publica” (http://www.proscientiapublica.pl/)

· University of Third Age in the University of Wroclaw (http://utw.wroclaw.pl/)

· Institute of Pedagogy of the University of Wrocław (http://www.pedagogika.uni.wroc.pl/)



The proceedings of the conference will take place in the University of Third Age in the University of Wroclaw and the Institute of Pedagogy of the University of Wrocław (ul. J. Wl. Dawida 1, Wroclaw)


The conference will take place on 2-3.06.2014.

The first day of the conference (2.06) is dedicated to conference papers and discussions.

The second day of the conference (3.06) is dedicated to workshops on the research and use of edutainment.


To apply for the conference please fill attached application form and send it to the following e-mail address: edutainment@uwr.edu.pl

Your application will be reviewed and you will receive a confirmation of your application.


The papers of conference participants will be submitted for the newly-founded international academic journal “Edutainment” (published both in print and on-line – open access). The papers will be published only in case of positive review (double blind peer review). The deadline for submitting papers for publication is 1.09.2015. The “Edutainment” journal will be published in Spring 2016.

The conference fee is 120 EUR.

If you have any questions, do not hesitate to contact us:

edutainment@uwr.edu.pl​​

---
Best Regards,
Reasearch Team “​Games and Innovations in Education: Edutainment”
e-mail: edutainment@uwr.edu.pl

[Augustyn Surdyk]

Edutainment: Games, ICT in Education.

1st International Academic Conference
Edutainment: Games and ICT in Education
2-3.06.2015 University of Wrocław (Poland)

Edutainment is an international interdisciplinary conference for the researchers of edutainment, gamification of education, and the use of games, ICT and other innovations in teaching and learning.

The language of all proceedings (lectures, papers, discussions) is English.
The conference workshops will be conducted in English and Polish.

The organisers of the conference are:
· Research Team “Games and Innovations in Education: Edutainment”
· Foundation “Pro Scientia Publica” (http://www.proscientiapublica.pl/)
· University of Third Age in the University of Wroclaw (http://utw.wroclaw.pl/)
· Institute of Pedagogy of the University of Wrocław (http://www.pedagogika.uni.wroc.pl/)



The proceedings of the conference will take place in the University of Third Age in the University of Wroclaw and the Institute of Pedagogy of the University of Wrocław (ul. J. Wl. Dawida 1, Wroclaw)



The conference will take place on 2-3.06.2014.

The first day of the conference (2.06) is dedicated to conference papers and discussions.

The second day of the conference (3.06) is dedicated to workshops on the research and use of edutainment.



To apply for the conference please download the application form from the conference website, fill it out and send it to the following e-mail address: edutainment@uwr.edu.pl



Your application will be reviewed and you will receive a confirmation of your application.



The papers of conference participants will be submitted for the newly-founded international academic journal “Edutainment” (published both in print and on-line – open access). The papers will be published only in case of positive review (double blind peer review). The deadline for submitting papers for publication is 1.09.2015. The “Edutainment” journal will be published in Spring 2016.



The conference fee is 120 EUR.


If you have any questions, please send an e-mail to:
edutainment@uwr.edu.pl

Home - psp
www.proscientiapublica.pl

[Augustyn Surdyk]

Siedlce University of Natural Sciences and Humanities

Departments of English Literature and the English Language


would like to kindly invite all scholars representing different philological disciplines and theoretical models to

2nd Annual Siedlce Forum for Contemporary Issues in Language and Literature

to be held on April 28th, 2017 in Siedlce (Poland) to present their research findings

(not previously published or presented) in oral sessions in English.

The leitmotif of the conference is:

Humorousness/Seriousness Dichotomy in Language, Culture and Literature



Keynote Speakers:

Prof. Ewa Łuczak (University of Warsaw)

Prof. Francisco Yus (University of Alicante)

Call for Papers 2nd Forum- Humorousness/Seriousness Dichotomy in Language, Culture and Literature:
http://www.inibi.uph.edu.pl/images/Call ... hotomy.pdf

[Augustyn Surdyk]

"Generation BioWare –Story-Driven Games in Contemporary Discourse" International Academic Conference – Wroclaw (5-7.12.2017)

American Literature and Culture Section (Department of English Studies, University of Wrocław) and New Media and Popular Literature Section (Department of Polish Studies, University of Wrocław) invite paper abstracts for “Generation BioWare,” a conference focused exclusively on the Canadian developer and their games.

Founded in 1995, BioWare have been responsible for some of the most acclaimed titles in the history of the industry. The studio’s games are famous for multi-layered narratives and complex characters, both of which originated in titles set in the well-established worlds: Faerûn from the Dungeon and Dragons pen-and-paper RPG system and the Star Wars universe. Since their release, Baldur’s Gate (1998), Baldur’s Gate II: Shadows of Amn (2000), and Knights of the Old Republic (2003) have enjoyed critical and commercial success and the two franchises have enabled the studio to create its own proprietary worlds in Jade Empire (2005), Mass Effect (2007), and Dragon Age: Origins (2009) as well as to further refine story-telling structures, character writing, karmic mechanics, and worldbuilding techniques.

The positive reception of BioWare titles has been accompanied by the development of a dedicated fanbase, whose general video game literacy was centrally shaped by BioWare’s design decisions and techniques. As a result, BioWare games have come to be regarded as templates for many western RPGs: the recent Kickstarter success of Divinity Original Sin (2014), Pillars of Eternity (2015), and Tyranny (2016) can be partly ascribed to the impact the Baldur’s Gate series had on these titles.

Consequently, BioWare’s impact on the medium as well as the industry can be perceived as nothing short of critical. To address this influence, we would like to create a platform for academic exchange and invite submissions from scholars and researchers across disciplines, including game studies, literary studies, linguistics, fan studies, media studies, sociology, and cultural studies.

Suggested areas of interest include but are not limited to:

narratology and character research,
literary and ludological dimensions,
sociology of BioWare games and their fan communities,
BioWare games and classic RPGs,
worldbuilding techniques,
narrative techniques,
gameplay design,
poetics of BioWare games,
ethical and moral issues in BioWare games,
localization and adaptation,
paratextuality and transmediality,
video game market and the evolution of BioWare as a studio,
Interplay, BlackIsle, Troika, and Obsidian as competitors and creators of alternative worldbuilding and narrative techniques,
narrative and character design methods,
visuality and sound in BioWare games.
IMPORTANT INFORMATION

Abstracts not exceeding 600 words can be sent via the registration form.

Abstract submission deadline: 30.09.2017

Notification of acceptance: 10.10.2017

Conference fee payment due: 15.11.2017

Conference fee: 100 EUR (fee transfer details will be provided along with the notification of acceptance)

Main event: 5-7.12.2017

All questions regarding the event should be sent to: jakub.krogulec2@uwr.edu.pl or jakub.krogulec5@gmail.com

The event is organized by the American Literature and Culture Section (Institute of English Studies, University of Wrocław), New Media and Popular Literature Section (Institute of Polish Studies, University of Wrocław), “Trickster” Association, and the PGW initiative.

Details on the conference site: https://generationbioware.wordpress.com ... or-papers/