Gaming & Representation / AFS Lecture

My Mind the Universe: Building Black Worlds with Online Gaming Spaces

Dr. Akil Fletcher, Featured Speaker
Cotsen Postdoctoral Fellow in the Society of Fellows / Lecturer in the Department of Anthropology
Princeton University

Saturday, November 15th 2:00pm Mara Auditorium (Masters 110)

In the early 1980s, video game developer and now father of modern gaming, Gerald. A Lawson submitted the outline for a story called “My Mind the Universe.” In it, he explored themes like dimensional travel, supercomputers, and other tropes that have become staples in modern-day science fiction. Although Lawson’s story would be rejected, it was an example of an early Black developer taking part in the long tradition of Black folks imagining new worlds. Worlds that didn’t discriminate against us because of our skin, but rather worlds that would let us embrace the entirety of our existence. Today, with the advent of the internet, Black gamers have followed in Lawson’s footsteps and have begun imagining new worlds of their own, utilizing the very medium Lawson helped to popularize. But what new worlds are Black Gamers building online? And how do they come to see against the backdrop of a racialized gaming environment? In this talk, Dr. Akil Fletcher will engage with his research on Black world-building to discuss the ways in which Black individuals have found alternative paths to existing online. In doing so, Fletcher highlights the impacts of fiction and the imagination in constructing new worlds and digital cultures.

Joining Virtually:
Lindsay Rousseau Actor / Writer / Activist
Seth Smith Senior Game Developer / Riot Games
Rèjon Taylor-Foster Developer / Designer / All Around Mad Scientist

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Co-hosted with: Diversity and Inclusion, Office of Multicultural Engagement, Anthropology, Cinema and Media Studies, Computer Science, English, Sociology, Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies

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