Enjoy this one (1) of three (3) Lightning Talks from the Fall 2021 Town Hall Meeting in the Transformative Play Initiative Event Series: “Film and Literature Instruction through Live Action Role-Play” by Evan Torner! Lightning talks are meant to spark conversation in our group discussions at Town Hall events, with the goal of inspiring networking and collaborations.
Description:
How does embodied emotion help us teach media of the past? This talk addresses how edu-larp and other live-action strategies can enchant the teaching of language, literature, media, and culture.
Presenter bio:
Evan Torner (Ph.D., University of Massachusetts Amherst) is Associate Professor of German Studies at the University of Cincinnati, where he directs the Undergraduate Program in German as well as the UC Game Lab. His work examines the processes and ideologies of cultural production, with a primary focus on the popular media of German-speaking countries as well as niche media of small-press tabletop role-playing games (RPG) and international live-action role-play (larp) communities. As a games scholar, Torner co-edited Immersive Gameplay (McFarland 2012) with William J. White. He also co-founded and serves as an editor for the journal Analog Game Studies, as well as editing for the International Journal of Role-playing. As a game designer, he has had stand-alone and anthology work published in at least six different languages and written many RPG scenarios for Danish convention Fastaval, including the award-winning Save Some Light For Me (2019). As a community organizer, he co-founded the Golden Cobra Challenge, co-organized the 2017 US run of the queer Norwegian larp Just A Little Lovin’, and co-organizes Games on Demand.