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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#222222;background:white">Dear Colleagues, </span><o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#222222">Please join the </span><span lang="EN-US" style="color:#222222"><a href="https://uwaterloo.ca/games-institute/" target="_blank"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#1155CC">Games
Institute</span></a></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#222222"> at the University of Waterloo for a Lecture </span><span lang="EN-US" style="color:#222222">“From Custer's Revenge to Red Dead Redemption:
Changing the Language of Indigenous Representation in Video Games” with Dr. Ashley Bird on Wednesday, May 10, 2023 — 1:00 PM TO 2:00 PM EDT/UTC-4.</span><span style="color:#222222"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span style="color:#222222"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span lang="EN-US" style="color:#222222">This is a free and hybrid event! <b><a href="https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/changing-the-language-of-indigenous-representation-in-video-games-tickets-590420031207" target="_blank"><span style="color:#0563C1">Registration
is required.</span></a></b></span><span style="color:#222222"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background:white;font-variant-ligatures: normal;font-variant-caps: normal;orphans: 2;text-align:start;widows: 2;-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;text-decoration-thickness: initial;text-decoration-style: initial;text-decoration-color: initial;box-sizing: inherit;margin:1rem 0px;word-spacing:0px">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:black">Dr. Bird will emphasize the two types of language taking place in video games: mechanical, coded language, and visual, representational language. She presents the importance of teaching
the history of Indigenous representation in games and will break down various examples from Custer’s Revenge to the Mortal Kombat and Red Dead Redemption series to demonstrate these types of gamic language. Building upon these examples, she centers on the
problematic ways players have historically translated the messages they are being presented within the digital medium of the video game. She illustrates how these translations result in harmful narratives about Indigenous avatars becoming cemented within the
overarching discourse and design of games. Finally, she will look at new Indigenous works and how inclusive and decolonial game design and practices like ROM hacking can push back against these established narratives and the ways in which players read them,
and instead create sovereign digital spaces for Indigenous peoples.<br>
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About the Speaker:<br>
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Dr Bird is a Native American game designer and PhD in Native American Studies. She is Western Abenaki and originally hails from the Champlain Valley of Vermont. Her work theorizes digital sovereignty, drawing on Native American studies, media studies, and
game studies to address representations of Native American characters in video games. The work analyzes specific colonial methodologies being replicated within game spaces in order to then replace these with decolonial methods of game design being undertaken
by herself and fellow Native game designers with a focus on what she terms “synthetic Indigenous identity,” oriented around promoting Indigenous futures. Her work has been featured in the InDigital Space at the ImagineNATIVE Film & Media Festival in 2018
and 2019 respectively. She is also a founding member of the UC Davis ModLab, an experimental laboratory for media research and digital humanities.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif;color:black;mso-ligatures:none;mso-fareast-language:EN-CA">Gerald Voorhees, Ph.D. (he/him)<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif;color:black;mso-ligatures:none;mso-fareast-language:EN-CA">Associate Professor<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif;color:black;mso-ligatures:none;mso-fareast-language:EN-CA">Associate Chair, Undergraduate Studies<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif;color:black;mso-ligatures:none;mso-fareast-language:EN-CA">Department of Communication Arts <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif;color:black;mso-ligatures:none;mso-fareast-language:EN-CA">University of Waterloo<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif;color:black;mso-ligatures:none;mso-fareast-language:EN-CA">257A ML, Waterloo ON, N2L 3G1<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="color:#212121;mso-ligatures:none;mso-fareast-language:EN-CA">I acknowledge that I live and work on the traditional territory of the Attawandaron (Neutral), Anishinaabeg and Haudenosaunee peoples. The University of Waterloo
is situated on the Haldimand Tract, the land promised to the Six Nations that includes ten kilometers on each side of the Grand River. </span></i><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif;color:black;mso-ligatures:none;mso-fareast-language:EN-CA"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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