Member of the Month: Mark Danger Chen
The Member of the Month feature periodically highlights our amazing membership and the things they’re doing. If you know someone who should be featured as the Member of the Month, email our Communications Minion and we’ll make it happen! August’s Member of the Month is Mark Danger Chen, Ph.D. (he/they).
What kind of work do you do?
I am a part-time lecturer for the University of Washington and primarily teach courses on media studies, game studies and gaming culture, game design for social good, UX research, and web design. I also consult once in a while on game-related educational projects, mostly grant-funded studies on learning in the classroom and informal settings. Finally, I also consult even less once in a while on game design-related projects, mostly for educational purposes.
Why are you a NASAGA member?
I believe in the power of games to make the world a better place. Games to me are about systems thinking (to play a game is to challenge yourself to recognize patterns in noisy and deliberately oppressive systems) and stories (through engaged pattern recognition, narratives emerge that increase empathy and result in epic tales to tell). I'm an academic--a scholar of games and how gaming provides philosophical metaphors for life. But I'm also just some guy, you know, who likes to play games with others as a way to connect and live with others. NASAGA is a unique blend of venues that helps me connect the academic world with the practitioner world and also the world of like-minded dreamers. NASAGAns like to think big, and the energy is extremely positive and fulfilling.
What’s your favorite NASAGA memory?
I've met so many wonderful people through NASAGA who I never would have had I stayed solely with academic conferences. One of the best experiences of my life was when I was given the honor of representing NASAGA at the ISAGA conference a few years ago in Thailand! We combined that trip with Jega and Zairul's MASAGA that year, and it was such an awesome couple of weeks for me to visit SE Asia and make many international friends. Here's a video I did to plug both MASAGA and NASAGA in 2019 (wait, there was life before the pandemic!?? :) )
NASAGA’s theme for the 2023 Conference is “Space at the Table.” What do you do in your professional practice to integrate diverse points of view?
As a university professor and lifelong educator, I feel very strongly that education is the best way to address inequality and marginalization, fight systemic injustice, and help encourage the uplifting of everyone through playful collaboration. It started with my first job after college working at a science museum whose mission was to reach EVERYONE, not just those with privilege. I saw (and heard) first-hand how excited families of all sorts were when they visited the museum and were able to delight (and sometimes squeal and scream) while learning important science and math concepts that had direct impacts on quality of life (such as learning about family budgeting or learning the importance of hands-on trial-and-error scientific and engineering reasoning). My current position is in a design program that emphasizes user-centered design, placing people at the forefront and including them in all steps of a design cycle. Additionally, I volunteer for digital equity projects in Washington State that aim to broaden access to high-speed internet as well as gain training and enculturation into digital practices that are locally impactful.
