Speaker:
Krystina Madej

Title:
Imaginative Understanding and Engagement with Game Narratives

Abstract:
This talk looks at our imaginative engagement with the world, offers a perspective of how knowledge grows in the mind, and provides insight into why children engage with narrative games. Imagination is the source of flexibility and invention in human thinking. It provides for the ability to think of the possible not only the actual. The educational theorist kieran egan suggests there are five distinct kinds of “imaginative understanding”– somatic, mythic, romantic, philosophic, and ironic. This talk elaborates on these in so much as they help to provide insight into how children (and youth) engage with game narratives.

Bio:
Dr. Krystina Madej is Visiting Assistant Professor at the School of Literature, Media, and Communication and Adjunct Professor at the School for Interactive Arts and Technology, Simon Fraser University, Vancouver. Her research looks at how narrative is mediated by technology and creates meaning for us. She aims to provide games developers with an understanding of narrative that encourages use of a wide range of story‐types. Publications include “Engaging Imagination and Developing Creativity in Education,” co‐edited with Dr. Kieran Egan, Canada Chair for Education, and “Disney Stories: Getting to Digital” (Springer, April 2012) co‐authored with Newton Lee, senior engineer and producer at Disney for ten years. She was co‐principal of an industrial design and communication firm with museums as a favorite client before returning to academia in 1999. She holds a BFA from Concordia University in Montreal, an MAPW from Kennesaw State, and a PhD in Digital Narrative from Simon Fraser University.