Games, Gaming and Gamification

Games, Gaming and Gamification, School of the Arts, Media, Performance and Design (AMPD)


York University’s School of the Arts, Media, Performance and Design (AMPD), formerly known as the Faculty of Fine Arts, is seeking an outstanding junior researcher in the area of Games, Gaming and Gamification. The successful candidate will be appointed to a tenure track position in AMPD at the Assistant Professor level. One of North America's leading schools for the arts, AMPD offers undergraduate and graduate degree programs in Dance, Design, Digital Media, Film, Music, Theatre, Visual Arts, Art History, Media Studies, and Performance Studies.



This position seeks a strong junior researcher whose creative practice and theoretical interests span games, gaming, and organized play as cultural phenomena, as a platform for art-making, and who explores gaming as it manifests in a wide range of contemporary practices. Possible areas of interest include the following: art games, serious games, experimental game mechanics, alternate reality games, game related art or installation, interactive narrative, critical game studies, world making, visualization, alt-games, notgames and gamification. The candidate will be a practicing artist and creative coder, with strong theoretical framework, who has expertise with a variety of tools found in professional game development and whose technology-based art practice incorporates interdisciplinary approaches to art and science. The candidate will have capacity to teach practicum courses in Digital Media and Design.

The appointment is linked to the new University Strategic Research Plan, which identifies Digital Cultures as a compelling opportunity for development in the next five years by “pushing technological boundaries while critically investigating the social and cultural impacts” of new technologies on human activity and interaction. The successful candidate will play a strong role in Sensorium: Centre for Digital Arts and Technology Research, a catalyst for new ideas and experimentation. Based in AMPD, Sensorium supports cross-disciplinary work in application and content creation, artistic and scientific inquiry, design practice and methodologies, policy development and critical discourse in digital media arts.

The successful candidate will have a PhD or equivalent in the areas of Digital Media, Interactive Arts, Interaction Design, Computer Science or a closely related field, an outstanding research record, experience working with undergraduate and graduate students, and must be eligible for prompt appointment to the Faculty of Graduate Studies. The successful candidate must demonstrate excellence or promise of excellence in teaching and scholarly research. The candidate is expected to provide leadership by fostering collaborative research, securing external funding, making links across art, computer science and engineering, supervising graduate students, and generating national and international academic, community and industry partnerships. The determination of the successful candidate's home department within AMPD will depend upon the candidate's core scholarly/creative strengths.

York University is an Affirmative Action (AA) employer and strongly values diversity, including gender and sexual diversity, within its community. The AA Program, which applies to Aboriginal people, visible minorities, people with disabilities, and women, can be found at www.yorku.ca/acadjobs or by calling the AA office at 416-736-5713. All qualified candidates are encouraged to apply; however, Canadian citizens and Permanent Residents will be given priority.

This position, subject to budgetary approval, will commence July 1, 2015. Applicants should submit a detailed CV, statement of contribution to research and teaching, links to scholarly and/or creative work, and three letters of reference electronically.

Applications should be sent by December 5, 2014 to: Jim Fenton
York University
School of the Arts, Media Performance & Design
GCFA 201
4700 Keele Street Toronto, ON M3J 1P3
Tel: +1 416 736—2100 x 20033
Email: [email protected]