University to host ‘Women + Video Games Festival’

UNC Charlotte will host a Women + Video Games Festival Monday through Sunday, Feb. 15-21. Through a series of workshops, lectures, panel discussions and video screenings, the festival will encourage women and girls to explore game design and programming and to promote a creative gaming culture that is inclusive of individuals, regardless of gender, race or creed.

The Center for Teaching and Learning, Center for Professional and Applied Ethics, College of Computing and Informatics, Department of Art and Art History in the College of Arts + Architecture and the Women’s and Gender Studies Program are organizing festival events, which are being funded in part by a grant from the Chancellor’s Diversity Challenge Fund.

Feminist video game critic Anita Sarkeesian will deliver the festival’s keynote address at 7 p.m., Thursday, Feb. 18, in the Cone University Center, McKnight Hall. Melissa MacCoubrey, narrative director at Ubisoft Quebec and assistant narrative director of “Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate,” will speak at 7 p.m., Friday, Feb. 19, in Rowe Arts Building, Room 130.

Other events for the festival include gamification coding workshops for faculty, workshops that address sexism in the technology fields and lectures by prominent writers and creators in the video game industry. Learn more on the Web.