Sandra Danilovic

Background

About Sandra Danilovic

Scholarship: I study game design that supports self-care, creates community, builds resilience, and empowers the self. In particular, I study the poetics of game-based storytelling informed by lived experiences with illness and disability by organizing game jams (game-making workshops). My research contributions are to the health/medical humanities, community health, and inclusive design practices—the use of game jams to conduct research with, co-design, and empower underserved and high-risk communities. I am the Principal Investigator of an SSHRC-funded research study exploring the practice of making games as a tool for supporting recovery from opioid addiction, and for fighting the stigma and social isolation surrounding drug use. Graduate supervision: I am affiliated with Laurier's Community Psychology program where I currently supervise graduate students. I also have an adjunct professor status in the MDes Inclusive Design program at OCAD University. I have successfully supervised students in OCADU's Inclusive Design program and Laurier's Social Justice and Community Engagement (SJCE) MA program. Creative practice: I have extensive experience in the creative industry working as a multimedia artist and filmmaker. My machinima film, Second Bodies, won two awards, including Best Documentary at the New Media Film Festival in San Francisco. My previous documentaries explored immigrant narratives; Portrait of a Street: The Soul and Spirit of College (funded by the National Film Board of Canada and Toronto Arts Council) and Just Arrived (commissioned by Rogers Communications) were respectively broadcast on PBS and Rogers OMNI Television. Books: “Arts for Health: Games"(Emerald Publishing, https://bookstore.emerald.com/games.html). Forthcoming: “Game Design Therapoetics: The Therapeutic Imagination at Play” (University of California Health Humanities Press, UCSF)