The iSchool is pleased to announce that Judith Pintar is now a teaching associate professor. In her new position, in addition to teaching core courses in the BS in information sciences (BS/IS) program, she will develop and teach courses related to game studies and interactive narrative design for both undergraduates and graduate students.
"The new courses will be offered to our students and as part of an interdisciplinary campus game studies program, with the iSchool at the heart of the collaborative developments," Pintar said. "I will also be creating undergraduate and graduate-level coursework related to artificial intelligence and society, including the social history and programming of chatbots, and global informatics approaches to understanding the sociocultural context behind the use of AI in manipulation of social media, and in election interference."
In spring 2020, iSchool undergraduate and graduate students can enroll in Playful Design Methods, a game design topics course. Its content will be informed by Pintar's research as co-director of the project, "Fostering Empathy for Latin American Migrants through Game Design." The two-year project is funded through the Illinois Global Institute and co-directed by Colleen Murphy, director of the University’s Women and Gender in Global Perspectives program. It "examines the potential power of game play as a method for increasing empathic understanding of the lived experiences of migrants," with a particular focus on Latin American migrants arriving in the United States with the intention of seeking asylum.
An active member of the Interactive Fiction Technology Foundation (IFTF), Pintar is chair of its education committee and preparing to serve a second term on its national board. She is currently working to create collaborative ties between IFTF, the iSchool, and the Internet Archive on research related to the restorative archiving of lost gaming worlds.
Pintar joined the iSchool in August 2018 as a senior lecturer. She previously served as a visiting assistant professor in the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures and as a visiting assistant professor in the Department of Sociology, where she earned her PhD.