[DiGRA UK] Support for Scottish Games Network

[Esther MacCallum-Stewart]

Hi folks,

Some of you might remember the Game Think event in Scotland last year that
we had a presence at? A group of us are trying to expand this into a larger
Network, rather like the Creative Territories series of events that
UWE/Bath/Brighton ran last year. As part of the group, Brian McDonald,
William Huber, Matt Barr and myself were wondering if this was something
that DiGRA UK would want to lend support to. Although we are all involved
in DiGRA UK, it seemed pre-emptive to simply give the go ahead on this!

The request for a letter of support is below.

Could I have a show of hands that this is okay for us to lend our name to
it? The Network will be a really useful way to expand connections in the
Scottish Games Industry, and very much what our original remit was about.

Esther, Brian, Matt and William.

Dear *members of DiGRA UK*,

I am writing to you today to seek your support for a bid for the Royal
Society of Edinburgh grant funding. This grant will fund the formation of a
 research network which aims to bring together academics from Scottish
universities engaged in the study of video games. The initial makeup of the
network will include academics from the following institutions: Glasgow
School of Art, the University of Glasgow, Abertay University, the Digital
Cultures Research Centre at the University of the West of England and
Glasgow Caledonian University. It is our intention that the network will
expand to include colleagues from other institutions in Scotland and
beyond.

We will also bring together practitioners, industry partners and the wider
public to participate in events which will seek to disseminate knowledge
and practice of the Scottish video games sector. These collaborations will
not only highlight the good work that is already carried out, but will be
used to inform future policy-making.

The formation of this network is timely as two of the largest Game Studies
research events - the Digital Games Research Association (DiGRA) and
Foundations of Digital Games (FDG) conferences - are co-locating for the
first time, and will be coming to Dundee in 2016. In addition, the European
Conference on Games Based Learning (ECGBL) - one of the largest
international conferences on Games-Based Learning - will be coming to
Paisley in 2016. The presence of three of the largest international
conferences on video games research in Scotland provides an unique
opportunity to highlight the excellent research into, and development of,
video games in this country.

We would be delighted to have DiGRA UK involved, and would be grateful if
you could provide a very brief letter of support, as this will enable us to
demonstrate support for such a network.

Regards,
Esther MacCallum-Stewart, Matt Barr, Brian McDonald, William Huber

-- 


Dr Esther MacCallum-Stewart

Research Fellow (Digital Cultures Research Centre, UWE).
Secretary, Dublin 2019 Worldcon Bid.
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