Author Biographies

Joseph M. Bayeck Joseph M. Bayeck is a researcher and educator. His research interests are at the intersection of learning, race, and culture. At this intersection, he also explores ways to leverage culture, technology, and mentoring to improve the learning experiences of minoritized students in the digital world. Dr. Bayeck is further interested in the emerging field of Black digital humanities as a resource to make sense of Black learners' experiences in the digital world.

Rebecca Y. Bayeck Rebecca Y. Bayeck is an assistant professor in instructional technology and learning sciences at Utah State University. Her research interests lie at the intersection of learning sciences, educational technology, literacy studies, and the interdisciplinary field of game studies. Within this intersection, her research includes games (digital and analog), learning and literacies, emerging technologies, and the design of inclusive learning spaces and exhibitions. She is also interested in Black digital humanities and in how Black DH can inform other fields, as well as in how culture shapes learning and literacy practices in different environments. Bayeck holds a dual Ph.D in Learning Design and Technology and Comparative International Education from the Pennsylvania State University.

Cameron Browne Cameron Browne received the Ph.D. degree in Computer Science from the Queensland University of Technology (QUT), Brisbane, Australia, in 2008, winning the Dean’s Award for Outstanding Thesis. He was Canon Research Australia’s Inventor of the Year for 1998, won the 2012 GECCO "Humies" gold medal for human-competitive results in evolutionary computation, and has written the books "Hex Strategy", "Connection Games" and "Evolutionary Game Design". Dr Browne ran the ERC-funded Digital Ludeme Project (Consolidator Grant #771292) at Maastricht University over 2018–2023, in which he designed and developed the Ludii general game system.

Walter Crist Walter Crist is an archaeologist working as a Lecturer in the Leiden University Centre for the Arts in Society. He earned his PhD from Arizona State University with a thesis on Bronze Age board games in Cyprus. His research focuses on the sociality of games in prehistory, as well as traditional forms of gaming throughout the world. He has researched ancient games in Cyprus, Azerbaijan, Greece, Turkey, the Netherlands, and Egypt. He is Vice Chair of the COST Action GameTable, and was the main contributor of archaeological, historical, and anthropological research for the Digital Ludeme Project.

Faithe J. Day Faithe J. Day, Ph.D., is a digital humanist and data ethicist who specializes in using digital tools to empower intersectionally marginalized communities. Her work focuses on collaboration, data privacy, and speculative ethics by promoting technology for social good.

Jina DuVernay Jina DuVernay is a librarian, an adjunct English instructor, and a Black arts and culture consultant who is active in the field of librarianship, serving on numerous committees and initiatives that advocate for the collection, stewardship, and discoverability of resources related to Black history and culture. DuVernay has served as a Councilor-at-Large for the American Library Association (ALA), as a Coretta Scott King Book Award Juror, and as an executive board member for the Black Caucus of ALA. DuVernay is currently pursuing a PhD in Humanities at Clark Atlanta University.

Jennifer W. Kyker Jennifer W. Kyker is a professor of Ethnomusicology at the University of Rochester. Her monograph-length digital humanities project Sekuru's Stories (sekuru.org) was supported by a fellowship from the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS). A three-time Fulbright Fellow, Jennifer has played Zimbabwean music since 1990. She also co-founded the nonprofit organization Tariro, which educates teenaged girls in Zimbabwean communities affected by HIV/AIDS (tariro.org).

Éric Piette Éric Piette is an Assistant Professor at UCLouvain in the ICTEAM institute and INGI department, specializing in Game Artificial Intelligence (AI) and its applications. His expertise encompasses Machine Learning (ML), Explainable AI (XAI), Constraint Satisfaction Problems (CSP), and Knowledge Representation and Reasoning (KRR) in General Game Playing (GGP). As the Chair of the GameTable COST Action CA22145, he leads an international network focused on using game AI to study, reconstruct, and preserve the cultural heritage of games. Among his contributions, he contributed to the ERC-funded Digital Ludeme Project, developing the Ludii General Game System to model traditional strategy games. He also introduced a novel approach to GGP using stochastic constraint satisfaction and bandit-based sampling, exemplified by WoodStock, the last International General Game Playing Competition winner.

Jessica Power Jessica Power is a postdoctoral fellow at Vanderbilt University and Fisk University. She is a historian of the nineteenth-century Atlantic world with a focus on slavery and the slave trade. Power is also grounded in the collaborative worlds of the digital humanities and is interested in the relationship between digital scholarship, race, and local public history.

Matthew Stephenson Dr. Matthew Stephenson is a Lecturer with the College of Science and Engineering at Flinders University, where he specialises in Game AI. His research interests centre predominantly around the use of Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning and Data Science techniques applied to games. This includes research that uses such techniques to play, create and analyse games; but also how we can utilise games as a testbed for developing solutions to real-world problems. His current research focus is on data-driven approaches for both procedural content generation and general game playing.

Angela Sutton Angela Sutton is an assistant professor of Communication of Science and Technology at Vanderbilt University. She is the director of the Builders & Defenders database and the Fort Negley Descendants Project, two public-facing digital projects that reintegrate the written sources and oral histories of Black descendants into Nashville's Civil War history.

Dhanashree Thorat Dhanashree Thorat is an assistant professor of English at Mississippi State University. Her research is situated at the intersection of postcolonial studies and digital humanities. She is a founding Executive Council member of the Center for Digital Humanities, Pune, in India. She has published articles in the Journal of Postcolonial Writing, South Asian Review, and Feminist Media Studies. Thorat is currently working on a book project on internet infrastructure in the Global South.

Dr. Drew E. VandeCreek Drew VandeCreek is Director of Digital Scholarship at Northern Illinois University Libraries. He is co-director of the Digital POWRR Project and holds a PhD in American History from the University of Virginia.