This is the personal site and blog of Sean C. Duncan. I am the C. Michael Armstrong Professor in Interactive Media, an Assistant Professor in the School of Education, Health, and Society and Armstrong Institute for Interactive Media Studies at Miami University. Previously, I was a doctoral student and member of the Games+Learning+Society group at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Check out the links at the top to get a sense of some of my research, my curriculum vita, or check out my blog elsewhere on this site. Basically, though: I study and write about games (digital and otherwise), learning, literacy, participatory culture, fandom, and the productive uses of digital media more broadly.

In my collegiate (Miami U., ’93; B.Phil, Interdisciplinary Studies/Cognitive Science) and postcollegiate careers including stints teaching at Miami University and working at Microsoft, I found myself continually trying to balance interests in thinking, cognition, and learning with my personal interests in the internet, games, and fan cultures. I spent many years intentionally trying to keep the two separate — for most of the ’90s, I studied cognitive psychology (Bowling Green State U. ’97, M. A.), with an emphasis on understanding scientific thinking. Since 2006, I have endeavored to bring these intellectual approaches to understanding the forms of thinking and learning that occur within topics nearer and dearer to my heart, and completed a doctorate in Curriculum & Instruction at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2009 on the topic of understanding “gamers as designers.”

My research is focused on the realm of digital games and learning, addressing the ways that in vivo studies of gaming practice (play, critique, and design) can inform our theories of learning with digital media. My dissertation research focused on the topic of design in fan communities around videogames (a la Schön, 1983 and Schön, 1988). In terms of learning in online communities more broadly, I am the co-editor (with Elisabeth Hayes) of an upcoming book entitled Learning in Videogame Affinity Spaces, to be published in April, 2012 by Peter Lang Publishers. I believe that a renewed focus on the forms of learning and literacy practices that occur in online fan spaces is key to understanding the impact that these media may have — for developing new modes of instruction, for revising existing ones, and for helping prepare learners for the professional workplaces of the 21st century.

If you’re interested in finding out more about my current research, I suggest checking out the links above: The “Gamers As Designers” link takes you to a page regarding my ongoing research investigating the relationship of game design and learning, while “Games and Learning” will take you to a page in which I describe some of my most recent research interests in this field.

In the rest of my life, I’ve been known to play games, be a very vocal fan of excellent music, comics, and television series. And, of course, cook a lot and eat excellent things (that’s a pic, just above, of me and my wonderful wife Liz eating shrimp and edamame). If you’re interested in seeing my more day-to-day updates — ranging from links to digital media and learning work, but also personal tweets — please check out my Twitter feed.

Oh, and, look, here’s a smiling picture of me!