joshzim

joshzim@arizona.edu

Zimmerman, Joshua J

Assistant Professor of Practice

Assistant Professor of Practice, Institute for LGBTQ+ Studies

Josh Zimmerman is a scholar of the computer game industry, as well as an instructional design and community engagement consultant for TTG, LLC in Minneapolis, MN. He earned a PhD in Rhetoric, Composition & the Teaching of English from the University of Arizona in 2016 and has continued to teach and research while building a thriving consulting business. His research interests include developer-fan discourses in the computer game industry, online community building, and the complex relationship between play and work in digital media industries. Since 2009, he has taught a wide range of courses for the University of Arizona Writing Program, the School of Information, the Honor's College, and the Department of Public & Applied Humanities.

Currently Teaching

PAH 160D1 – Play: An Interactive Introduction

This course introduces students to the study of play, from ancient games of chance to cutting edge playgrounds like amusement parks, escape rooms, and even workplaces. Students will learn and practice a set of critical and practical skills designed to help them both understand how play regularly changes the world around them, and how to use play as a tool for personal, professional, and political transformation. Over the course of the semester, we will: 1) survey the origins of play, paying particular attention to how the act of play is used to change or solidify the status quo; 2) examine research-informed case studies to learn and practice techniques for theorizing about how and why play does real work in the world; and 3) experiment with a variety of tools and techniques for using play to alter how individuals, communities, and organizations interact.

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PAH 230 – Video Games as Artifacts: Appreciating Interactive Multimedia Entertainment.

This course introduces students to the techniques and varying contexts of critically appreciating video games. In addition to studying the ways that digital games, and their creators, play upon consumer's senses, students will develop a working vocabulary of evaluative terms (e.g., taste, judgement, pleasure, style, beauty) that can be usefully and sometimes uniquely applied to objects derived from the video game medium. They will also learn and practice a set of critical and practical skills designed to help them both understand the role of critical judgement in the experience of play, as well as how play itself may be an integral part of a game's overall look and feel. Through the course of the semester, we will: 1) briefly survey the history of media criticism, paying particular attention to how conventional understandings of terms such as "critique" and "effect" may or may not apply to video games; 2) examine research-informed case studies to learn and practice techniques for thinking about how and why game evaluation has developed as it has over the last half-century, as well as how it differs from the judgement of other forms of artistic expression; and 3) generate substantive original critiques of video games past and present.

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PAH 332 – Tabletop Games: Play, Culture, and Design of Board and Role-Playing Games

This course explores how tabletop and board games both reflect and influence the cultures they arise from. We begin the course by examining some of the earliest tabletop games and how they relate to the cultures from which they emerged. From this foundation, we then explore how modern tabletop games employ aesthetics, rules and mechanics to represent and shape relationships between players, as well as allowing players to take on different identities and master new skills. Throughout the course, we pay close attention to how game design choices communicate cultural values, histories, and beliefs and how we might redesign games to create new possibilities for players.

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PAH 201 – Applied Humanities Practice: Techniques and Technologies for Public Enrichment

This course introduces the common techniques and technologies involved in applied humanities work, providing students with the concepts and skills they need to plan, conduct, analyze, and evaluate conceptually rigorous, publicly-facing, and community-enriching projects. Over the course of the semester we will: 1) survey practical approaches and research methods commonly used in the applied humanities; 2) examine exemplary projects that have employed these ways of doing, and in the process gain insight into how to adapt them for other projects; and 3) explore a variety of tools and technologies that support data collection, sharing, analysis, and implementation, culminating the design of your own applied humanities project.

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PAH 231 – Global Game Cultures and Histories

This course examines the rise and spread of video game cultures from around the world, focusing on the contexts of their origins, proliferation, and (where applicable) their demise. Topics to be covered include arcades, bootlegging and piracy, casual gaming, chiptunes, cosplay, demo cultures, LAN parties, machinima, online fandom, LGTBQ+ gaming culture, BIPOC gaming culture, and videorec cultures. These topics will be considered in light of broader cultural trends, contemporaneous social and political concerns, and relevant technological advancements.

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PAH 331 – Video Game Studies: Critical/Cultural Approaches

This course surveys the major critical/cultural approaches to the study of video games. Areas of emphasis include industrial analysis, formalism, critical race studies, ludology/narratology, critical discourse analysis, archivalism, fan studies, and gender/sexuality studies. Each approach will be analyzed in terms of its main principles, the sorts of arguments it facilitates, and the opportunities and problems it presents to the game scholar, maker, and player. In the process, we will conduct a series of micro-analyses of specific games, technologies, companies, and playful practices, all for the purpose of developing a deeper sense of games many meaning-making processes and their connection to the human condition.

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