Jonaya Kemper Explained

Jonaya Kemper
Occupation:Game designer/writer and academic
Employer:Carnegie Mellon University
Known For:LARP theory of emancipatory bleed
Notable Works:Thirsty Sword Lesbians co-writer
Awards:Nebula Award, ENNIE Awards

Jonaya Kemper is an American game design academic and game writer/designer. Kemper's work includes LARP, tabletop role-playing games, and computer games. Kemper coined the term and developed the theory of "emancipatory bleed."[1]

Academic work in games

Kemper developed the theory of emancipatory bleed in live-action games[2] [3] [4] as a way of analyzing how players with marginalized identities can achieve political liberation through embodying imaginary characters.[5] [6] Kemper also developed guidelines to design games for players with intersectional identities[7] and an auto-ethnographic process for LARP research and documentation.[8] [9]

As Game Design Lead in Carnegie Mellon's computer science department's Human-Computer Interaction Institute,[10] Kemper conducted professional research on human-robot interactions in educational games[11] and racial and gender biases in the design of children's games.[12]

Game writing and design

Kemper co-wrote Thirsty Sword Lesbians (Evil Hat Productions), winning a Nebula Award for Best Game Writing[13] and ENNIE Awards for "Best Game" and "Product of the Year."[14] Kemper wrote a game based on Bram Stoker's Dracula novel called Feeding Lucy in the LARP anthology Honey & Hot Wax (Pelgrane Press).[15] Kemper wrote Tales from the Corner Coven, a short tabletop role-playing game about bodega cats in Brooklyn, for Simon & Schuster's The Ultimate Micro-RPG Book.[16] Kelly Knox for Nerdist called Tales from the Corner Coven "bewitching" and said, "We want to play right meow."[17]

Kemper also wrote the adventure "The Little Mx. Scare-All Pageant" for Visigoths vs. Mall Goths by Lucian Kahn and contributed writing to 7th Sea.[18]

Notes and References

  1. Kemper, Jonaya (2018). “Playing to Create Ourselves: Exploring Larp and Visual Autoethnographic Practice as a Tool of Self Liberation for Marginalized Identities.” Master’s Thesis. New York University.
  2. Kemper, Jonaya. (2017): "The Battle of Primrose Park: Playing for Emancipatory Bleed in Fortune & Felicity Documentation." NordicLarp.org June 21, 2017. Accessed April 9, 2021.
  3. Kemper, Jonaya. (2020): Wyrding the Self. In Eleanor Saitta, Johanna Koljonen, Jukka Särkijärvi, Anne Serup Grove, Pauliina Männistö, & Mia Makkonen (eds.). What Do We Do When We Play? Helsinki; Solmukohta 2020. Accessed April 9, 2021.
  4. Web site: Steele . Samara Hayley . 2021 . 'To Larp, or Not to Larp?' Must Embodiment and Code Deployment Reinforce Systemic Injustice across Larp Platforms? . 7 June 2023 . ELMCIP.
  5. Blessed Are the Legend-Makers: Experimentation as Edification in Dungeons & Dragons . 10.1080/1462317X.2021.1890933 . 2021 . Hollander . Aaron T. . Political Theology . 22 . 4 . 316–331 . 233956866 .
  6. Toft . Ida . Harrer . Sabine . 2020 . Design Bleed: A Standpoint Methodology for Game Design . Proceedings of DiGRA 2020 . 1–18.
  7. Book: LARP Design: Creating Role-Play Experiences . Bifrost . 2019 . 978-87-971140-0-1 . Koljonen . Johanna . Kobenhaven, Denmark . Stenros . Jaakko . Grove . Anne Serup . Skonsfjell . Aina D. . Nilsen . Elin.
  8. Cox . Jason . December 2018 . Documenting LARP as an Art of Experience . International Journal of Role Playing . 9 . 24–30 . 10.33063/ijrp.vi9.267. free .
  9. Kemper, Jonaya. 2018. “More Than a Seat at theFeasting Table.” Nordic Larp. https://nordiclarp.org/2018/02/07/more-than-a-seat-at-the-feasting-table/
  10. Web site: Jonaya Kemper . 7 June 2023 . Carnegie Mellon University Computer Science Department.
  11. Book: https://dl.acm.org/doi/abs/10.1145/3450337.3483472 . 10.1145/3450337.3483472 . The Design of Co-Robotic Games for Computer Science Education . Extended Abstracts of the 2021 Annual Symposium on Computer-Human Interaction in Play . 2021 . Higashi . Ross . Harpstead . Erik . Solyst . Jaemarie . Kemper . Jonaya . Odili Uchidiuno . Judith . Hammer . Jessica . 111–116 . 9781450383561 . 238992655 .
  12. Book: https://dl.acm.org/doi/abs/10.1145/3450337.3483479 . 10.1145/3450337.3483479 . Negotiating Systemic Racial and Gender Bias as a Minoritized Adult Design Researcher . Extended Abstracts of the 2021 Annual Symposium on Computer-Human Interaction in Play . 2021 . Odili Uchidiuno . Judith . Solyst . Jaemarie . Kemper . Jonaya . Harpstead . Erik . Higashi . Ross . Hammer . Jessica . 203–208 . 9781450383561 . 238992422 .
  13. Web site: Hoffer . Christian . 23 May 2022 . Thirsty Sword Lesbians Wins Nebula Award for Best Game Writing . 7 June 2023 . Comicbook.
  14. Web site: Hall . Charlie . 8 August 2022 . Queer creators win big at Gen Con's Ennie awards for 2022 . Polygon.
  15. Web site: Honey & Hot Wax . 2023-06-09 . Pelgrane Press Ltd . en-US.
  16. Book: The Ultimate Micro-RPG Book . 2020-12-08 . 978-1-5072-1286-8 . en . d'Amato . James . Simon and Schuster .
  17. Web site: Outstanding One-Page RPGs You Can Play in a Single Night . 2023-06-09 . Nerdist . en-US.
  18. Black Game Studies: An Introduction to the Games, Game Makers and Scholarship of the African Diaspora. Edited by Lindsay Grace. Carnegie Mellon University: ETC Press, 2021. pp. 48

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