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I earned my PhD in English Language and Literature from the University of Waterloo in 2016 on the subject of mobilizing knowledge through play. My dissertation has the unique distinction of being one of the first to be argued through both a written text and an applied videogame as I developed a game to mobilize the experiences of food allergic children in order to raise awareness of the social challenges they face. I was then a postdoctoral fellow at The Games Institute where I worked alongside over a 150 researchers and practioners on Project VEGA (Violence, Evidence, Guidance, Action), an initiative funded by the Public Health Agency of Canada to address intimate partner and family violence in Canada.
My accredited pro-social learning games are part of the continuing professional development programs administered by the College of Family Physicians of Canada and the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada.
I was the co-founder of First Person Scholar, a middle-state game studies publication. And I am currently the co-editor of Palgrave's Games in Context book series.
I use the social and cognitive science of sensemaking to mobilize knowledge through play. My applied research projects explore how various bodies, communities, and cultures make sense of and give meaning to the world around them in the same or similar ways that players give meaning to the playspaces of the games they play. Past projects have focused on developing pro-social games in the areas of health, journalism, public policy, and community engagement.
I now have over a decade of experience teaching aspiring game designers how to create meaningful, memorable, and engaging analog and digital games. In my courses I use social and cognitive science to teach how to make games that feel meaningful to play and interact with, and I show students how ethics can be used to make deeper, more memorable games that leave a lasting impact on their players.
My current research is focused on developing a theory of cognition rooted in play and informed by embodied cognition, developmental psychology, game studies, and social games. Forthcoming scholarship includes applied scholarship on how to use the social and cognitive science of sensemaking to purposefully shape how games feel to players.
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SSHRC Connection Grant. Principal Investigator. “Positive Play: Using a Sex Education Game to Reduce Stigma.”
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SSHRC Insight Grant. Co-applicant. “Gamesourcing a rhetorical figure ontology.”
Wilcox, Steve. “Hello, Worlds: A Ludic Theory of Cognition.” Games and Culture, Dec. 2024. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/155541220241303322 [Open Access]
Wilcox, Steve. “Games and Persuasion.” Routledge Handbook of Language and Persuasion.
Wilcox, Steve. “Praxis Games: A Design Philosophy for Mobilizing Knowledge Through Play.” American Journal of Play. Spring 2019.
Wilcox, Steve. “Illusions of Space and Time - An Ethical Approach to Temporality in Games.” Journal of Gaming & Virtual Worlds. Winter 2018
Wilcox, Steve. Lead designer, professional training game. ‘Recognizing and Responding to Family Violence in Clinical Settings.’ VEGA (Violence, Evidence, Guidance, Action), a project funded by the Public Health Agency of Canada. 2016-2020.
Wilcox, Steve. Lead designer, professional training game ‘Stigma and Sexual Health: Addressing Biases through Game-based Learning.’ Canadian Public Health Association. 2018-2019.
Contact Info:
Office location: GRH201
Languages spoken: English