Overview

My name is Garrison LeMasters, and I am a Visiting Assistant Professor at Georgetown University in the graduate-level Program in Communication, Culture, and Technology, where I teach courses in play, digital gaming, post-critical theory, and digital poiesis. I am also fortunate to teach the undergraduate Senior Seminar in the College’s storied Program in American Studies.

I trained as a comparatist in continental philosophy and the European novel at The Catholic University of America in Washington, DC. At the Europäische Universität für Interdisziplinäre Studien (EGS), in Saas-Fee, Switzerland, I focused on contemporary philosophy and technology.

My recent work revolves around the intersection of technology and play, with a particular focus on video games and synthetic worlds. I am especially interested in the ways that games and simulations are bound up in the production of knowledge, and ways of knowing, and in the ways that new technologies are challenging the long-standing place of games in Western culture.

Teaching

 

For the past four years, I have been privileged to teach for the Program in Communication, Culture, and Technology and for the Program in American Studies at Georgetown University.

I’ve been using the Internet and the web in my classes since my first ENG 101 class in 1997. It has not always been easy: In 1998, for example, I was censured by my department for building a website where my undergraduates could publish their essays for others to read. In 2010, however, an article in The Washington Post singled out my Senior Seminar in American Studies for its inventive use of Twitter. (Georgetown’s Alumni Online blogged about the class, too, and we were accorded some attention in a recent Georgetown honors thesis).

Prior to coming to Georgetown, I taught at Marymount University and The Catholic University of America.

Technology

 

During the reign of the Palm handheld platform, I built and distributed several apps including Wyrd and Wyrd II, a pair of runecasting games that sold surprisingly well.