Matthew Coopilton (formerly Hamilton) studies and designs critical climate change educational activities featuring play, game design, digital literacies, and worldbuilding; their goal is to support learners in imagining, prototyping, and rehearsing sustainable futures free from systemic oppression.
The climate change game jams they are planning now build on design principles they developed through organizing and studying an Afrofuturist-themed game jam with the USC Center for Empowered Learning and Development with Technology as part of their dissertation research, mentored by Dr. Brendesha Tynes. In these workshops, Black and LGBTQIA+ young adults used game design to prototype unpoliced futures where they can thrive.
Matthew assisted Tracy Fullerton and the Game Innovation Lab in developing “Walden, a game,” a new classroom version of their award-winning game about Henry David Thoreau’s experiment in living deliberately at Walden Pond. The new version is based on feedback from teachers across the country; it is a series of modules optimized to run on school Chromebooks, and is currently being used in classrooms across the US and around the world.
They design educational games with ecological themes, such as the abolitionist videogame Kai UnEarthed. Matthew taught high school for 11 years and has participated in anti-racist organizing for almost 20 years.
Notable Conference Talks
- Game Developers Conference 2024 Educator’s Summit: “Prototyping Afrofuturism, Abolitionism, and Climate Justice Through Games Education”
- American Educational Research Association 2024: “Critical Game Literacies For the Abolition of White Supremacy and Hetero-Patriarchy”
Research Assistant
Imani Musembi
I am a highly motivated senior at the University of Southern California, majoring in Computational Neuroscience and specializing in Applied Analytics and Web Development. I am well versed in programming languages including Python, HTML, CSS, Javascript, SQL, NoSQL, and SPSS. On campus, I’m a Graduate Research Assistant for the Rossier Center for Education, Identity and Social Justice, a Research Assistant for Radical Play, and Vice President of Operations for the USC Science Outreach program.
Outside of my academics, I also enjoy creative writing, hiking, and designing escape rooms for my peers. Currently, my top career aspirations are working as a content analyst in the entertainment industry or working as a data scientist for a biotech startup.