Faculty
GAME STUDIES & DESIGN faculty and administrative staff oversee our education programs, research grants, and other campus and community initiatives, including the PhD Fall and Spring symposiums, speaking events, and student-led initiatives.
Katryna Starks
Teaching Assistant Professor
Experienced academic with a demonstrated history of teaching game development and design. Emphasis on narrative design, puzzle design and worldbuilding. Software specialties are Twine and Construct 3. Familiarity with Ren’py, ChoiceScript and Ink. Limited familiarity with Unity and Unreal. Author of Cognitive Behavioral Game Design theory. Research emphasis on Serious Games, Representation and Diversity.
kmstarks@illinois.edu
Dan Cermak
Studio Director
Dan brings 30+ years of experience in the video game industry to teaching Video Game Design and Production classes as part of the Informatics department. In addition, he co-taught a VR/AR class in CS and has been part of the university since spring 2018. Prior to teaching, Dan spent almost 15 years with Volition, a Champaign Illinois video game studio known for creating high end console and PC video games. Dan joined Volition in 2003 as the Vice President of Production and acted as General Manager for 6 years before leaving in 2017. He is active in assisting the development of various educational experiences on campus in his role as Game Studies Coordinator and started the stu/dio as an initiative to improve application development processes on campus.
dcermak@illinois.edu
Alex Damarjian
Teaching Associate Professor and Program Director for MS in Game and Interactive Media Development
Dr. Damarjian is a distinguished game developer with a wealth of experience in art creation and coding. His career has spanned across leading companies such as Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network, Amazon, and currently Netflix. In academia, he started as a teacher in the Chicago public school system and has been teaching at the college level since 2007. A dedicated lifelong learner, Dr. Damarjian holds an MAT from Columbia College, an MFA from the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) ,MS in Animation from DePaul University and a PhD from the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT).
alex79@illinois.edu
Adjunct Faculty
Michael Clark
Instructor
mclark64@illinois.edu
Kaitlyn Bequette
Instructor
bequett2@illinois.edu
Ava Wolf
Instructor
arwolf@illinois.edu
Joseph Fischer
Instructor
josephaf@illinois.edu
Alexis Kim
Instructor
ankim2@illinois.edu
Affiliate Faculty
Judith Pintar
Teaching Professor, Director of Game Studies and Design
School of Information Sciences
jpintar@illinois.edu
David Dubin
Teaching Associate Professor
School of Information Sciences
ddubin@illinois.edu
Stacey Robinson
Associate Professor of Graphic Design + Design for Responsible Innovation + Studio
School of Art & Design
staceyr@illinois.edu
John Toenjes
Professor, Music Director, and Co-Director of Undergraduate Education
Department of Dance
jtoenjes@illinois.edu
Eric Shaffer
Teaching Associate Professor
Siebel School of Computing and Data Science
shaffer1@illinois.edu
DanIEL JOHN Steward
Assistant Teaching Professor
Department of Sociology
djs@illinois.edu
Laura Shackelford
Professor
Department of Anthropology, Biomedical and Translational Sciences
Director, Foundational Science Education
Carle Illinois College of Medicine
llshacke@illinois.edu
MiCHAEL Tissenbaum
Associate Professor
Curriculum and Instruction, Educational Psychology, Siebel School of Computing and Data Science
miketiss@illinois.edu
Cynthia D'Angelo
Assistant Professor
Educational Psychology, Curriculum and Instruction
cdangelo@illinois.edu
Christopher Ball
Assistant Professor of Journalism
College of Media
drball@illinois.edu
Eli Fieldsteel
Associate Professor of Composition-Theory, Director of Experimental Music Studios
School of Music
eli@illinois.edu
Laurie Hogin
Professor of Painting + Sculpture
School of Art & Design
hogin@illinois.edu
Kathryn Holliday
Randall J. Biallas Professor of Historic Preservation and American Architectural History Professor
Department of Landscape Architecture
keh202@illinois.edu
Patrick Hammie
Professor & Chair of Studio Arts
School of Art & Design
phammie@illinois.edu
