Crafting Worlds Unseen: Exploring Civic Opportunities of Games and Storytelling

Antero Garcia is an Assistant Professor in the Graduate School of Education at Stanford University. Prior to completing his Ph.D., Antero was an English teacher at a public high school in South Central Los Angeles. Through work focused on increasing equitable teaching and learning opportunities for urban youth through the use of participatory media and gameplay, Antero co-designed the Critical Design and Gaming School - a public high school currently open in South Central Los Angeles. In 2008, Antero co-developed the Black Cloud Game. A Digital Media and Learning Competition award recipient, the Black Cloud provoked students to take real time assessment of air quality in their community. Sensors developed for the Black Cloud are now installed on Google Street View cars.

Antero is currently exploring the learning and civic practices of tabletop gaming communities that play games like Dungeons & Dragons. Antero’s research has appeared in numerous journals including The Harvard Educational Review, Teachers College Record, and Reading and Writing Quarterly. He has written several book chapters and books including Good Reception: Teens, Teachers, and Mobile media in a Los Angeles High School; Doing Youth Participatory Action Research: Transforming Inquiry with Researchers, Educators, and Students (with Nicole Mirra and Ernest Morrell); and Pose, Wobble, Flow: A Culturally Proactive Approach to Literacy Instruction (with Cindy O'Donnell-Allen).

Antero received his Ph.D. in the Urban Schooling division of the Graduate School of Education and Information Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles.