Alexandra T.
@alexandrato.bsky.social
Assistant Prof @Northeastern | CMU HCII, Stanford SymSys alum | Racial Justice, Transformational Game Design, Identity, Critical Design, and Human-Computer Interaction | she/her | mixed | 🩷💜💙
I assume you know but Ursula Le Guin has a great piece on tech that I break out for the lecture I give on critical computing. “As if paper, ink, wheels, knives, clocks, chairs, aspirin pills, were natural objects, born with us like our teeth and fingers.”
www.ursulakleguin.com/a-rant-about...
www.ursulakleguin.com/a-rant-about...
Ursula K. Le Guin — Ursula on Writing: A Rant about "Techonolgy"
Ursula K. Le Guin on the presence of technology in her work
www.ursulakleguin.com
October 14, 2025 at 6:57 PM
I assume you know but Ursula Le Guin has a great piece on tech that I break out for the lecture I give on critical computing. “As if paper, ink, wheels, knives, clocks, chairs, aspirin pills, were natural objects, born with us like our teeth and fingers.”
www.ursulakleguin.com/a-rant-about...
www.ursulakleguin.com/a-rant-about...
We’re overdue for a catch up! But as a preview the number of completely dropped balls for very cool decolonial, anti-racist, and/or queer liberation alley-oops I’ve seen BIPOC GMs set up that yt players face plant at, followed up with the chaser of fans loudly celebrating makes me 😵💫😵💫😵💫
October 4, 2025 at 5:36 AM
We’re overdue for a catch up! But as a preview the number of completely dropped balls for very cool decolonial, anti-racist, and/or queer liberation alley-oops I’ve seen BIPOC GMs set up that yt players face plant at, followed up with the chaser of fans loudly celebrating makes me 😵💫😵💫😵💫
Would love to see your take on this! AP is strictly hobby and not work for me because I have to draw a line somewhere around games-for-fun but I think about this (and subject my spouse to hot take rants about it) a LOT.
October 3, 2025 at 6:05 PM
Would love to see your take on this! AP is strictly hobby and not work for me because I have to draw a line somewhere around games-for-fun but I think about this (and subject my spouse to hot take rants about it) a LOT.
Plus many more! My biggest project focuses on developing game design methods for engaging race. We’re 1 year into this 5-year NSF-funded project which supports students and pays game devs for their expertise collaborating with us on the future of games.
Press: news.northeastern.edu/2024/05/31/n...
Press: news.northeastern.edu/2024/05/31/n...
Northeastern computer scientist receives prestigious early-career award for game design research
Alexandra To has received an NSF CAREER Award for research that bridges game design with critical race theory.
news.northeastern.edu
August 22, 2025 at 11:07 PM
Plus many more! My biggest project focuses on developing game design methods for engaging race. We’re 1 year into this 5-year NSF-funded project which supports students and pays game devs for their expertise collaborating with us on the future of games.
Press: news.northeastern.edu/2024/05/31/n...
Press: news.northeastern.edu/2024/05/31/n...
Research looking at how existing games can facilitate serious transformation in players.
Paper on Papers, Please and critical consciousness led by @bethanymiatta.bsky.social and Alesandra Baca Vázquez with Angela D. R. Smith: dl.acm.org/doi/full/10....
Paper on Papers, Please and critical consciousness led by @bethanymiatta.bsky.social and Alesandra Baca Vázquez with Angela D. R. Smith: dl.acm.org/doi/full/10....
“I want to let them in”: Exploring Critical Consciousness Development through Roleplay and Reflection in “Papers, Please” | Proceedings of the 20th International Conference on the Foundations of Digit...
dl.acm.org
August 22, 2025 at 11:00 PM
Research looking at how existing games can facilitate serious transformation in players.
Paper on Papers, Please and critical consciousness led by @bethanymiatta.bsky.social and Alesandra Baca Vázquez with Angela D. R. Smith: dl.acm.org/doi/full/10....
Paper on Papers, Please and critical consciousness led by @bethanymiatta.bsky.social and Alesandra Baca Vázquez with Angela D. R. Smith: dl.acm.org/doi/full/10....
Experiences and algorithmic folk theories of Black femme content creators including differential content moderation as well as strategies for resistance and centering joy led by @giannawilliams.bsky.social with @michaelann.bsky.social and Natalie Chen.
Awarded Paper: dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/...
Awarded Paper: dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/...
Why Can't Black Women Just Be?: Black Femme Content Creators Navigating Algorithmic Monoliths | Proceedings of the 2025 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
dl.acm.org
August 22, 2025 at 10:56 PM
Experiences and algorithmic folk theories of Black femme content creators including differential content moderation as well as strategies for resistance and centering joy led by @giannawilliams.bsky.social with @michaelann.bsky.social and Natalie Chen.
Awarded Paper: dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/...
Awarded Paper: dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/...
Exploring queer TTRPGs led by @jailynz.bsky.social
Press: news.northeastern.edu/2024/08/30/q...
Paper on queer TTRPG themes: dl.acm.org/doi/abs/10.1...
Paper on queer TTRPG players: dl.digra.org/index.php/dl...
Press: news.northeastern.edu/2024/08/30/q...
Paper on queer TTRPG themes: dl.acm.org/doi/abs/10.1...
Paper on queer TTRPG players: dl.digra.org/index.php/dl...
Queer tabletop roleplaying games provide valuable lessons that even ‘Dungeons & Dragons’ can learn from, new research finds
Researchers looked at how game makers are designing queerness into their TTRPGs, making their games more inclusive for players.
news.northeastern.edu
August 22, 2025 at 10:49 PM
Exploring queer TTRPGs led by @jailynz.bsky.social
Press: news.northeastern.edu/2024/08/30/q...
Paper on queer TTRPG themes: dl.acm.org/doi/abs/10.1...
Paper on queer TTRPG players: dl.digra.org/index.php/dl...
Press: news.northeastern.edu/2024/08/30/q...
Paper on queer TTRPG themes: dl.acm.org/doi/abs/10.1...
Paper on queer TTRPG players: dl.digra.org/index.php/dl...