Sandra Danilovic

I organize game jams (game-making workshops) to study digital game design practices rooted in lived experiences with mental health and addiction. I also use this game-based research approach to engage disenfranchised and at-risk communities in building community health. 

I am currently the Principal Investigator on an SSHRC Insight Development Grant exploring autobiographical game-based storytelling as a tool to support opioid addiction recovery and destigmatize drug use. For more information, please see my article: Making Video Games Can Support Addiction Recovery in The Conversation. 

I have published my first book, Arts for Health: Games (Emerald Publishing, 2024). I have a forthcoming monograph, "Game Design Therapoetics" (University of California Health Humanities Press).    

Affiliations: 
I am affiliated with Laurier's Community Psychology graduate program, where I supervise students. I am also an Adjunct Professor in OCADU's Inclusive Design graduate program, where I can supervise students.  

• 2024 Honourable Mention for the research article, "Playful Resilience: Empowering Recovery through Autobiographical Game-Based Storytelling in the Opioid Epidemic." Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction (PACM-HCI), as first author and principal investigator. With co-authors Kenny Chee and Dr. Michelle Skop 
  
  
• 2023 Awarded Merit for Research at Wilfrid Laurier University
  
  
• 2020-25 Principal Investigator, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) Insight Development Grant for "Autobiographical Game Design for Young Adults Living with Opioid Addiction: A Phenomenology of Sense-Making" Co-investigators: Dr. Michelle Skop and Dr. Vanessa Oliver. 

• 2010 Best Documentary at the San Francisco New Media Film Festival for "Second Bodies" 

• 2009 Gordon F. Keeble Award from Toronto Metropolitan University (formerly Ryerson University) for "Second Bodies" 

I have also been awarded grants for my documentaries on the immigrant experience—Just Arrived (2004) and Portrait of a Street: The Soul and Spirit of College (2001)—from Rogers OMNI Television, The National Film Board of Canada, and Toronto Arts Council.

Graduate students under current primary supervision:

2024-25 Julia Cherniak. Community Psychology, MA thesis title: "Beyond the Filter: Exploring the Discrepancy Between Online Personae and In-Person Reality among Young Women on Instagram." 

2024-25 Shazia Mohamed. Community Psychology, MA thesis title: "Deconstructing Islamophobia: Empowering the Muslim Community." 

Previous primary supervision (successful theses):

2024 Alia Skillman. Social Justice and Community Engagement (MA), Wilfrid Laurier University. MRP title: “Exploring Gamification and Game-Based Learning as Strategies for Building an Anti-Oppressive and Inclusive Educational Model."

2023 Eamon Gaudio, Inclusive Design (MDes), OCAD University. MRP title: "Facilitating Inclusive Running Events: Policy Analysis to Reduce Barriers for Persons with Disabilities." 

• (Forthcoming monograph) Game Design Therapoetics: The Therapeutic Imagination at Play. University of California Health Humanities Press, UCSF. 
• Danilovic, S. (2024). Arts for Health: Games. Emerald Publishing.

Research articles and book chapters: 

• Danilovic, S., Chee, K., & Skop, M. (2024). Playful Resilience: Empowering Recovery through Autobiographical Game-Based Storytelling in the Opioid Epidemic. Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction (PACM-HCI), 8, Article 330 (Honorable Mention Award). 
• Danilovic, S., & de Voogt, A. (2020). Making Sense of Abstract Board Games: Toward a Cross-Ludic Theory, Games and Culture. 
• Danilovic, S. (2013). Virtual Lens of Exposure: Aesthetics, Theory, and Ethics of Documentary Filmmaking in Second Life. J. Ng, (Ed.), Understanding Machinima: Essays on Filmmaking in Virtual Worlds, 167-186. London: Bloomsbury.
• Danilovic, S. (2010). Autism and Second Life: An Introduction. Journal on Developmental Disabilities, 15(3), 125-129.

• DD111: Games as Art
• DD451: Capstone in Critical Game Design I
• DD452: Capstone in Critical Game Design II
• DD411: Capstone in Games Entrepreneurship