Executive editor William J. White (Ph.D., Rutgers University) is Associate Professor of Communication Arts & Sciences at Penn State Altoona in Altoona, Pennsylvania (USA). His research interests include the application of rhetorical analytic methods to gaming-related discourse. He is the author of Tabletop RPG Design in Theory and Practice at the Forge, 2001-2012: Designs & Discussions (Palgrave Macmillan 2020) and executive editor of the International Journal of Role-Playing. His TRPG design credits include the Fate Space Toolkit (Evil Hat 2019).
Coordinating editor Sarah Lynne Bowman (Ph.D., University of Texas at Dallas) is a scholar, game designer, and event organizer. She received her Bachelors and Masters degrees from the University of Texas at Austin in Radio-TV-Film. She obtained her Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Dallas in Arts and Humanities. Bowman teaches in the Humanities, English, and Communication. Currently, she is a Senior Lecturer for the Department of Game Design at Uppsala University Campus Gotland. She also teaches in the Humanities department, as well as in Peace & Conflict Studies and Global Studies for the Interdisciplinary Studies department, at Austin Community College. Bowman publishes regularly in scholarly and popular media about the transformative power of role-playing. McFarland Press published her dissertation in 2010 as The Functions of Role-playing Games: How Participants Create Community, Solve Problems, and Explore Identity. Along with her work at the International Journal of Role-Playing, she served as an editor for The Wyrd Con Companion Book from 2012-2015 and is a managing editor for the magazine Nordiclarp.org.
Coordinating editor Evan Torner (Ph.D., University of Massachusetts Amherst) is Associate Professor of German Studies at the University of Cincinnati, where he directs the Undergraduate Program in German as well as the UC Game Lab. His work examines the processes and ideologies of cultural production, with a primary focus on the popular media of German-speaking countries as well as niche media of small-press tabletop role-playing games (RPG) and international live-action role-play (larp) communities. Along with his service to the International Journal of Role-Playing, as a games scholar, Torner co-edited Immersive Gameplay (McFarland 2012) with William J. White. He also co-founded and serves as an editor for the journal Analog Game Studies. As a game designer, he has had stand-alone and anthology work published in at least six different languages and written many RPG scenarios for Danish convention Fastaval, including the award-winning Save Some Light For Me (2019). As a community organizer, he co-founded the Golden Cobra Challenge, co-organized the 2017 US run of the queer Norwegian larp Just A Little Lovin’, and co-organizes Games on Demand.
Production editor Marinka Copier (Ph.D.) is heading the School for Games and Interaction at the HKU University of the Arts Utrecht and is professor in Play Design & Development. She is a game researcher, educator, and player, focusing on how games and play are part of our everyday lives. In 2007 she defended her dissertation on role-play in the online game World of Warcraft. Currently, she is working on transmedial play design for entertainment and serious application.
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Former Board Members
Former Executive editor J. Tuomas Harviainen (M.Th., PhD) works as a chief information specialist at the Vantaa City Library. Harviainen wrote his doctoral dissertation on physically performed forms of role-playing as information systems. His current research concentrates on management and domination in liminal spaces, including both games and rituals. Harviainen believes it is necessary to approach role-playing as a phenomenon well beyond the scope of just role-playing games. Harviainen currently co-edits the journal Simulation & Gaming.
Anders Drachen is a postdoctoral research fellow at the Center for Computer Games Research, IT University of Copenhagen, and games journalist. His work centers on user experience measurement, empirical game research and gameplay metrics analysis. He also works with communication, storytelling in and design of multi- and massively multiplayer games, especially of the role-playing variant. His research reaches however broadly to encompass most aspects of communication, immersion, narratives, and interactive entertainment, within the overall framework of computer- and role-playing games. He also works with games design,focusing on the process of world generation and development (e.g., ecological systems) in MMORPGs.
Markus Montola (PhD) is currently a game designer at the location-based game studio Grey Area. Prior to pursuing a career in game design, he worked as a game researcher at Nokia Research Center and at University of Tampere, Finland. He is an editor of Nordic Larp (2010), Playground Worlds (2008) and Beyond Role and Play, as well as an author of Pervasive Games: Theory and Design (2009). His main research interests include the various forms of role-playing and pervasive gaming.
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Kudos to Lies van Roessel (formatting issue 1), Jephta Peijs (formatting issue 2 and 3) and Sjoerd Mulder (formatting issue 4), HKU University of the Arts Utrecht.