General Summary: Wendi Sierra, an associate professor of game studies at TCU and a game designer, discusses her Oneida heritage while sharing insights about the production of her game “A Strong Fire,” designed to convey an Oneida worldview. Undergraduates Zeshan and Alex explore Sierra’s passion for pedagogy and game design, examining the thoughtful design choices of the game and its impact on the Oneida community.

Detailed Summary: Sierra introduces herself and her academic background (01.47-04.35); Sierra discusses how she got interested in the combination of pedagogy and game design (04.37-07.45); Sierra’s interest in making an Oneida game (07.46-11.03); design choices for “A Strong Fire” (11.04-14.57); the role of technology in preserving Oneida culture (15.12-18.17); the distinction between “doing Indian” and “being Indian” (18.19-24.04); interest in digital rhetoric from Oneida youth (24.06-26.23); Sierra’s recent accomplishments (26.26-29.07).

Scholarly Article Informing this Production: Sierra, Wendi (2022) Designing with and for Ka’nikuhli:yo: An exploration in Indigenously Determined Game Design. _Computers and Composition Online_. Available at http://cconlinejournal.org/fall2022/DesigningGoodMind/index.html

Credits: This podcast was produced by Cassidy Swinson, Ava Hammon, Zeshan Rashid, Alex Sanchez, and with resources and assistance from the Digital Writing and Research Lab. It features the voices of Wendi Sierra, Zeshan Rashid, Alex Sanchez, Ava Hammon, and Cassidy Swinson. The music featured in this podcast, titled “commonGround” was composed by airtone and has been repurposed here under Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial license 3.0. Furthermore, the use of conversation.wav and music from “A Strong Fire” have been adapted and incorporated under the Creative Commons 1.0 license.