About Us
The Engagement Lab at Emerson College is an applied research and design lab that investigates and creates media and technology to reduce disparities in civic participation.
We work with partners to co-design solutions to the most pressing problems in democracy and governance, including participation gaps, gender or racial discrimination, lack of basic media literacies, youth exclusion and gaps in public health practices. From playing games, to making media, to running campaigns, we create opportunities for people to creatively participate in civic life. Whether they are used in classrooms or town squares, the tools and processes we develop make civic engagement meaningful for citizens and communities.
Our Work
Research:
We are committed to participatory research and design methods that involve partners in every stage of a project, including data collection, analysis and results. We disseminate our research findings through academic journals, books, public and scholarly presentations, reports, and public presentations.
Workshops:
We lead workshops on public engagement, civic games, data literacy, and media literacy. Through our workshops and consultations, we offer creative solutions to civic and community-based organizations looking to navigate cultural and technological transformations.
Tools:
We develop digital and analog tools for classrooms, organizations, and community groups that provide on-ramps for civic learning and engagement. The Engagement Lab’s tools contribute to a media culture that promotes creativity and problem solving in civic life.
Recent examples of our tools include:
- DataBasic, a suite of easy-to-use web tools for beginners that introduces concepts of working with data
- @Stake, a digital role-playing game that builds empathy and creativity for small group deliberation
- Emerging Citizens, a suite of media literacy party-style games for kids.
Teaching:
We host an intensive 12-month graduate program, Civic Media, Art & Practice (CMAP), that trains civic media practitioners to transform organizations through creative uses of media and technology. Students produce a creative thesis that takes them through the entire lifecycle of a civic media project, from research and design to implementation.
Art/Design Projects
We create both design and art projects that instigate dialogue and imagination about pressing civic issues. The Engagement Lab’s art and design projects prototype alternate futures and social relationships in playful, participatory ways.
History
The story of the Engagement Lab starts in 2007 with a project called Hub2. In collaboration with Nigel Jacob at the City of Boston, professor Eric Gordon sought to apply his background in media studies and urbanism to actually change how people deliberate within urban planning processes. Using virtual co-presence and enhanced archivability of conversation, Hub2 established a framework that would guide his work for years to come. From the reimagination of Boston’s Government Center to the collaborative production of a neighborhood park, there was much to uncover about the affordances and challenges of digital technologies in daily civic life.
Building on this work, in 2010, Gordon won a Digital Media and Learning grant from the MacArthur Foundation to work with the City of Boston, the Metropolitan Area Planning Commission and the Asian Community Development Corporation to develop a game that could engage residents of Boston’s Chinatown neighborhood in the master planning process. The game, which coupled digital exploration with face-to-face dialogue, brought thousands of people into a planning process in an entirely new way. To provide a platform for this research, Gordon founded the Engagement Game Lab in 2011 with initial support from the MacArthur Foundation and the Knight Foundation. The Lab's first staff director, Stephen Walter, was brought on shortly afterwards and helped to shape the overall vision of the Lab and position it for rapid growth.
While the Lab’s early focus was exclusively on games and play, Gordon’s research has shifted from asking how games can impact democracy, to how new technologies -- including but not exclusively games -- can impact participation in democratic processes. In 2014, the lab changed its name to the Engagement Lab, brought on faculty directors Paul Mihailidis and Catherine D’Ignazio and initiated a faculty fellow program to expand its research to include a wide range of technologies and approaches in fostering civic cultures. It is now supported by a talented staff of artists, designers, programmers, researchers and producers that are committed to civic innovation. The Engagement Lab has designed and implemented dozens of curricula, apps, games, program evaluations, and art interventions all over the world, from American cities such as Detroit, Boston and Philadelphia, all the way to cities in Bhutan, Egypt and Ghana.
The Engagement Lab is now an interdisciplinary laboratory focused on co-inventing civic life in a networked age. In 2016, we launched our graduate program called Civic Media, Art, and Practice (CMAP), we continue to build our fellows program, and are building a network of scholars and practitioners around Boston as part of the Boston Civic Media Consortium.
Collaborate + Work With Us
We work directly with partner communities to design and facilitate civic engagement processes, augment stakeholder deliberation, and broaden the diversity of participants in local decision-making. For more information on how to work with us, contact engagementlab@emerson.edu. Subscribe to our newsletter here: http://eepurl.com/dBEgfr.
Students and Researchers
The Engagement Lab is always looking for exemplary students. Emerson undergraduates can work on directed studies with lab faculty, or apply for lab assistantships. We are accepting applications for our 1-year MA program in Civic Media Art and Practice (CMAP).
Community Based Partnerships
The Engagement Lab is dedicated to fostering meaningful and mutual relationships with organizations or individuals committed to positive social impact. Partnership opportunities include: graduate studio courses, specific design or research projects, workshops or organizational capacity building.
Our Partners
