Faculty and staff

Jess Wind is a games and creativity scholar, writer, and a very tired human. Having taught at UFV for nearly a decade, they started in Communications, MACS, and Continuing Education before finding their home with AIS in 2023. Jess’ research informs their pedagogy. By encouraging play, creativity, and self reflection, students work toward developing their own foundation for collaboration, adaptability, and equitability in a rapidly changing globalized landscape.

Jess’ research asks questions about media, games, and fandom through queer, anti-racist and feminist perspectives. Most recently, they examined discourses of racism and resistance in D&D homebrew (fan-creator) communities for their doctoral project, titled Making it work: Cultural discourse in Dungeons & Dragons homebrew communities of practice. It is available online. Previously, Jess explored monstrous bodies and personhood in zombie media for their MA thesis. Their essay Sentient zombies trans(formed): Revisiting the zombie body ten years later is a critical reflection of this work and will appear shortly in an anthology on the future of zombie studies. As well, they co-created Flowmaton 3.0 a text-based game about menstrual education, with which they competed (and lost) in the International Educational Games Competition (2023, Netherlands). 

Jess spends their time consuming so much TV, playing games, running around the soccer pitch, and baking pastries. They enjoy watching ducks from their favourite crying bench, and in sixth grade they gave a speech about penguins. 

• PhD, Langauge and Literacy Education (University of British Columbia, 2026) 
  Thesis: Making it work: Cultural discourse in Dungeons & Dragons homebrew communities of practice

• MA, Communications (Carleton University, 2016)
  Thesis: Your Friendly Neighbourhood Zombie: Normalizing Monstrous Bodies Through Zombie Media

• BA Hons, English: Creative Writing, Sociology Minor (UFV, 2014)

My main priority is a welcoming and safe classroom environment where students can realize their authentic voice and strengths. Regardless of course content, I believe in setting learners up for success in and out of the classroom by guiding their critical thinking and equipping them with tools to thrive in their fields. I aim to give them plenty of options to arrive at answers they’re proud of. I work alongside them while they navigate the (often messy and never linear) learning process. I teach so others can learn, care about what they create, and think critically about the systems in which they traffic.

• Wind, J., Jenson, J., Perry, N., Kim, D., (2023). Culture, Sociality, and Play: Studying Brick and Mortar Game Store Employees. Canadian Game Studies Association Conference 2023.
  
  
• Wind, J., Jenson, J., Perry, N., Kim, D., (2023). Culture, Sociality, and Play: Studying Brick and Mortar Game Store Employees. CCA23.
  
  
• Wind, J., Celinski, H., Perry, N., (2023). Level Up: Gamification, Outcomes, and the Power of Play. LLED Graduate Student Conference.
  
  
• Wind, J., Perry, N., Kim, D., Tursunkulova, I., (2023). Gaming Education: Discussions of emerging games scholarship. LLED Graduate Student Conference.
  
  
• Wind, J. (2022). Participation, Resistance, Dungeons & Dragons. Presented at Games in Action, UBC, Vancouver, BC.

• McAlpine, H., Sweeney, R., & Wind, J. (Eds.). (2023). The Archie/Sabrina Universe. Jefferson, NC: McFarland.
  
  
• Wind, J. (2023). 'Putting Racism Aside': Dungeons & Dragons, Ancestry & Culture, and Race Discourse in the Homebrew Community In J. Walton (Ed.), Utopia on the Tabletop. Bristol, UK: Sad Press.
  
  
• Wind, J., Towler, C. (2018). Where there be dragons, there is treasure: Why people keep talking about Dungeons and Dragons and why you should join the party. Raspberry, 2(3), 6-17.
  
  
• Wind, J. (2017). Brooms up: Quidditch, culture, and the rise of a new sport. Raspberry, 2(2), 12-22.
  
  
• Wind, J. (2016). Watch. Louden Singletree literary magazine. UFV.