Tencent - Centre for Culture and Technology (CCAT) - Open Literacy Research Symposium - Monday 30 September and Tuesday 1 October 2019

Oct 3, 2026

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Open Literacy Research Symposium brings Tencent and Curtin University’s Centre for Culture and Technology together with international and local experts to report cutting-edge research on digital literacy. The program examines games and digital media as affordances for community-building, knowledge emancipation, and the tension between social responsibility and social innovation. It features keynote talks and presentations across platforms, cultures, and offline forms of play, culminating in cross-border scholarly exchange.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages20

Reading Time50 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

Symposium focus and themes

Support and editorial plans

Day One program

Keynote session: Open Literacy

Presentations in two streams

Day Two program

Morning session and invited papers

Tencent and Curtin University Centre for Culture and Technology (CCAT) Open Literacy Research Symposium Monday 30 September and Tuesday 1 October 2019 Perth, Western Australia Introduction The Open Literacy Research Symposium brings international and local experts together to report on cutting-edge research, linking games, social innovation and social responsibility. The event will consider a counter-narrative to the rhetoric of behavioural harm and social danger, looking at digital media and games as affordances for community-building and the emancipation of knowledge. The presenters examine contemporary digital literacy across many different platforms and cultures, as well as ‘offline’ forms of play and the spaces in which fans and cyborgs, cities and nations, pursue adventures of identity and hazards of chance. Inevitably, views will differ on the extent to which playing games, formal and informal, online and off, can be thought of as a form of literacy. Even if it does enhance popular interpretive skills and agility, the question of balance between‘social responsibility’ (accepting regulation) and ‘social innovation’ (transgressing limits) is often unresolved in practice. This symposium compares the experience of ‘open literacy’ in different countries, and contrasting trends of scholarship across the continents, in the expectation that crossdisciplinary and cross-border communication will offer new insights to both sides. The event is generously supported by Tencent Research (China), and hosted by the Centre for Culture and Technology (CCAT, Curtin) . In addition to supporting the event itself, Tencent has provided bursaries and scholarships to assist PhD candidates, early-career and CCAT researchers to attend the symposium, and to present and publish their projects. The symposium convener is John Curtin Distinguished Professor John Hartley, AM. He will edit areport for Tencent (to be published in China) as well as a special issue of the Open Access Cultural Science Journal ([https://culturalscience.org/](https://culturalscience.org/)), where a selection of papers from the symposium, from both international scholars and Curtin PhDs, will be published on the theme of ‘Open Literacy’. We invite scholars, researchers, gamers, players and members of the community to join us over two exciting days of presentations, discussion and mutual exchange. | Tencent – Centre for Culture and Technology (CCAT) Open Literacy Research Symposium
Day One-30 September 2019
Esplanade Hotel, Corner Marine Terrace and Essex Street, Fremantle | | | | | | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | | 8.30-
8.45am | Registration
Tea and coffee | | Abrolhos Room | | | | 8.45- 9.00am | Welcome to Country
Sandra Harben | | Rottnest/Garden Rooms | | | | 9.00- 10.30am | Keynote session: Open Literacy
John Hartley: Open Literacy: Digital Games, Social Responsibility and Social Innovation
Henry Jenkins: ‘Art Happens not in Isolation, But in Community’: The Collective Literacies of Media Fandom
Chair: Katie Ellis | | Rottnest/Garden Rooms | | | | 10.30-
11.00am | Morning tea | | Abrolhos Room | | | | 11.00-
12.20pm | Katie Ellis: Who gets to Play? Dis/ability, Innovation, Gaming Samantha Owen: Navigating the Civic and Weaving the Civil:
Community Literacies and Playing Across Spaces
Tama Leaver: Closed Literacies and the Gamification of Infancy Crystal Abidin: Knowledges on Douyin vs TikTok: Platforms, Populism, and Performance
Chair: Lucy Montgomery | | Rottnest/Garden Rooms | | | | 12.20- 1.00pm | Lunch | | Abrolhos Room | | | 1.00- 2.00pm Keynote session: Open Literacy and Games in China
Henry Li: Introduction
Bu Wei: Policy Design: From Paternalism to Empowerment – Children’s Rights, Culture on Games, and Social Responsibility in China
Chair: Henry Li Rottnest/Garden Rooms 2.00- 3.30pm Presentations – Break into two rooms Stream one – Rottnest Room Eleanor Sandry,

FAQs

What themes does the symposium focus on?

The symposium links digital literacy with games and digital media, emphasizing community-building and knowledge emancipation while examining tensions between social responsibility and social innovation.

How is the symposium structured across the two days?

It includes a welcome and keynote sessions, followed by presentations split into two rooms/streams on Day One and a dedicated morning program on Day Two.

Who organizes the symposium and what are the next publication plans?

The symposium is hosted by Curtin’s CCAT and supported by Tencent Research; the convenor John Hartley edits a report for Tencent and a special issue in the Open Access Cultural Science Journal featuring selected symposium papers.

Oct 3, 2026

Upload by Levi