The Worldbuilding Workshop

Stephen Slota is a learning scientist, game developer, instructional designer, worldbuilder, writer, and illustrator. They hold a Ph.D. in Educational Psychology from the University of Connecticut, as well as degrees in Molecular and Cell Biology and Curriculum and Instruction. Slota previously taught biology, genetics, and human health at the high-school level and has worked on educational design projects for organizations including CVS Health, Arizona State University, the University of Connecticut, UConn Health, Intel, and Pfizer.

Slota is co-author, with Trent Hergenrader, of The Worldbuilding Workshop: Teaching Critical Thinking and Empathy Through World Modeling, Simulation, and Play, published by MIT Press. They also co-own and manage the educational game studio The Pericles Group and have co-authored more than 20 academic articles, including research on serious games and game-based learning.

Bryan Alexander is a futurist, researcher, writer, speaker, consultant, and teacher specializing in the future of higher education. He is a senior scholar at Georgetown University, where he teaches in the Learning, Design, and Technology program. He earned a PhD in English from the University of Michigan in 1997 and previously taught literature, writing, multimedia, and information technology studies at Centenary College of Louisiana. From 2002 to 2014, he held several roles with the National Institute for Technology in Liberal Education.

Alexander is the author of Academia Next: The Futures of Higher Education, Universities on Fire: Higher Education in the Age of Climate Crisis, The New Digital Storytelling: Creating Narratives with New Media, and Gearing Up for Learning Beyond K–12. He also wrote the foreword to The Worldbuilding Workshop: Teaching Critical Thinking and Empathy Through World Modeling, Simulation, and Play.