Diversity Speaker Series, September Edition: Syed Salahuddin

The Diversity Speaker Series launched Syed Salahuddin is an Adjunct Professor at NYU’s Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences, NYU Poly, and an Instructor at Institute of Play. He also co-founded the independent video game arcade Babycastles.

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Syed Salahuddin (bottom) with Babycastles co-founder Kunal Gupta

From Salahuddin:

“Babycastles is an ongoing effort to increase New York City’s engagement with independent video game development. It has reinvented the arcade as a public gallery for independent game art and an overall social space for game culture. Most recently Babycastles has made its mission to expand beyond New York City and build upon its all-ages all inclusive nature. Babycastles’ politics stem from the people it is comprised of: artists, developers, musicians of various genders, identities and ethnicities who are passionate about making independent games accessible to everyone.”

Endgadget covered one of Babycastle’s first big events: http://www.engadget.com/2011/06/03/babycastles-brings-its-indie-arcade-action-to-the-engadget-show/

And the Media Lab’s own Nathan Mattias wrote an extensive liveblog post of Salahuddin’s Media Lab session, in which Salahuddin spoke for the first time on the challenges of “gaming while brown:” http://civic.mit.edu/blog/natematias/the-politics-behind-babycastles