Sercan Sengun
Assistant Professor of Creative Technologies - Game Design
Creative Technologies Program
Office
Center for the Visual Arts - CVA 206C
Office Hours
Tuesdays, 10 am - 4 pm
- About
- Education
- Awards & Honors
- Research
Biography
Dr. Sercan Sengun is a researcher, teacher, and game designer, exploring phenomena at the intersections of video game studies, gamer communities, cultural informatics, virtual identities, and interactive narratives. He is currently an Assistant Professor of Creative Technologies (Game Design) in Illinois State University. In the past, he conducted research as a part of MIT CSAIL (Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory), MIT ICE Lab (Imagination, Computation, and Expression Laboratory), and Hamad Bin Khalifa University's QCRI (Qatar Computing Research Institute), and taught graduate and undergraduate game design courses at Northeastern University, Bahcesehir University, and Istanbul Bilgi University.
Current Courses
490.003Directed Projects In Creative Technology
351.002Game Design I
355.001Game Studio Capstone I
355.002Game Studio Capstone I
499.002Independent Research For The Master's Thesis
444.001Problems In Studio Work: Video
Teaching Interests & Areas
Creative Technologies, Video Game Studies, Digital Identities, Cultural Informatics
Research Interests & Areas
Creative Technologies, Video Game Studies, Digital Identities, Cultural Informatics
Post-Doc
MIT CSAIL (Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory), Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Cambridge, MA
Post-Doc
QCRI (Qatar Computing Research Institute), Hamad Bin Khalifa University
Doha, Qatar
PhD Communication
Istanbul Bilgi University
Istanbul, Turkey
MA Film and TV Studies
Istanbul Bilgi University
Istanbul, Turkey
BA Visual Communication Design
Istanbul Bilgi University
Istanbul, Turkey
Dean’s Faculty Professional Development Award Program
Wonsook Kim College of Fine Arts
2021
Dean’s Faculty Professional Development Award Program
Wonsook Kim College of Fine Arts
2020
University Research Initiative Award
Illinois State University
2020
College Research Initiative Award
Illinois State University Wonsook Kim College of Fine Arts
2020
Honorable Mention Award for CHI 2020 Conference
ACM
2020
Book, Chapter
Harrell, D. Fox, Sercan Şengün, and Danielle Olson (2021, in print), Africa and the Avatar Dream: Mapping the Impacts of Videogame Representations of Africa. In: Kelly Josephs and Roopika Risam (eds.) Digital Black Atlantic, Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.
Sercan Şengün (2021), Play and Society (CTK 359/460.1). In: Richard E. Ferdig, Emily Baumgartner, & Enrico Gandolfi (eds.) Teaching the Game: A Collection of Syllabi for Game Design, Development, and Implementation, pp. 3-19, Pittsburgh, PA: Carnegie Mellon University ETC Press. doi: 10.1184/R1/14866866
Coutu, Ysabelle, Yangyuqi Chang, Wendi Zhang, Sercan Sengun, and Ray LC. (2020) “Immersiveness and usability in VR: A comparative study of Monstrum and Fruit Ninja,” Game User Experience and Player-Centered Design (ed. Barbaros Bostan), pp. 349-360, Berlin: Springer.
Coutu, Ysabelle, Yangyuqi Chang, Wendi, and Sercan Sengun. (2020) “The relationship between cohesive game design and player immersion: A case study of original versus reboot Thief,” Game User Experience and Player-Centered Design (ed. Barbaros Bostan), pp. 437-448, Berlin: Springer.
Fan, Sidan, Jin H. Kim, Sonya I. McCree, and Sercan Sengun. (2020) “Integrate: A digital game for testing conformity in decision making,” Game User Experience and Player-Centered Design (ed. Barbaros Bostan), pp. 21-42, Berlin: Springer.
Conference Proceeding
Joni Salminen, Milica Milenkovic, Sercan Şengün, Soon-gyo Jung, and Bernard Jansen (2021). “Weaponizing Words: Analyzing Fake News Accusations Against Two Online News Channels,” BESC 2021: The 8th International Conference on Behavioural and Social Computing. (29-31 October, Doha, Qatar)
Joni Salminen, Sercan Şengün, Soon-gyo Jung, and Bernard Jansen (2021). “Comparing Persona Analytics and Social Media Analytics for a User-Centric Task Using Eye-Tracking and Think-Aloud,” CHItaly 2021: Proceedings of the 2021 CHItaly Conference. July 11-13, Bozen-Bolzano, Italy.
Salminen, Joni, Liu Ying-Hsang, João Santos, Sercan Şengün, and Bernard Jansen, (2020) “The effect of numerical and textual information on visual engagement and perceptions of AI-driven persona interfaces,” IUI '20: Proceedings of the 25th International Conference on Intelligent User Interfaces (17-20 March, Cagliari, Italy), pp. 357-368. https://doi.org/10.1145/3377325.3377492
Salminen, Joni, Shammur Chowdhury, Sercan Şengün, Soon-gyo Jung, and Bernard Jansen. (2020) “Personas and Analytics: A Comparative User Study of Efficiency and Effectiveness for a User Identification Task,” CHI '20: Proceedings of the 2020 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems), pp. 1-13. (24-30 April, Honolulu, Hawaii) https://doi.org/10.1145/3313831.3376770
Salminen, Joni, Sercan Sengun, Soon-Gyo Jung, and Bernard J. Jansen. (2019) “Design issues in automatically generated persona profiles: A qualitative analysis from 38 think-aloud transcripts.” CHIIR '19: Proceedings of the 2019 Conference on Human Information Interaction and Retrieval. (10-14 March, Glasgow, Scotland, UK), pp. 225–229. https://doi.org/10.1145/3295750.3298942
Encyclopedia
Bates M., Şengün S. (2021) Itch.io, History of. In: Lee N. (eds) Encyclopedia of Computer Graphics and Games. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-08234-9_430-1
Bump A., Şengün S. (2021) Among Us and Its Popularity During COVID-19 Pandemic. In: Lee N. (eds) Encyclopedia of Computer Graphics and Games. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-08234-9_431-1
Godby S., Şengün S. (2021) Resident Evil 2, History of. In: Lee N. (eds) Encyclopedia of Computer Graphics and Games. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-08234-9_434-1
Kelly R., Şengün S. (2022) Video Games and Accessibility: A Case Study of The Last of Us II. In: Lee N. (eds) Encyclopedia of Computer Graphics and Games. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-08234-9_429-1
Lauren E. Stipp and Sercan Şengün (2021), “The Sims Franchise, a Retrospective of Racial Representation and Skin Tones,” Encyclopedia of Computer Graphics and Games (eds. Newton Lee), Living Reference Work, Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-08234-9_436-1
Journal Article
Salminen, Joni, Juan Conporan, Soon-gyo Jung, Sercan Sengun, and Bernard J. Jansen (2020), Topic-driven Toxicity: Exploring the Relationship between Online Toxicity and News Topics. PLoS ONE 15(2): e0228723. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0228723.
Şengün, Sercan, and Selcen Ozturkcan, (2020). “Re-shaped by mobile technologies’ disruption: The videogame industry in Turkey,” Studies on Marketing Insights, 4(1), pp. 44-56. https://dergipark.org.tr/en/pub/somi/issue/56246/755664
Mawhorter, Peter, Sercan Şengün, Haewoon Kwak, and D. Fox Harrell, (2019). “Identifying regional trends in avatar customization,” IEEE Transactions on Games, 11 (4), pp. 405-415. http://doi.org/10.1109/TG.2018.2835776
Salminen, Joni, Sercan Şengün, Haewoon Kwak, Jisun An, Bernard J. Jansen, Soon-Gyo Jung, D. Fox Harrell, and Sarah Vieweg, (2018). “From 2,772 segments to 5 personas: Summarizing a diverse online audience by generating culturally adapted personas,” First Monday, 23 (6). https://doi.org/10.5210/fm.v23i6.8415
Şengün, Sercan, and D. Fox Harrell (Spring 2018), Virtual Identity Systems Should Better Support Gulf Nationals. The Oxford Gulf and Arabian Peninsula Studies Forum, University of Oxford, pp. 4-8.
Magazine/Trade Publication
Şengün, Sercan (2017), Ludic Voyeurism and Passive Spectatorship in Gone Home and Other "Walking Simulators." Video Game Art Reader, 1(1), pp. 30-42.
Şengün, Sercan (2014), Sanal Hikaye Anlatıcılığı Çağında Yaşayan Bilimkurgu ve Fantastik Dünyalar Olarak Video Oyunları (Turkish, title trans.: Videogames as Living Science Fiction and Fantasy Worlds in the Age of Virtual Storytelling). Varlık, 1278, pp. 16-21.
Technical Report
Jahanian, Ali, Sercan Şengün, Peter Mawhorter, Haewoon Kwak, & D. Fox Harrell. (2018) “Grounding AI-driven cross-cultural analysis with community insights,” CHI 2018 Workshop: ArabHCI Working with Arab Communities (21-26 April, Montreal, Canada)
Şengün, Sercan, (2012) “Engagement model as the basis for video game design,” Proceedings of ECREA 2012 Pre-Conference: Experiencing Digital Games: Use, Effects & Culture of Gaming.
Presentations
Insights from Reinvent Your Course for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Summer Course. WKCFA GROWTH Change Team (GCT) Reinvent Your Course for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Professional Development Panel. Wonsook Kim College of Fine Arts. (2021)
How to Begin Learning Game Design. Teen Art Group. University Galleries. (2020)
Nuanced Archives for Video Games. NULab. Northeastern University. (2018)
Culturally-grounded analysis of everyday creativity in social media: A case study in Qatari context. ACM Creativity & Cognition 2017. ACM. (2017)
A classification proposal to understanding the potential of videogames in social and political change. New Media II. National Congress. Kadir Has University. (2016)
Creativity in Game Design. Creativity in Game Design. Startup Bootcamp Istanbul. (2016)
Virtual Identity Systems for Diversity. Design 4 Diversity: An IMLS National Forum Project. Northeastern University. (2016)
A semiotic reading of digital avatars and their role of uncertainty reduction in digital communication. Digital Communication Impact. Istanbul Ticaret University. (2015)
Disney Interactive, Blizzard Entertainment, and Riot Games in Istanbul. Oyunder /G Industry Talks. Oyunder. (2015)
Games and Narrative. GameX 2015. Oyunder. (2015)
Grants & Contracts
Faculty Development Grant. Wonsook Kim School of Art. Illinois State University. (2021)
University Research Grant. Illinois State University. Illinois State University. (2021)
Exploration of SoTL Grant. ISU Office of the Cross Chair in The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning. Illinois State University. (2020)
Faculty Development Grant. Creative Technologies Program. Illinois State University. (2020)
Faculty Development Grant. Wonsook Kim School of Art. Illinois State University. (2020)