Judith Pintar

Judith Pintar is a Teaching Professor at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign's School of Information Sciences, where she directs the Game Studies and Design Program. Her research bridges game studies, gameful pedagogies, and narrative design through the E-Literatures & Literacies Lab (EL3). She teaches courses like Intro to Information Sciences and Independent Study at both undergraduate and graduate levels.

• Research Focus: Game studies, digital pedagogies, misinformation, Southeastern European narratives, and XR technologies
• Leadership: Director of Game Studies and Design Program
• Collaborations: Co-organizer of Playful by Design symposiums
• Publications: Author/editor of 8+ works on topics from hypnosis to AI-driven education

Her work explores how interactive media can enhance digital literacies and cultural empathy, particularly through projects like the Interactive Fiction courses using Inform 7 and the collaborative Quad Game. She actively bridges humanities with STEM via playful design frameworks.