S. Hayley/Harlin Steele

Harlin Steele (they/she/ze/he) is a PhD candidate in Cultural Studies at UC Davis currently on Planned Leave of Absence while serving as a Lecturer in the Department of English at Western Washington University. They direct projects at UC Davis' ModLab Digital Humanities Laboratory and hold an Advanced Research Affiliate position with USC's Humanities and Critical Code Studies Lab. Their work bridges climate science, game design, and social justice through interdisciplinary collaboration.

Education:

• MFA in Creative Writing, Portland State University
• BA in English & Interdisciplinary Studies, Fairhaven College, Western Washington University
• AAS, Bellevue Community College

Steele's research pioneers Climate Data Relations and Gender Playability, using games as critical pedagogical tools to address structural oppression in environmental systems. Their work integrates Earth Systems Modeling with analog game design to explore consent, decolonization, and cooperative economics, often manifesting through larp, netprov, and transmedia art. Recent projects examine racialized impacts on CO2 emissions and gender diversity in climate leadership.

Publications reveal a trajectory toward decolonizing climate data through playable systems, with emphasis on community-centered knowledge production. Their 2023-2022 work connects gender theory with game mechanics, while earlier publications established frameworks for interpreting larp rules as executable social code.

Scientific Awards:

• HASTAC Scholars Fellow (2018-20, 2021-23)
• Mellon Public Scholar (2020)
• UC Davis Provost’s Fellowship (2018-19)
• Golden Key & Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society inductions
• Cultural Studies Association Travel Award (2019)

Steele teaches courses on games as literature, consent, and futurity at Western Washington University while facilitating climate data research teams at UC Davis. Their grant-funded work includes NASA internships and IPCC-co-sponsored climate forums, with fellowships supporting community-engaged scholarship through HASTAC and the Humanities Institute.

They co-direct the Flight Manifesto social artwork with Palestinian collaborators, serve as economist for the California Economists Collective, and organize through the Critical Code Studies Working Group. Past community roles include Development Director for Oakland's Land Action mutual aid network and core organizer for the 1,500-member Villagecraft learning collective.