GDC Festival of Gaming is part of the Informa Festivals Division of Informa PLC

This site is operated by a business or businesses owned by Informa PLC and all copyright resides with them. Informa PLC's registered office is 5 Howick Place, London SW1P 1WG. Registered in England and Wales. Number 8860726.

March 9-13, 2026
Moscone CenterSan Francisco, CA

Speakers

Katherine IsbisterProfessorUniversity of California Santa Cruz

Katherine Isbister is Professor of Computational Media at UC Santa Cruz, where she teaches in both the undergraduate and graduate game design programs. She is an Advisor for the GDC Educators' Summit. Before arriving at UCSC, Isbister helped found game programs at NYU and RPI, and also taught in the IT University Copenhagen games program. Isbister is the author of several books including How Games Move Us: Emotion by Design and Playful Wearables, both from MIT Press, and co-editor of the recently released 2nd edition of Game Usability, a collection of chapters by experts in the game industry as well as game researchers. A Founding Fellow of the Higher Education Video Game Alliance, Isbister has produced over 150 peer-reviewed publications, and shown games at IndieCade and other play-focused venues. She is a recipient of MIT Technology Review's Young Innovator Award, and is an ACM Distinguished Scientist.

Presenting: