Dr. Akil Fletcher ‘16, an alumnus of the Powell School Department of Anthropology, is returning to his CUNY roots. After three years at Princeton University as a member of the Society of Fellows and a Lecturer in the Department of Anthropology, Fletcher has accepted a tenure-track Assistant Professor position in Anthropology at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, CUNY, where he plans to continue his research on Black digital life and video games.
At Princeton, he developed courses including Gaming Blackness: An Anthropology of Race and Games and Digital Anthropology: Methods for Exploring Worlds, and led the first Gaming Blackness excursion to Tokyo, where students spent ten days exploring Japan’s game culture and meeting with game developers — a trip he intends to continue at CUNY. He was also awarded the Excellence in Education award by Black in Gaming for his efforts to build opportunities for diverse voices within and beyond the academy, and is currently finishing his upcoming book, Playing in Color: How Black Gamers Build Worlds.
You can read more about Dr. Fletcher’s research work here.
