Indiana University of Pennsylvania (1999-Present) 

• Professor

• Email: Msell@iup.edu

• Website: This Professor Plays

• Founder and co-director, The Digital Storytelling Project

• Accolades: 

  •  Inaugural Alliance for Decision Education Research Collaborative (2023-24)

  • National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Institute, Digital Technologies in Theatre and Performance Studies (2018)

Education: 

• University of Michigan (1997)

  • Ph.D. in English Language and Literature 

    • Dissertation: "Performing Crisis: Countercultural Theatre in the 1960s"

• University of Michigan (1992) 

  • MA in Language and Literature

• Duke University 

  • AB in English: Creative-Critical Composition

Recent Publications: 

• Ready Reader One: The Stories We Tell With, About, and Around Videogames (Louisiana State University Press, 2024).

• Systemic Dramaturgy: A Handbook for the Digital Age (Southern Illinois University Press, 2022).

• “The Dramaturgy of Tabletop Roleplaying Games,” in Experiential Theatres: Praxis-Based Approaches to Training 21st-Century Theatre Artists, ed. Sean Bartley and William W. Lewis (Routledge, 2023)

Research and Teaching Interests: 

• Narratives about play and games; playful texts such as videogames, tabletop roleplaying games, and boardgames; literary theories of play and games; Black American literature and culture; critical theory; interdisciplinary theatre, performance, and dramaturgical studies; the history and future of English Studies

Recent Conferences: 

• 2022 — Guest lecture: “The Legal Design Mindset and the Power of Playful Storytelling.” Civil Litigation Clinic, Professor Abdul Rehman Khan, Seton Hall Law School, November 19.

• 2022 — Keynote: "Videogames: The Broad Spectrum Approach." International Webinar: Live Performance and Video Games: Appropriations, Inspirations, and Mutual Transfers. Université de Lorraine and Université de Lausanne, October 5.

• 2022 — "The Digital Storygame Project: Designing Decisions." Center for Faculty Development and Digital Humanities Learning Community. Seton Hall University, March 17