Speculative Play and Just Futurities | Nico Valdivia Hennig and Dr. Isabel Pérez-Ramos

Nico Valdivia Hennig and Dr. Isabel Pérez-Ramos will lead conversations featuring their SPJF projects: “Beyond the Gap, A Migrant’s Journey” and “Dismantling the Wasteocene through Solidarity.”

Nico Valdivia Hennig (he/they) is an award-winning Chilean game designer, ludic activist, and cultural studies researcher with over a decade of experience in game design. Currently, they are a PhD student in Hispanic Studies at the University of California, Riverside, with a designated emphasis in Speculative Fiction and Cultures of Science. Their research focuses on ludic activism, game design, and game production in the Global South, particularly in Latin America.

Nico co-founded Niebla Games, which has launched both board and video games for PC and mobile platforms. In 2022, their studio was selected for Google’s Indie Games Accelerator program. Notable accolades include “Best Game Design” at EVA Córdoba 2019 in Argentina, “Best Chilean Studio of 2021,” and recent nominations for the Explorer Award at the AMaze/Berlin Festival of Experimental Game Art 2024, as well as for Best Social Matters Game & Best Diversity Game at the BIG Festival/Gamescom Latam 2024 in São Paulo, Brazil. Additionally, Nico has extensive experience lecturing on game design and narrative within game development programs in Chile. They are also a co-founder of Río Junto, a Latin American cultural exchange hub, and a founding member of Ludocrítica, the Chilean Critical Games Studies Network.

“Beyond the Gap: A Migrant’s Journey” is a project that aims to explore the complex migration crises in the Americas, particularly through the perilous Darien Gap. The game will explore the diverse reasons driving migration, the harsh realities faced along one of the world’s most dangerous routes, and the impact of socio-political factors on migrants. This project delves into various aspects and temporalities of migration, including a speculative look at a post-dystopian future, utilizing open-source tools to craft an interactive experience that encourages reflection on broader migratory narratives and the potential for more equitable futures.

Isabel Pérez-Ramos (she/her/hers) is a Ramón y Cajal Research Fellow at the University of Oviedo (grant RYC2021-031353-I funded by MCIN/AEI /10.13039/501100011033 and by “European Union Next Generation EU/PRTR”). She is a member of the multidisciplinary research groups Intersections (University of Oviedo), and GIECO (Instituto Franklin, UAH).

Isabel’s research focuses on narrative representations of environmental injustices, mostly in Chicanx and US Southwestern literature, as well as in cli-fi and speculative fiction.

She is co-editor of Toward an Eco-Social Transition: Transatlantic Environmental Humanities (UAH, 2021). Her research has been published in journals such as International Journal of English Studies IJES, MELUS: Multi-Ethnic Literature of the United States, Revista Canaria de Estudios Ingleses, Ecozon@: European Journal of Literature, Culture and Environment and Environmental Humanities, as well as in numerous book chapters.

She is Book Review Editor of Ecozon@ and a member of the Advisory Board of the European Association for the Study of Literature, Culture and Environment.

“Dismantling the Wasteocene through Solidarity” centers on the ways in which decolonial solidarities are mobilized through narrative strategies in speculative fiction by Chicanx authors to challenge socioenvironmental injustices.