The Centre d’Investigació Ecològica i Aplicacions Forestal (Creaf) has designed the video game «The Obstacle Race» to raise awareness about the obstacles that slow down the scientific career based on gender, origin, social class, or functional diversity, coinciding with the International Day of Women and Girls in Science.
The game allows players to experience the difficulties of advancing in the scientific career and experiencing one or more forms of discrimination at the same time, known as intersectionality, Creaf reported on Tuesday in a statement.
This initiative is promoted by the academic talent and equity, diversity, and inclusion manager of Creaf, Teresa Rosas, and developed in collaboration with the Communication Department of Creaf, in collaboration with the professor of image and multimedia technology at UPC Lasse Loepfe.
The game, an «endless runner» inspired by examples like «subway surfers,» allows players to embody characters with diverse identities, to experiment with gender, origin, social class, or functional diversity.
The video game challenges the traditional idea of the «leaky pipeline,» a term used to describe how women and minority groups decrease as they progress in the scientific career.
«In reality, it is not an inevitable and passive trickle, but a hostile obstacle race, with cultural and structural barriers that particularly hinder people from historically excluded groups,» explained Rosas.
Loepfe mentioned that the video game will serve as a basis for future research on how to better communicate the mechanics and audiovisual elements of «the impact of privileges and barriers on the professional progression of science.»
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