Jessica FitzPatrick

Jessica's Affiliations: August Wilson House, CEC Hill District, Center for African Studies, Center for Latin American Studies, Digital Media Lab, First Year Programs, Gender, Sexuality & Women's Studies, Homewood CEC, Homewood Children's Village, Office of Admissions and Financial Aid, Open Lab, Provost Academy Courses, Remake Learning, SCI, STEM Coding Lab, Vibrant Media Lab, Digital Narrative and Interactive Design

Jessica FitzPatrick conducts research at the confluence of postcolonial theory, speculative fiction studies, spatial studies, and new media creation. Her pedagogy is rooted in the practice of codesign with community and campus partners.

Her most recent joy is the launch of the DISCO (Design an Inclusive Spaceship Collaborative Operation) open educational resource toolkit, which she co-directed and served as speculative worldbuilding and pedagogy lead. The DISCO toolkit challenges users to design a spaceship custom fit to their alien, human, and animal crew’s blend of needs; in doing so workshop participants explore Universal Design and Inclusive Design as methodologies, thinking about where each methodology can be useful in the everyday practice of design. This creative and (responsibly) playful introduction to accessible and inclusive design counters the narratives that accessibility makes designs inherently “boring.”

As the Director of the Digital Narrative and Interactive Design (DNID) program, FitzPatrick works with DNID students, faculty, and advisors across the School of Computing and Information and the English Department in the Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences. She regularly mentors DNID students as they design and implement projects that unite narrative with code and worldbuilding with interactive interface.

She regularly helps organize the Games 4 Social Impact Jam at Pitt and alongside Dr. Christopher Maverick organized the inaugural Pitt Design Jam, which focuses on UX / UI fields and the process of design. FitzPatrick also serves as a core faculty member on the community anchored STEM Through Games project.   

FitzPatrick also directs the English Department’s Digital Media Lab (DML), which supports educational programming and creative pedagogy about digital media. Through the DML, she organizes workshops, connects Pitt campus and Pittsburgh communities of learners with digital media equipment, and runs an annual Digital Media & Design Showcase featuring undergraduate and graduate digital and critical making projects.

Courses Taught

She regularly teaches courses like Digital Narrative and Interactive Design, DNID Capstone in English, Professional Development (DNID), Narrative and Technology, Secret Pittsburgh, and Science Fiction