About Us

This Participatory Media Cultures Hub brings together collaborators committed to non-extractive, community-engaged approaches in digital storytelling, participatory media cultures, free and open-source software (FOSS), and immersive technologies. We work collaboratively to explore how users in the Global South reimagine and engage with low-power tech, mobile devices, internet technologies, digital platforms, and immersive media. At the core of our work is a shared dedication to non-extractive, participatory, and culturally responsive practices that center community, representation, and agency.

While the collective continues to evolve with new members, emerging demands, and changing times, it currently includes the following: Africa Media Collaborative (AMC), Community-engaged Digital Storytelling (CEDST) Lab, and the Gaming, AI, Media and Emerging Futures (G.A.M.E.) Lab.

The Africa Media Collaborative
Collaborative storytelling, oral histories, and documentation of low-resource languages in Africa, among diasporic communities, and the Global South. The collaborative focuses on documenting stories from Africa, African diasporic communities, and the Global South and exploring how they are framed in global media and represented in AI technologies. The collaborative seeks to promote nuanced, context-rich storytelling through building representative datasets that reflect the diversity, resilience, and innovation of these communities and languages. The Lab is also currently engaged in several initiatives in collecting datasets for low-resource languages from across the African continent. Some of the languages datasets include Swahili, Bukusu, Ekegusii and Ogiek. Members are embarking on documenting Igbo and Yoruba too.

Community-Engaged Digital Storytelling (CEDST)
Non-extractive and non-intrusive community-engaged media production. CEDST specializes in creating digital stories, including videos, films, multimedia projects, and oral histories, that are co-produced with communities rather than about them. The approach is non-extractive (ensuring communities retain control over their stories) and non-intrusive (minimizing disruption to daily life and respecting cultural boundaries). It trains media producers in ethical production practices, builds partnerships between universities and local groups, and focuses on amplifying community agency.

The G.A.M.E. Lab
Prototyping the future of film, games, and immersive storytelling. The G.A.M.E. Lab explores how emerging technologies, such as virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), interactive games, and mixed media, can be utilized for socially impactful interactive storytelling. It acts as a prototyping hub for the “future of media,” developing experimental projects that merge film, gaming mechanics, and immersive narratives. The lab is exploring projects on simulations, interactive documentaries, and gamified experiences that allow audiences to engage in interactive and immersive storytelling with complex issues in a participatory, experiential way.

Below are selected reports that members have collaborated on with other researchers, consultants, and commissioning organizations