Constance Steinkuehler is a Professor of Informatics at the University of California, Irvine where she investigates cognition and learning in multiplayer videogames in domains including literacy, scientific reasoning, mathematical reasoning, computational literacy, collective problem solving, sociability, attention, and emotional self-regulation. Her current interests also include cultural myths about videogames, women in the industry, and the role of eSports on college campuses (like UCI).
She is President of the Higher Education Video Games Alliance (HEVGA), an academic organization of game design and game studies programs in higher education. She formerly served as Senior Policy Analyst under the Obama administration in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, advising on games and digital media.
Her work has been funded by the MacArthur Foundation, the National Academy of Education/Spencer Foundation, the Gates Foundation, and the National Science Foundation. She has published over ninety articles and book chapters including three special journal issues and two books. She has worked closely with the National Academy of Sciences and National Academy of Education on special reports relate to videogames, and her work has been featured in Science, Wired, USA Today, New York Times, ABC, CBS, CNN NPR, BBC and The Chronicle of Higher Education.
Constance has a PhD in Literacy Studies, an MS in Educational Psychology, and three Bachelor Degrees in Mathematics, English, and Religious Studies. Her dissertation was a cognitive ethnography of the MMOs Lineage I and II where she served as siege princess for the LegendsOfAden guild. Her husband Kurt Squire is an educational game designer and scholar. They live with their two little gamers in Southern California.