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Title: The StrataPlay Methodology

The StrataPlay Methodology

A Lorekeeper’s Game Design in Postqualitative Inquiry

by Mila Zhu (Author)
©2026 Textbook X, 134 Pages
Education
Series: Ludic Scholarship, Volume 2

Summary

This book presents StrataPlay, an innovative post-qualitative methodology that blends academic inquiry with playful, narrative-driven gameplay. Grounded in posthumanism, post-qualitative research, and psychoanalytic theories, the book guides readers through a series of game-like challenges designed to explore fluid, fragmented identities, the intersections of power and autonomy, and the absurdities of modern academia. Each chapter invites readers to step into immersive worlds where they confront complex philosophical questions through narrative and metaphor. By offering an interactive approach to knowledge creation, this book pushes boundaries and encourages a dynamic and ever-evolving relationship between theory, identity, and storytelling.

Table Of Contents

  • Cover
  • Title Page
  • Copyright Page
  • Table of Contents
  • List of Figures
  • Acknowledgments
  • Game Start: The NPC, the Frog, and the Infinite Void
  • Game Start: Ludus, StrataPlay, and the Lorekeeper
  • Postqualitative Inquiry: A Framework for StrataPlay
  • The StrataPlay Ethos: Embodying Multiplicity and Emergence
  • Reimagining Posthumanism through StrataPlay
  • Posthumanism & Fragmented Identity
  • Overview of the Five Gameplays
  • Player One: Contours of Cacophony
  • Player Two: Nourishing Legacies
  • Player Three: TnT the Word RPG
  • Player Four: The Ultimate X Collab™
  • Player Five: Überfrau Manifesto
  • Player One: Contours of Cacophony
  • Synesthesia, Loss of Hearing, and Narrative Identity
  • Theoretical Framework
  • Conceptual Game Design: Contours of Cacophony
  • Prototypical Game Design: Contours of Cacophony
  • Player Two: Nourishing Legacies
  • Trauma, Motherhood, and Stuffed Grape Leaves
  • Index Cards for Player Two: Nourishing Legacies
  • Prototypical Game Design: Nourishing Legacies
  • 12-Course Menu: Nourishing Legacies
  • Player Three: TnT the Word RPG
  • Neal Libertas and the Post-Edu Apocalypse
  • Magical-Post-Realism: A New Lens in the Post-Presence Epoch
  • Challenge One: The Post-Edu Apocalyptic Faculty Meeting
  • Challenge Two: Neal Libertas: An Autobiography
  • Neal Libertas: An Autobiography
  • Neal Libertas: An Autobiography
  • Neal Libertas: An Autobiography
  • Neal Libertas: An Autobiography
  • Challenge from the Lorekeeper
  • Challenge Three: Critical Romance Theory (CRT)
  • Lorekeeper’s Premise
  • Defending CRT: Stirring the Pot Edition
  • Challenge Four: The Dung Beetle Dilemma: Academia at Ground Level
  • Lorekeeper’s Premise
  • Instructions
  • Lorekeeper’s Open Ending
  • Player Four: The Ultimate X Collab™
  • Bromance, the Fan Page, and the Zen Vibe
  • Posthumanism and Postqualitative Centrality
  • Game Setting: The Ultimate X Collab
  • Challenge One: Folklore Mashup™:
  • Folklore Mashup™: A Saga of Sorcery and Sacrifice
  • Challenge Two: K-Pop Reigns™
  • Fan Page: Introducing New StrataPlay—The K-Pop Group No One Saw Coming
  • Challenge Three: Poetic Translation Fail™
  • Reimagining
  • Reimagining
  • Player Five: Überfrau Manifesto
  • The Wolf, the Shards, and Storytelling Stories
  • Challenge 1: The Masquerade of Validation
  • Challenge 2: A Prey in Thoughtspire: Hunter x Hunter
  • Challenge 3: Shards of You
  • The Masquerade of Validation
  • Lorekeeper’s Stream of Consciousness
  • A Prey in Thoughtspire: Hunter x Hunter
  • Route R: (Little Red)
  • Route C: Capybeara
  • Shards of You: The Theater of Fractured Selves
  • GG: Dumb Ways to Die as a Lorekeeper
  • Bibliography
  • Index

List of Figures

Figure 1.1. QR code for Lorekeeper’s Playlist (drmilaz.com/academic-otaku)

Acknowledgments

First and foremost, my deepest thanks go to Dr. Alison Jefferson and the entire team at Peter Lang for seeing the potential in this unconventional work. These chapters of our collective gameplay exist because of your unwavering belief and support.

A special nod of gratitude goes to Dr. M. Francyne Huckaby and Dr. Gabriel Huddleston at Texas Christian University, who have been guiding me through academia for an impressive 13 years. They also managed to hold me inside out at commencement, and I’ve been cursed ever since—still haven’t figured out how the hood actually works. But hey, inside out and proud, right?

To Dr. Anatoly Oleksiyenko from the Education University of Hong Kong, the legendary cellist Mr. Jian Wang from the Shanghai Conservatory of Music, Dr. Sarah Watkins from the University of Auckland, Dr. Walter Gershon from Rowan University, and Prof. Jingbo Xu from Fudan University: your support has been an anchor, and for that, I will always be grateful.

I could easily entertain you with stories of how I’m surrounded by the most extraordinary colleagues, friends, mentors, and students at Southeastern Oklahoma State University for at least three nights. To Dr. Stewart Mayers, Dr. David Whitlock, Dr. Teresa Golden, Dr. Jeremy Blackwood, Dr. Susan Ronnenberg, and Dr. Katheryn Shannon—thank you for being both my guides and cheerleaders. Special appreciation goes to the dynamic duo of the library, Andy Kramer and Jayanna Greenwood, as well as my comrades in the entire EIL department: Sally Jackson, David Wyatt, Dr. Sarah Morrison, Dr. Robert Shauger, Dr. Kathleen Boothe, Dr. Chaehyun Lee, Dr. Susan Morrison, Dr. Maribeth Nottingham, Dr. Jerry Stout, Dr. Todd Williams, Dr. Kalyn McAlester, Jennifer Arnold, Greg Masters, Kelli Norman, and our ever-helpful student assistant Danielle Paddor. And, of course, to my magical instructional assistant, Dr. Michelle Coates.

To my dear friends Zhihui Xie, Prof. Coven Maxwell, Natalie Weaver, Dr. Ying Wang, Amelia Wang, Dr. Jingjing Ma, Dr. Xiaoyan Wang, Dr. Chen Yuan, Wei Zhang, Shule Han, and Haiwen Liu—your absence is felt today, but your presence has always been essential. Special thanks to my brilliant friends and collaborators, soon-to-be Dr. David Penn, Steven Harris, Jason Stowell, and our unstoppable SEsports team—without you, the gamification of postqualitative inquiry might still be a distant dream.

And finally, with all my heart, to my parents and to the most inspiring, wonderful young man I know, my 9-year-old Claude—your light makes every day a joy.

Each of you has played a key role in this level-up, adding your own power-ups and secret moves to this quest, and for that, I thank you from the bottom of my heart.

Game Start The NPC, the Frog, and the Infinite Void

I encountered one of the NPCs this morning—my unwitting harbinger of punctuality.

“Good morning, Professor,” she chirped, her smile as broad as the dawn. The perfect antidote to the morning’s solemnity, stationed just outside the ladies’ room by the auditorium.

At that very moment, the campus clock tower sang the hour—eight strokes, clear and true.

This NPC, garbed in the humble attire of the cleaning crew, wields a power unmatched in this building. Keeper of keys, she unlocks all the essential gears and reveals the hidden levels of the realm (perhaps “sectors” or “zones” would better describe offices and classrooms in game settings?).

Details

Pages
X, 134
Publication Year
2026
ISBN (PDF)
9783034354844
ISBN (ePUB)
9783034354851
ISBN (Softcover)
9783034354837
DOI
10.3726/b22979
Language
English
Publication date
2026 (January)
Keywords
Post-Qualitative Inquiry Posthumanism Fragmented Identity Überfrau Feminist Theory Game-Based Learning Narrative Methodology Academic Absurdity Cultural Mashups StrataPlay Identity Construction Educational Methodologies Thoughtspire The StrataPlay Methodology A Lorekeeper’s Game Design in Postqualitative Inquiry Mila Zhu
Published
New York, Bern, Berlin, Bruxelles, Frankfurt am Main, Oxford, Wien, 20xx. xxx pp., num. ill.
Product Safety
Peter Lang Group AG

Biographical notes

Mila Zhu (Author)

Mila Zhu, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor of Curriculum and Instruction and Coordinator of the EDUC Program at Southeastern Oklahoma State University. Her work centers on Ludic Scholarship, integrating game-based learning, play, and narrative into educational inquiry. As the series editor of Ludic Scholarship: Games, Learning, and Innovative Pedagogy, she advances interdisciplinary approaches that merge gamifi cation, ludology, and pedagogy to reimagine how knowledge is created, performed, and experienced.

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Title: The StrataPlay Methodology