Patrick Coppock ha ricevuto un BSc (Hons) Laurea in Psicologia della Queen´s University Belfast, Irlanda del Nord nel 1973. Nello stesso anno è emigrato in Norvegia, dove ha lavorato dal 1975-1982 come assistente sociale, insegnante di lingua dei segni ed interprete a Trondheim Scuola Statale per i sordi. Dal 1983-1992 ha lavorato freelance come insegnante della lingua dei segni, interprete e ricercatore in collaborazione con, tra altri, Norwegian Association of the Deaf, Norwegian Center for Sign Language Research, Norwegian College of Special Education, e Norwegian Telecom Research Center.
Patrick Coppock was awarded a BSc (Hons) Degree in Psychology at Queen’s University Belfast, Northern Ireland in 1973. That same year he emigrated to Norway, where he worked from 1975-1982 as student counsellor, sign language teacher and interpreter at Trondheim State School for the Deaf. From 1983-1992 he worked as freelance sign language teacher, interpreter and researcher, in cooperation with, amongst others, the Norwegian Association of the Deaf, Norwegian Center for Sign Language Research, Norwegian College of Special Education, and Norwegian Telecom Research Center.
In 1993 he was awarded an advanced MA (Magister Artium) in Applied Linguistics at the Department of Applied Linguistics at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), where he was Research Assistant at the Humanities Multimedia Lab, organising seminars and workshops on hypermedia in the humanities. In 1992, he was member of the Organizing Committee for the first Norwegian interdisciplinary conference on Virtual Reality, at NTNU.
In 1994 he received a four year PhD research grant for a project on changing norms in scientific publication with the advent of networked hypermedia. From 1996-1998 he was visiting researcher at the Department of Communication Disciplines at the University of Bologna.
From 1998-2000 he led undergraduate courses in mass media, new media, and semiotics of cinema at the BA in communication science at the School of Humanities and Philosophy at the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia. In 2001 he became a member of the Department of Social, Cognitive and Quantitative Sciences, where he is currently an Adjunct Professor in Philosophy of Languages at the School of Communication and Economic Sciences..
From 2001-2005 he was Collegiate Member of the Doctorate in Theoretical and Applied Social Sciences, at the Department of Social, Cognitive and Quantitative Sciences, and coordinator for international relations at the School of Communication and Economics,
He has taught introductory courses in semiotics and communication science, and since 2008, taught a MA / MSc level research seminar (conducted in English) in Philosophy and Theory of Social and Ludic Media. In this same period he has coordinated a series of undergraduate workshops on Serious Urban Games for innovation, intercultural communication and social change in cooperation with game researcher and designer Gabriele Ferri, financed by the Province of Reggio Emilia: Section for Education and Social Security, and the Reggio Emilia Provincial Consultancy for Immigration, Asylum and Anti-Discrimination, of which he is a member.
He has participated in the preparation of numerous competitions for European Union and national research funding. From 2006-2009 he was member of a Reggio Emilia research unit (coordinated by Alberto Voltolini), as part of a research project of national interest (PRIN) on Fiction and Mental Simulation ( coordinated at national level by Paolo Legrenzi (IUAV)).
He is a founding member of the network of Nordic and European philosophers and semioticians: gamephilosophy.org, which organizes international meetings, seminars and conferences in a new research field on the philosophy of video games. In 2007 he organized the second in a series of international conferences: Philosophy of Computer Games, at the Department of Social, Cognitive and Quantitative Sciences in Reggio Emilia, and coordinates the Game_Philosophy_Research_Initiative@UNIMORE.
He was Program Committee member for the 2008 Philosophy of Computer Games conference, at the University of Potsdam, Germany, Program Committee member and Peer Review Board Chair for the 2009 Philosophy of Computer Games conference at the University of Oslo, Norway, Program Committee member for the 2011 edition of the Philosophy of Computer Games conference, at Panteion University of Social and Political Sciences, Athens, Program Committee member for the 2012 edition of the Philosophy of Computer Games conference, at Laboratory Intermediae and MediaLab Prado, Madrid, and the 2012 edition of the Augmented Human conference, Megeve.
He has carried out peer review for several international conferences and research journals, amongst others for International Pragmatics Association (IprA), Digital Games Research Association (DiGRA), and Lexia. He is a member of the Scientific Committe for G|A|M|E
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Research Interests
Philosophy and theory of languages; semiotics; process philosophy; applied linguistics; ethnography; sociosemiotics; orality and writing; scientific writing, journalism and new media; first and second language acquisition and learning (sign language); theories and techniques of language learning; new media semiotics; e-learning; philosophy and theory of interactive digital fiction; simulations, games and play; ludic and social networks and networking practices.