Born in Germany, Yasmin Kafai undertook her studies on learning theories and technologies in France, Germany and the United States. She received her doctorate from Harvard University while working with Seymour Papert at the MIT Media Laboratory.
Her research focuses on learning and creative design in digital media and worlds. She pioneered the first studies on children as game designers, published in “Minds in Play” (Lawrence Erlbaum Publishers, 1995) and in “Constructionism in Practice” which she co-edited with Mitchel Resnick (Lawrence Erlbaum Publishers, 1996). Her focus on gender issues in gaming and computing resulted in “Beyond Barbie and Mortal Kombat” edited with Carrie Heeter, Jill Denner and Jennifer Sun (MIT Press, 2008). In early 2000 she launched the first extensive study on virtual worlds documenting tween culture in Whyville.net and learning opportunities with virtual epidemics. Currently she is studying computational textiles as materials for creativity building on previous research of the media-rich computing tool Scratch.
Current and past sponsors of her research include the National Science Foundation, MacArthur Foundation, and Spencer Foundation. In 1996, she was one of two educators to receive an Early Career Award from the National Science Foundation and in 1997 she was among the thirty postdoctoral fellows of the National Academy of Education. In 2007 she received the Rosenfield Community Partnership prize for her outreach efforts in South Los Angeles which have also been documented in “The Computer Clubhouse: Constructionism and Creativity in Youth Communities” edited with Kylie Peppler and Robbin Chapman (Teachers College Press, 2009).
During the past decade, she has been active in several national policy efforts. She currently participates in the National Academy of Sciences workshop series “Computational Thinking for Everyone” and the Department of Education’s initiative of developing a “National Educational Technology Plan”. She is also the co-executive editor of the Journal of the Learning Sciences (JLS), a past president of the International Society of the Learning Sciences (ISLS) and organizer and chair of the Sixth International Conference of the Learning Sciences (ICLS). She presents at numerous other national and international venues such American Educational Research Association (AERA), Computer Supported for Collaborative Learning (CSCL), Digital Games Research Association (DiGRA), Games, Learning, and society (GLS), Interaction Design for Children (IDC), and others.
Before joining the University of Pennsylvania as Professor of Learning Sciences at the Graduate School of Education, she was on faculty at UCLA, and worked in research groups at the MIT Media Lab, the University of Michigan and Yale University. She currently lives, works, and plays in Philadelphia.
