Gabriel Kuhn and Daniel Party: Who Are They and What Do They Do?
Gabriel Kuhn and Daniel Party are among the most important people you’ve never heard of. But their work influences your life every day in ways that are so fundamental, that you’re not even aware of them. They work at Purdue University as computer science professors, and they also happen to be world-class composers of music who have been nominated for awards like the Pulitzer Prize and Grawemeyer Award. Learn more about these talented men in this quick and easy guide to Gabriel Kuhn and Daniel Party!
Gabriel Kuhn
A freelance journalist, activist, lecturer, editor, and translator. He is an associate editor of New Politics. He lives in Northampton MA. Follow his Twitter here (@gabrielskuhn).
Gabriel teaches a class on nonviolence at UMass Amherst. In 2004 he worked with Iraq Veterans Against War to set up independent media projects throughout Iraq and organized grassroots relief efforts for US soldiers resisting deployment to Iraq through a Soldiers Speak Out project on military bases around the United States.
He is currently writing a book about spirituality, human rights, and nonviolent activism. His previous books include Wobblies & Zapatistas: Conversations on Anarchism, Marxism and Radical History (2007) as well as An End To Every Story: Bearing Witness To Our Times (2010).
Daniel Party
Mr. Party is a career designer, author, and publisher who has spent his entire professional life working in design. After graduating from Columbia University with a degree in architecture, he worked as an interior designer before joining TSR, Inc., publisher of Dungeons & Dragons.
Mr. Party was then promoted to vice president of creative services where he managed all aspects of product development and visual design for products such as Dragon Magazine, Player’s Handbook, Dungeon Master’s Guide, and Monster Manual. In 1984, he left TSR to start the publishing company Arcanum Entertainment.
There, Mr. Party designed and published many role-playing games including Earthdawn and Rifts. He also developed several computer and video games which were published by Electronic Arts. Since leaving Arcanum in 1997, Mr. Party has continued to work on a wide variety of game projects through his own company Second Stone Design LLC.
He recently released the world’s first virtual reality tabletop game – Star Trek: Ascendancy – which uses two or more VR headsets plus physical miniatures on an actual tabletop surface.
The difference between the two
There are a number of factors that set Gabriel Kuhn and Daniel Party apart from each other. First, both have very different backgrounds. Kühn was born in Austria and studied political science at the University of Vienna before completing his Ph.D. in Economics at the University of Oregon.
He has been active in antifascist politics since 2006 and currently lives in Montreal, Canada where he teaches part-time at Concordia University while doing research on labor unions, capitalism, and political economy. Party’s background is rooted in visual arts. Born in South Africa, he is an artist who completed a BFA at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, followed by an MFA from Cornell University. He currently resides in New York City and teaches art history at Bard College.
Where can I find them?
Gabriel is a writer, musician, organizer, and educator currently living in Portland. He can be found on Twitter at @GKnoizecon or on his personal website. Daniel is a community organizer working to build networks of solidarity within marginalized communities.
You can find him on Twitter at @PartyPachyderm or on his personal website. We both help organize The People’s Assembly network, which seeks to connect organizers in multiple cities with one another. Our interests are intersectional, focusing on grassroots projects that offer an alternative vision for the future.
With this in mind, we’re interested in amplifying the voices of those most vulnerable and building political power from below.
In order to do so, we work with people who are already engaged in a struggle against oppressive systems. And while it’s important to have visions for the future, it’s more urgent that people have immediate support right now; that means providing food and shelter when possible, holding space for emotional labor as needed, and defending people against violence and displacement as they move through their day-to-day lives.
How to reach out to them
There’s no need to feel intimidated. Just like everyone else, these developers are people too. Here are some tips on how to reach out to them if you have questions or want to learn more about their projects. Read on for details! • Send an email with your question or request.
• Follow @gabekuhn and @danielparty on Twitter and send a tweet asking them a question. • Comment on their blog posts to ask a question or provide feedback. • Check out their YouTube channel and ask questions in the comments of the video. Or just start a discussion by commenting on one of their blog posts. These guys love talking to other programmers and they’re always happy to answer any questions that come up.
Also read:Gabriel Kuhn and Daniel Party
