Dr. Francis Steen is an Associate Professor of Communications Studies at UCLA and a founding member of the UCLA Human Complex Systems Program. Dr Steen's research is focused on the dynamics of mental and computer-mediated simulations, in particular on the interplay of evolved cognitive capacities with cultural technologies of entertainment. Current projects include an agent-based model of the role of mental simulations in communication, game research, and empirical studies of strategies of resistance to advertising. His teaching includes courses in Entertainment as Implicit Pedagogy, Social Communication and the New Technologies, and The Gaming Mind. His work has been published in the Journal of Cultural and Evolutionary Psychology, Cognition and Culture, Poetics Today, Philosophy and Literature,Style, Auto/Biography Studies and several scholarly anthologies.