with Dr. Glaire Anderson, DLIVCC Founder & Principal Consultant
I work one to one with a small number of people who are moving between the academy and the games and cultural heritage industries. I've spent more than twenty years as a specialist in Islamic art, architecture, and history. Since 2020 I've brought that work into games, as a consulting historian and art historian on Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed Mirage and Discovery Tour Medieval Baghdad, among others. Mentoring to support professional development is where I give back, sharing my experience to others making similar crossings.
You might be a games professional who wants the intellectual grounding to make your work richer and more authentic, and you're considering returning to study. You might be an academic trying to reach the games or heritage industries without losing your scholarly footing. What you have in common is ambition to cross silos and bridge sector differences.
Glaire is a superlative mentor. I thought I understood my challenges and goals when it came to academic entrepreneurship, but it was only after working with Glaire that I saw the bigger picture. She really takes the time to listen and understand. She gave me tools to improve the quality of my thinking, helped me to identify my strengths, and offered a roadmap to building a complementary team. I have since applied to leadership programmes on the back of our discussions.
Glaire’s greatest strengths are her abilities to ask questions/her curiosity, to reserve judgement, and her ability to believe that there is something to learn from everyone. I also admire her ability to look ahead and to prepare for the ways in which academia is changing.
I was kind of drowning...I knew I wanted [to pursue graduate study], but I did not know what I should have been looking for... your really directed advice absolutely was a major help. I think the pacing of how it was structured was really good...You definitely were the biggest influence on my application process, without a doubt. It has unlocked so many things for me... I think in all aspects I feel more productive, more excited... it's unlocked certain things in my writing that I didn't realise I was missing.
One hour, online. A single focused question or decision, advised in depth. This is right when you have one contained problem that would benefit from senior judgement.
A full day, in Edinburgh or split across two online sessions. Two to three priority goals worked through in a single intensive. This is right for a defined project: a pivot, an application, a plan for building a team.
A fixed series of sessions over several weeks. My full sequenced method, start to finish, for a considered move: returning to study, repositioning your work, or building a credible bridge between sectors. Fixed length, with a clear beginning and end. You leave with the tools to continue independently.
Lots of people can advise you on a career in the academy. Very few have actually moved between scholarship and the games industry and can show you how the crossings are successfully navigated. I've done it, and I've helped others do it at every stage.
I've supervised doctoral researchers working successfully across academic, games, and GLAM communities. I've advised and mentored an academic researcher building a successful video games and GLAM research lab. And I've mentored games professionals at top studios returning to graduate study. The common thread between them: I don't just advise from one side of the divide, I help people bridge it.
My mentoring is built on a scholarly foundation. I earned my PhD at MIT, ranked the world's top university for fifteen years running in the QS World University Rankings. I'm an award-winning author of two books (most recently publishing with Oxford University Press) and two co-edited volumes, and numerous peer-reviewed and public-facing articles, chapters, and essays. I have 20+ years experience in the academy, researching, teaching, and speaking at top institutions in the US, the UK, and Europe, including Oxford University, Harvard University, and MIT.
When you work with me you're getting career advice that's grounded in real world experience. You're getting the judgement of someone who has navigated complex decisions about career, family, work/life balance, and supervised others through them, and who leads with strategy and empathy.