This platform—we call placemaking—documents an interdisciplinary research initiative, merging insights from housing studies and interactive storytelling and games to analyze migrant placemaking strategies in Chicago and beyond. Despite the local and global relevance of both topics, the literature has yet to fully establish a dedicated line of inquiry into the concepts of home and migration.

Ramya Ramanath and Lien Tran’s collective work seeks to bring stories of migrants navigating new systems, overcoming discrimination, building social networks and, in essence, making place center stage in any understanding of urban environments.

Please find Dr. Ramanath’s research at ramyaramanath.com and see her 2019 book A Place to Call Home: Women as Agents of Change in Mumbai and Professor Tran’s related work on immigrationgames.com and on her transdisciplinary transformational design lab website mattersatplay.com.

HumanitiesX – “Finding Home: Exploring Migrant Housing Challenges and Solutions via Interactive Storytelling”

During Fall 2025 term and under Tran’s technical and narrative guidance combined with Ramanath’s housing expertise, the narratives collected by Ramanath were woven into five (5) HumanitiesX student projects’ plots, dialogue, and characters, providing players with a more genuine understanding of the migrant placemaking journeys. Informed housing policy development and the creation of meaningful places—leading to stronger communities and a more robust economy—requires a thorough understanding of the distinct housing search experiences of new arrivals. Situated learning using interactive stories and games, we collectively believe, can motivate deep cognitive engagement, especially at a time when there is an urgent need for thoughtful, focused efforts that foster unity in the face of divisions.

Learn more about the HumanitiesX course and play the HumanitiesX student projects.