Media, University of Nottingham
Thesis title:
My project is in collaboration with the National Videogame Museum and explores a lived experience of gaming in the UK; looking at gamer subjectivities, performativity and ideologies through an oral history lens. My research interests also include the intersection of the alt-right and gaming spaces and considering how we deal with the problem(s) they present.
Velvet Spors and Imo Kaufman, ‘Respawn, Reload, Relate: Exploring the Self-Care Possibilities for Mental Health in Games through a Humanistic Lens’, Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction 5, no. CHI PLAY (5 October 2021): 1–31.
Kaufman, Imo. ‘To the (Fictional) Concentration Camp: Wrestling with Jewish Pain and Emptiness in Brenda Romero’s Train,’ Game Studies 23, no. 1 (March 2023). https://gamestudies.org/2301/articles/kaufman.
Kaufman, Imo. 'Silence, Distance and Disclosure. The Bleed Between the Far-Right and Gaming,' gameenvironments 18, (2023): 1-37. https://journals.suub.uni-bremen.de/index.php/gamevironments/article/view/232
BEYOND Conference 2020: Spoke about the National Videogame Museum's Animal Crossing Diaries Project which you can read more about here: https://thenvm.org/the-animal-crossing-diaries/
SXSW Festial 2021: Spoke about the National Videogame Museum's Animal Crossing Diaries Project, talking about our initial findings from the open call and plans moving forward.
M4C Research Festival 2021: Produced a game about my initial research experiences of oral history interviews on Twine: "Searching for Identity, Ideology and the 'I' in Oral History Interviews."
British DiGRA 2021: Presented a paper: "“– why do you need a game to make you give a s#@! -?”: Looking at Train and researcher positionality through a Jewish lens."
Hidden Conference 2021: Was part of the team that helped deliver the conference and also presented a paper: “– why do you need a game to make you give a s#@! -?”: Looking at Train and researcher positionality through a Jewish lens."
BEYOND Conference 2021: Peer reviewed posters.
ChiPlay 2021: Presented research paper: "Respawn, Reload, Relate: Exploring the Self-Care Possibilities for Mental Health in Games through a Humanistic Lens."
Multiplay Conference 2022 on the theme of Identity: Presented a paper: "Gamer as a paradoxical place, performance and problem: disaggregating the term gamer through an affective oral history."
Hosted the Multiplay Sex and Romance Conference, February 2022.
Spoke at Nottingham Trent's 'Challenging Heteronormitvity' event for LGBTQ+ History month. Presented paper: "Masculinity in Gaming: A Promise and a Problem."
Oral History Society Conference 'Making Histories Together,' June 2023. Presented paper: "Resistance and Resurgence: Recovering narratives of ‘Gamer’ in UK Gaming spaces."