Thesis title:
The lived experience of gaming in the UK, from 2005 to the present, and its insidious intersection with right-wing ideologies
In partnership with the National Videogame Museum, my project will explore gamer subjectivities by investigating the lived experiences of gaming in the UK and gamer identities. The approach of this project will be qualitative; its primary research method being oral history. My research will disaggregate how identity, performance and community relate to the way we play, experience, and feel games. Furthermore, my thesis will explore the implications of the personal and play within the political, and how ideologies can not only function within games but within gaming communities and gamer subjectivities.
Research Area
Publications
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.
Conferences
- 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."
Public Engagement & Impact
- Self-Care Jam, 2021: Ran a Game Jam on the theme of mental health and self-care in collaboration with Velvet Spors and the National Videogame Museum.
Memberships
- I am a member of the Multiplay committee. See here for more information: https://multiplaynetwork.org/.
Community Organisation
- I started up and run a Discord Server for students in the M4C cohort. If you would like a link to join it please contact me via email or twitter.
