Application

Vice-Presidency DiGRA

Personal Profile

I am currently a research fellow at SMARTlab, the University of East London, and an associate lecturer in the Media Studies department at the University of Chichester. Both departments are known for their innovative approaches to practise based New Media, with Games Studies as an essential element. I have been a board member of DiGRA since 2007 and am currently also responsible for the editing of Hardcore (http://www.digra.org/hardcore, do come and see me if you wish to contribute!) and for the bi-monthly DiGRA column in Simulation and Gaming

Alongside Dan Pinchbeck of the University of Portsmouth I am currently bidding for funding in order to establish a UK chapter of DiGRA; we are hoping to have heard the outcome of this by the time of the conference. The UK chapter will provide a long overdue addition to the DiGRA corpus, as well as a focal point for the already strong presence of UK academics in the Games Studies field. in the first instance, we aim to provide a series of one day seminars and support at existing conferences including Under the Mask (University of Bedfrodshire) and the UK arm of Women in Games.

I am an editor of the Intellect Journal of Virtual Worlds and Gaming, and am currently preparing a special edition on the role of the imaginary within this sphere. I am also co-editor, alongside Tanya Krzywinska and Justin Parsler, of an anthology of essays on Lord of the Rings: Online. This aims to use LOTR:O much as the previous World of Warcraft and Everquest readers; to highlight current issues and development in the study of online worlds. My own research concerns the ways that players represent themselves in online games, and how they understand the narratives they encounter. Previous writing has included work on gender, griefing, roleplay and the representation of warfare and controversy within this context. I am currently looking at the ways in which players manipulate games as fan texts, reappropriating the narratives that they encounter for best fit.

Goals and Passions

As Vice-President of DiGRA I would have a keen eye for the development of the association as an academic body with increasing pertinence on the world stage. Games Studies is not a new discipline by any means, but it is entering a period in which it is finally being taken seriously by academia, by the games industry and by the media. All of these are crucial elements in the progression of studies within the field. The vast popularity of games has lead to a commensurate explosion in the teaching and understanding of games, as well as attracting an increasingly diverse range of scholars. DiGRA has a vital role to play in this development. The association has always prided itself on maintaining strong relationships between many different disciplines; something I believe is integral to its unique outlook. As a result, this diversity has produced many innovative strands of research, something which DiGRA should continue to aim for in its future.