Channels of Digital Scholarship - Early Career Researchers in games studies

Join us for a collaborative event organised with the Maison Francaise d'Oxford, showcasing Early Career Researchers working in games studies.

This event will offer a small sample of the variety of research being done by early career researchers working in and around videogames. Our speakers come from a range of different research backgrounds and research centres, coming from communications, social sciences, and history backgrounds, and demonstrating the range of critical tools and approaches available in the study of games. These include design-as-research and reparative modding, in additional to quantitative and qualitative research drawn from the social sciences. For anyone looking to engage with games or game studies in their own work, our speakers also provide a set of examples of the types of academic space in which game studies practice takes place, coming from a range of institutions and networks which foster these connections. Full programme coming soon, register to attend at:

https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZAtd-irrzkjHNW_-sw82Hj2WtDEs_DVpAfK

Programme

Our panel will consist of:

Chair - Dr Jack Orchard, Centre for Digital Scholarship, Bodleian Libraries

Jack Orchard is Content Editor for the Electronic Enlightenment project in the Centre for Digital Scholarship at the Bodleian Libraries, Oxford. His game studies work is focused on the remediation of historical emotion through gameplay, the relationship between games and literature, and he is currently researching digital game preservation practices in academic libraries.

Yunke Deng, University College London - 'Introducing An Accessible Card Game for Visually Impaired Persons in Mainland China'

This presentation introduces a modified version of the traditional Chinese card game, designed to be accessible to both visually impaired and sighted players. Through the adaptive design, the game aims to address the lack of accessible gaming options for the visually impaired community in Mainland China. The study explores the challenges and methodology of developing this game, alongside a discussion of the current landscape of video game accessibility research, particularly in the context of China.

Ms. Yunke Deng is a PhD candidate at the Centre for Translation Studies, University College London. She is a researcher at the Bristol Digital Game Lab and also works as a translator. Yunke completed her MA degree at the University of Bristol. Her research focus on game accessibility, video game UI design, and user experience research.

Amanda Curtis, Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford, “Welcome to my crib: Island tours and in-game creativity in Animal Crossing: New Horizons”

Video games can be an important form of entertainment for many, but how does gaming go beyond entertainment and foster creativity in players? This presentation reports on findings from ethnographic interviews and “island tours” with players of Animal Crossing: New Horizons. Players assume the role of game co-designers, meticulously crafting immersive experiences for themselves, non-playable characters (NPCs), and other players. Notably, players expressed a yearning for acknowledgment and cultivation of in-game creative pursuits by game developers. This study reflects on the potential for future game designs to nurture these creative endeavors in players, affording them a creative channel and reconceptualizing gaming as a promising ground for creative expression.

Amanda is a DPhil candidate at the Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford. Her research focuses on in-game creativity, knowledge creation, and lifelong learning with video games. She is the chair of the Oxford Games & Technologies group and works as a Games User Researcher. She is also a Doctoral Fellow at the University of Tokyo.

Charlotte Courtois, Université de Montréal - 'Praxis of civil disobedience for the study of the history of pornographic video games: a focus on the Commodore 64 and ZX Spectrum'

How to write a queer and feminist history of pornographic video games ? We will see that this approach requires some level of participation in the medium, as well as a questioning and disturbance of the archives, here for the Commodore 64 and ZX Spectrum micro-computers of the early eighties. This work aims to get a better knowledge of a highly invisibilised genre of games that has existed for nearly as long as the medium itself, as well as to occupy it as a place of queer and feminist resistance.

Charlotte Courtois is a PhD candidate at Université de Montréal, she studies video games and sexuality, and her thesis in research-creation focuses particularly on the history of pornographic video games. She is a research assistant on a Canadian funded research project (SSHRC) on mediating for sexual health, education and against sexual violences through video games with Professor Caroline Bem. 

Her work will be featured in the soon-to-be-published Bloomsbury Handbook of Sex and Sexuality in Game Studies (April 2025).