Category: Call for Papers

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Call for Papers – Video Games and Religion: Apocalypse and Utopia

Video Games and Religion: Apocalypse and Utopia: Thursday 19 November 2020

Call for Papers: Submission Deadline: Friday 30 October 2020

With the growth of scholarly interest in the religious and theological tropes encountered in video games, there is a developing awareness of the special valence of apocalypticism, millenarianism, and associated themes in video game narratives and gameplay. This virtual symposium invites academic explorations of the role of apocalypse and utopia in video games. We welcome discussions of a wide-range of approaches to ultimacy and cosmic destiny in video games. Topics might include, but are not limited to, analysis of narratives of apocalypse and utopia, eschatology broadly conceived, themes of final revelation deriving from religious scriptures and traditions, allusion to Edenic origins and Kingdom of God conclusions to history, epochal accounts of cosmic dissolution and regeneration, messiahs, antichrists and their cognates.

Academics working within these themes are invited to propose papers as the basis for discussion within the symposium. We encourage presentation of early-stage and speculative discussion points as well as more developed material. The symposium will take place virtually/online.

The symposium will take place online on Thursday 19 November 2020.

Paper proposals with a 300-word abstract and details of academic affiliation should be submitted to the organizers, Prof. James Crossley (St Mary’s University, Twickenham) and Dr. Alastair Lockhart (University of Cambridge), at conference@censamm.org by Friday 30 October 2020.

There is no charge for participation.

The symposium website is here: https://censamm.org/conferences/video-games-and-religion

The CfP in .pdf format is available at https://censamm.org/assets/files/Video-games-cfp.pdf

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SPELUNKING 2020: GAMES, CULTURES, SOCIETIES

https://www.york.ac.uk/sociology/about/department/2019/spelunking-2020/

Moving into a new decade, this symposium aims to consider the variety of forms in which games impact on both culture and society, and the diverse narratives which they create, develop and propagate. Abstracts are welcome from members of any discipline which look to engage in critical enquiry of games, gamers and their culture, based on themes including:

  • Games industries
  • Value of gaming in society
  • Gaming as labour
  • Critical readings of games
  • Histories of gaming
  • Studies of gamers
  • Theoretical approaches
  • Pedagogy and gaming
  • Economies of play/games
  • Social stratification and games
  • Women, trans and non-binary identities
  • LGBTQ identities in gaming
  • Mobile gaming
  • Analog gaming
  • Live Action Roleplay Gaming

Date of conference: Wednesday 22nd July 2020

Time of conference: From 12:00

Conference venue: ENV/005, Environment Building, Campus West, University of York, UK

Abstracts of no longer than 200 words, accompanied by a 50-word biography, should be submitted to matt.coward@york.ac.uk by no later than 31 March 2020. Accepted papers will be 20 minutes in length, with an additional ten minutes allotted for Q&A.

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GameSYM – CFP

Call For Papers

The School of Media, Communication and Sociology and LIAS at the University of Leicester, funded by Enurture, and in partnership with The Diana Award, Staffordshire University Digital Institute London, ESL UK and Esports Insider will host a two-day symposium – GAMESYM – on the 14th and 15th of May 2020 at the Digital Institute in London.

This two-day event is aimed at showcasing research and promoting discussion which explores how digital environments, specifically live-streaming video games and esports, are changing the nature of the risks that children and young people face in their everyday digital lives.

The symposium, which brings together leading academic researchers, young gamers, specialised practitioners, and industry leaders, invites research papers from a range of disciplines such as sociology, education, media and communication, internet studies, feminist theory, human geography, psychology. While all papers should concern gaming, streaming, esports, and young people, topics of interest will include, but will not be limited to:

• How gaming, livestreaming and esports supports or hinders children and young people in the fabric of their daily life;

• Young people’s experiences of intimacy, belonging, exclusion, or hate in online gaming spaces;

• The mental health risks, challenges, or opportunities involved with gaming, live-streaming and esports;

• How live-streaming and esports create or shape employment opportunities for young people;

• Public discourses concerning young people, gaming, live-streaming and/or esports;

• Industry perspectives on young gamers and streamers (such as talent exploitation, ethical practice, pathways to employment, etc.). These submissions will form the basis of industry round-table sessions to be held across the symposium.

Call for papers has been extended until 21st of February. Abstracts of 200 words should be sent to gamesym2019@gmail.com. Successful applicants will be notified by email by March 6th 2020.

Keynote Speakers:

Professor Sonia Livingstone is Professor of Social Psychology in the Department of Media and Communications at the London School of Economics (LSE). She has a particular interest in the opportunities and risks of digital media use in the everyday lives of children and young people. Sonia has advised the UK government, European Commission, European Parliament, Council of Europe and other national and international organisations on children’s rights, risks and safety in the digital age. Sonia is currently leading the project Global Kids Online (with UNICEF Office of Research-Innocenti and EU Kids Online), and Children’s Data and Privacy Online (funded by the Information Commissioner’s Office) and co-directing The Nurture Network.

Sonia’s Profile

Dr Emma Witkowski is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Design and the co-director of the Playable Media Lab at RMIT University, in Melbourne, Australia. Emma’s research explores esports cultures as networked media sports, networked careers in digital games, research methods for networked play, livestreaming & LAN tournaments from grassroots to mega-LANs, and high performance networked team practices.

Emma’s Profile

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Ludic Literature: The Converging Interests of Writing, Games and Play

University of Glasgow: 16th-17th July

ludicliterature.blog

It is our pleasure to invite your paper submissions to Ludic Literature: The Converging Interests of Writing, Games and Play. The two-day symposium is funded by the Scottish Graduate School of the Arts and Humanities (SGSAH) and will be held at the University of Glasgow on the 16th-17th of July.

Ludic Literature’s purpose is to collide perspectives from contemporary literary writers and theorists; game studies theorists and video game developers to explore the essentially ludic element of constructing texts, be they games, literary productions or other works of art. By exposing the often-hidden process of textual construction, the conference seeks to present the playfulness at the heart of producing meaning-making texts. As such, we wish to bring those who create and interpret these texts together, giving equal voice to academic and industry concerns to enable cross-institutional collaborations and partnerships that blur the boundaries of writing, games and play. To begin the conversation, day one provides a selection of academic papers, finishing with a roundtable discussion between writers and game developers on the converging interests of their work. These interactions will inspire day two’s event: A ‘literature’ jam where an assetless video game – provided in collaboration with Abertay, Edinburgh and Glasgow universities – will be transformed into experimental video games by the symposium’s participants using assets provided by the organising committee. We welcome ten-minute papers that are encouraged to approach, but are not limited to, the following topics:

– Analysis of literary games or ludic literature

– Intersectionality through the converging interests of writing, games and play

– The playful nature of semiotic choices in video game and literary textual construction

– Methods for reckoning with subversive literary and video game textual choices

– Methods for analysing ‘shifting’ texts or textual practices (early access video games, public textual editing)

– The (dis)similarities between textual creation in video game and literary forms

– The (dis)similarities between indie/AAA game development and writing

– Uncovering the processes and cultures of writing and game development for qualitative analysis

– Accounts and critiques of literary and video game collaborations

– The ontological and phenomenological implications for literary and video game textual creation when figured as play

– Presentations of creative works invested in the converging interests of writing, games and play

Guide for submissions

Please submit a 100 word abstract detailing the subject of your paper and a 50 word bio to ludicliterature@gmail.com (please submit as one word document and not as a PDF).

Deadline for submissions: July 5th 2019

Attendance

If you would like to attend Ludic Literature, please confirm your interest by following the link: https://ludicliterature.eventbrite.co.uk  and downloading or printing your ticket. Attendance is free and there are provisions for SGSAH affiliated postgraduate students to reimburse their travel expenses.

For enquiries regarding the programme, please contact ludicliterature@gmail.com and visit ludicliterature.blog for more details.

Organising Committee

Alexander Tarvet (Abertay University)

Francis Butterworth-Parr (University of Glasgow)

Zack Abrams (University of Edinburgh)

We look forward to seeing you at Ludic Literature.

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CFP – PLAYPAUSE SYMPOSIUM 2019: IMMERSION|DISSONANCE

PLAYPAUSE are excited to announce our second symposium, Immersion|Dissonance which will be taking place at the University of Birmingham on Wednesday 22nd May 2019. See below for information about the conference and this year’s call for papers.

PLAYPAUSE 2019 SYMPOSIUM – Wednesday 22nd May 2019, University of Birmingham, B15 2TT.

CFP – PLAYPAUSE SYMPOSIUM 2019: Immersion|Dissonance

For our second annual symposium, PLAY/PAUSE is looking for papers that interrogate the continuum between immersion and dissonance within videogames and virtual reality. We therefore welcome papers from any disciplinary background that relate to (but are not limited to) the following topics:

  • New immersive media (Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality)
  • Embodiment and virtual environments
  • Glitches and breaking immersion
  • Flow and gaming expertise
  • Identification and social gaming
  • Constructed authenticity
  • Queerness and the player body
  • Detail, labour and the ‘crunch’
  • Boredom and negative affects

Abstracts of no more than 250 words, along with a bibliography and short bio, should be sent to playpauseuob@gmail.com by Friday 15th March 2019. We particularly welcome proposals from PGRs and early career researchers.

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LANCASTER VIDEOGAME STUDIES – Call For Papers 2019

LANCASTER VIDEOGAME STUDIES

A Postgraduate Videogame Research Group

Call For Papers 2019

We are inviting papers of 20 minutes in length on any topic related to videogames and we particularly invite interdisciplinary responses. We accept proposed group panels of 3 people. Possible foci for papers may include but are in no way limited to:

  • Interactions between Videogames and other forms of media (e.g. film adaptations, interactive television such as Black Mirror: Bandersnatch (2018), and multi-media franchises such as Marvel and Harry Potter).
  • Ramifications and ongoing growth of choice-based play (e.g. alternate endings and cross-game ramifications).
  • The recent surge in revived, rebooted and remade videogames (e.g. God of War (2018), Shadow of the Colossus(2018) and Spyro Reignited Trilogy (2018)).
  • The creation of increasingly larger and more complex game worlds.
  • Influences of literary and cinematic movements and modes on gaming (e.g. the Gothic, Horror, Film Noir, etc).
  • Representation of minorities within videogames (e.g. the growth of both female and non-white protagonists, and the choice of non-hetero romance options in some games)
  • Presentism within portrayals of historical periods (e.g. the Red Dead Redemption, Assassin’s Creed and Call of Duty franchises).
  • Non-linear or non-traditional narrative styles (e.g. the Dark SoulsTrilogy)

For more details go to their website

Please submit a title, 200-word abstract and a 50-word bionote in a single document for consideration by the 30th April 2019 to lancastergamestudies@gmail.com. Group panels please submit as one document containing all titles, abstracts, and bionotes as well as a proposed title for your panel.

Keep up with the news about the study day by following @lu_gamestudies and remember to use #LU_nextgen19 in your tweets.

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Call for Papers – British Digra 2019 – 6 -7 June 2019 – Staffordshire University, Stoke on Trent

Call for Papers – British DiGRA 2019

 

The third annual conference of British DiGRA.

6 -7 June 2019

Staffordshire University, Stoke on Trent

 

The Diverging Game Mix.

 

We welcome submissions that move beyond digital gaming, for example submissions relating to boardgames, LARP, pervasive games or other forms of analog gaming.

As with last year, we actively encourage early scholars and PhD candidates, and wish to programme our conference to provide a welcoming environment for newer voices as well as those more established.

Once again, our theme playfully engages with that of DiGRA 2019, aiming to present a counter perspective to the work being discussed there. We may even get some sets of giant Ludo in!

Submissions should consider, but not be restricted to, the following topics in this light:

  • Revisiting Games as Inter/Multidisciplinary subject
  • Gaming as Media
  • Representation in Games
  • Licensed and Franchised Games
  • Playfulness and the Medium of Games
  • Design as practice
  • Pedagogy and gaming
  • Game design/development/theory
  • Casual Games
  • Changes in gaming culture
  • Spectatorship and play
  • Esports theory
  • Underrepresented Games and Audiences
  • Close readings and ‘well played’ games.

We welcome the following submission types:

Full papers, of 5000 – 7000 words, to be presented as papers in a panel session.

A template for full papers is available here: https://www.overleaf.com/latex/templates/digra-template-2018/fdtmqscfgzpc

(with thanks to Mirjam Palosaari Eladhari, Adam Summerville and Mark Nelson for this resource)

Abstracts of 500 words, to be presented in a series of quickfire round table sessions.

Please follow the relevant areas of the template, including Abstract, Keywords and References.

Workshops to last approx half a day – to be submitted as precis of approx 500 – 1000 words underlining core objectives and aims.

Discussion panels – to be submitted as precis of approx 500 – 1000 words underlining core objectives and aims.

Paper Paramedic and Mentorship. Following on from the very successful sessions last year, we will be offering a paper paramedic session to contributors whose work we believe is not quite ready for submission. We encourage everyone to submit work, irrespective of academic level.

 

We are looking for reviewers! Contact us before we contact you! 😉

 

Please submit work to BritishDigra@gmail.com by 22nd April 2019. Papers and abstracts should be anonymised, but please make sure you identify yourself in the e-mail so that we can respond when the paper has been reviewed.

 

Notification of acceptance of papers 10th May 2019

 

Selected proceedings may be published in a special edition of ToDiGRA, in second quarter 2020.

 

We have decided to charge a small attendance fee of £30 and £15 for students  to cover costs. Volunteers may attend for free. Any surplus funding will be carried over to future BDiGRA events.

An Eventbrite with booking details will be forthcoming.

All attendees are expected to abide by the BDiGRA Inclusivity Policy:

 

http://bdigra.org.uk/inclusivity-policy

 

Ying-Ying Law

Esther MacCallum-Stewart

Alan O’Dea

Nia Wearn

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Call for Papers – Last Symposium Standing: Interdisciplinary Symposium on Survival Media

Last Symposium Standing: Interdisciplinary Symposium on Survival Media

April 30 @ 9:30 am – 5:30 pm

Since the early 2000s, a wide range of ‘survival’ media has been created, watched, played and explored. Alongside the rise in the production of survival media, this popularity is also evidenced by the prevalence of survival narratives in more traditionally established genres such as horror, disaster and thrillers. From reality TV shows like ‘Survivor’ to video games such as The Long Dark, from advertising to films such as ‘Trapped’ and ‘127 Hours’, this symposium explores what can be learnt from examining these narratives which foreground human survival. What does the popularity of survival narratives in contemporary media tell us about the realities and concerns of individual and collective survival across the world? Positioning survival media as a 21st century global phenomenon, how can we understand the challenges of our survival in the contemporary world such as climate change by exploring the landscapes and terrains imagined by survival media?

This symposium aims to engage with these questions and bring together all who are who working on survival media across the disciplines. Inviting works on survival films, reality and fictional television, literature, video games, advertising, all work will be shared in a day-long event on April 30th 2019 hosted by the Department of Film Studies, University of St Andrews. We invite conference-style papers of 20 minutes, more informal 5 minute interventions and debates, and other more experimental presentations of both academic and practice-based work. There will also be a survival media-themed activity followed by a plenary Q&A. The symposium is designed to facilitate discussion on this engaging topic, aid inter-disciplinary PG networking and provoke new questions on the notion of ‘survival’. ​

We invite papers (short and long) and other presentations of work on the following topics, and others:

Spaces of survival and world creation​

Narratives of survival​

Transnational media and survival​

Survival as an inter-disciplinary topic​

Aesthetics of survival​

Transmedial survival​

Politics and ideology of survival​

The ‘surviving’ body​

Gender and identity in survival​

Proposals of no more than 250 words and a 50 word bio should be sent no later than February 15th 2019 to: ​

Cassice Last- cl225@st-andrews.ac.uk​

Shruti Narayanswamy- sn52@st-andrews.ac.uk ​

There are a few travel bursaries available for PG students and ECRs which will be assigned by a lottery system. 

This symposium is brought to you with financial support from the St Leonard’s Doctoral and Postgraduate College Community Fund, the University of St Andrews CAPOD GRADskills Innovation Grant / PG Conference Fund and the BAFTSS Event Grant Scheme.​

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Call for papers: Beyond the Console: Gender and Narrative Games

Beyond the Console: Gender and Narrative Games

8 / 9 February 2019, at the V&A and London South Bank University, UK

Call for Papers

The conference invites submissions from a broad range of disciplines, and is particularly interested in fostering links between research scholarship, game making, and curation. We are interested in paper proposals (including theoretical and methodological proposals, comparative studies, and case studies), as well as creative research demonstrations from scholars, art practitioners, curators and gamemakers. Possible areas for consideration might include, but are not limited to:

· ‘The personal game’: subjectivity and game authorship
· Gender (re-)activism: social media, authoring tools, crowdsourcing
· Language, gender, programming: translation, procedural narratives
· Gender through immersive live action role play (LARP) games
· Gender in interactive performance
· Radical reappraisals of game genres
· The state of ontological play: who plays who, what, where and how

The conference will include a live keynote game by Porpentine, introduced and chaired by Emily Short, hosted by the V&A Museum. The keynote speaker is the interactive artist and scholar Hannah Wood.

Proposals

Proposals (20 minute length for papers; 10 minutes for demonstrations and provocations) should include a title, an abstract of max. 300 words, and a brief biography.

The proposal deadline is 26 November 2018.
Please address proposals to: digitalstorymakingresearch@gmail.com

Conference Organiser: Dr Karlien van den Beukel, Arts and Creative Industries, London South Bank University

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EUROPE AND BEYOND: BOUNDARIES, BARRIERS AND BELONGING

EUROPE AND BEYOND: BOUNDARIES, BARRIERS AND BELONGING
14th ESA Conference, 20-23 August 2019 to be held in Manchester / UK

It has a number of research streams that may be of interest to our members:

including:
RS01 – Gaming at the Boundaries: Imagining Inclusive Futures
RS07 – Platform Work: Needs, Activation and Representativeness in the Era of Digital Labour

Abstract submission deadline – 1 February 2019

For more information: https://www.europeansociology.org/about-esa-2019

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