Reconstruction Reconstruction 12.2 (2012): Playing for Keeps: Games and Cultural Resistance

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Contributors

Beth Beggs is a Ph.D candidate in the Rhetoric and Composition program of the Department of English and the Assistant Director of the UGA Writing Center at the University of Georgia. In her dissertation, she investigates reasons Ph. D. candidates fail to finish writing their dissertations as she works toward developing a dissertation writing pedagogy. [article]

Kuljit Brar has a degree in English from McMaster University with a strong focus on Cultural Studies and Critical Theory. In addition to this, he attained an MBA in Marketing from the Schulich School of Business. His primary research interest is the intersection of markets and cultures, and how these forces feed and fight one another. With a solid foundation in gender theory, and a keen interest in the assimilation of new technologies, Kuljit spends his time trying to understand how new product developments impact the creation and maintenance of their consumers’ identities. Kuljit is also an avid movie watcher and self-professed film nerd. [article]

Derrais Carter is an American Studies doctoral student at the University of Iowa. His research explores 20th century constructions, performances, and representations of black masculinity. He is also a member of the University of Iowa Men's Anti-Violence Council. [article]

Rowan Derrick is a recent graduate of the University of Wyoming’s English Master’s degree program, and taught freshman composition as a graduate assistant during her two years there, and also has a Bachelor’s degree in English from the University of New Mexico. She co-coordinated the University of Wyoming’s Video Games as Text, Text as Play conference, which was only the second graduate-student run conference in the English department. Having grown up in Los Alamos, New Mexico, the birthplace of the nuclear bomb, she has a strong interest in nuclear and apocalyptic literature and media, and has studied the treatment of the bomb and nuclear war both in her hometown and in Hiroshima.[article]

D. Leland Fecher is a graduate of Ball State University‘s masters program in Communication Studies and an avid game player. His scholarly interests include how video games affect players and interactive, online communities. He is a firm believer in Jane McGonigal‘s idea that video games are a very positive force in the world that can help foster change.[article]

Amanda Joyal has recently received her Master‘;s Degree in English from the University of Wyoming. Her scholarly interests lie primarily in disability studies and popular culture. [article]

Evan W. Lauteria is a PhD student in Sociology at the University of Califonia-Davis starting this Fall. His research interests include critical analyses of video games and game mechanics, with particular attention to gender, sexuality, and colonization. His past conference presentations include an analysis of colonial gameplay in Final Fantasy XI and discursive strategies of players confronted with the politics of race in Resident Evil 5 and Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood, and he most recently wrote on the potential of simulations in games to capture intricacies of queer lives in the UK Literary Magazine Berfrois.[article]

Michelle Ouellette returned to the classroom in the fall of 2011 after eight years as the Ontario Youth Apprenticeship Program Consultant for the Dufferin-Peel Catholic District School Board. She is a past recipient of the Ontario English Catholic Teachers' Association Best Practice Award and earned the Ontario Computer Technology Educators' Achievement Award for her work in fostering gender equity in technology studies, in creating e-waste programs and in developing inclusive curriculum. [cover photo]

Daniel Tennant is a master's candidate in the Interactive Media and Game Development Program at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, where he received two bachelor's degrees in writing and game design. With a background rooted firmly in games journalism, he has written extensively for such outlets as GamePro Magazine, covered industry events from SIGGRAPH to the Electronic Entertainment Expo, and is currently writing his thesis on the dichotomy between games journalism's consumerist structure and its critical aspirations [article]

Jason Thompson is Assistant Professor of English and at the University of Wyoming, where he teaches courses in rhetoric and video games, technical writing, and literary theory. His work has appeared in Rhetoric Review, JAC: A Journal of Rhetoric, Culture, & Politics, and M/C Journal, as well as in the edited collections On the Blunt Edge: Technology in Composition’s History and Pedagogy (Parlor, 2011) and The Computer Culture Reader (CSP, 2009). The Game Culture Reader, also co-edited with Marc Ouellette, is forthcoming. [article]

Thijs van den Berg is a PhD candidate at the University of Amsterdam currently in the process of finishing his dissertation entitled A History of Our Connected Future: Dystopian Fiction, Telecommunication Technology and Space which investigates the relationship between dystopia and science fiction about telecommunication devices. Besides dystopia, Thijs is also interested in the overlap between fiction and cultures of science, serialization as a narrative technology, and the possibilities and problems of computer games as narratives.[article]

 

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