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Marc Bourcier
Mia Consalvo, PhD
- Professor and Canada Research Chair In Game Studies & Design, Communication Studies
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Biography
Education
BA, Communications, Lyndon State College, VermontMA, Communications, University of Washington
PhD, Mass Communications, University of Iowa
Areas of research and teaching
My main focus is game studies, with particular interests in players and the culture of gameplay. I’m currently working several projects, including an examination of live streamers on sites like Twitch who stream to small audiences; and a study of how socio-economic class impacts games, game players, and the game industryCourses
Fall: COMS 642/893//INDI 620/820 Games and/as Research ResearchWinter: COMS 835 Doctoral ProSeminar
Teaching activities
Fall 2022
This course focuses on games through the lens of research-creation. Time will be spent at the beginning of the class investigating the evolution of research-creation (also known as arts-based research and creative making) as a recognized area of practice as well as the development of games as valid forms of entertainment, art, persuasion and catalysts for change. The course then investigates how we can (1) advance research (broadly defined) through the act of making games; (2) use games as tools for doing research; and (3) creatively present research through games.
Readings, class discussions, and course assignments explores these areas, focusing on the following goals: defining research-creation; understanding the multiple ways research-creation can intersect with games; debating/discussing/developing standards for assessing research-creation projects that use games in some way; and experimenting with game creation.
Publications
Books
Real Games: What’s Legitimate and What’sNot in Contemporary Videogames (2019)
Mia Consalvo& Christopher A. Paul, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA
Atari to Zelda:Japan’s Videogames in Global Contexts (2016)
Mia Consalvo,MIT Press, Cambridge, MA
Presentations
Book Chapters
All in a Day’s Work: Working Class Heroes as Videogames Protagonists
Michael Iantorno, Courtney Blamey, Lyne Dwyer & Mia Consalvo, Nordicom Review, Vol. 42, N. 3: 88-110, 2021.
Hack, Slash & Backstab: A Post-Mortem of University Game Development at Scale
Andrew Phelps, Christopher Egert & Mia Consalvo, International Journal of Designs for Learning, 12(1), 16-33, 2021.
Reading Ren’py: Game Engine Affordances and Design Possibilities
Mia Consalvo and Dan Staines, Games and Culture, Online First. DOI: 10.1177/1555412020973823, 2020
Getting through a Tough Day (Again): What Possum Springs Says about Mental Health and Social Class
Mia Consalvo and Andrew Phelps, American Journal of Play, Vol. 12, No. 3, pp. 338-362, 2020.
Video Game Engagement onSocial Media in the Middle East
AhmedAl-Rawi and Mia Consalvo, Video Games andthe Global South (2019) edited by Phillip Penix-Tadse, Carnegie MellonUniversity: ETC Press
Why We NeedFeminist Game Studies
The Handbook of Contemporary Feminism (forthcoming) edited by Andrea Press andTasha Oren, Routledge
ClashRoyale and Gaming Capital
How to Play Video Games (2019) edited by Nina Huntemann and MattPayne, NYU Press
Kaceytronand Transgressive Play on Twitch.tv
Transgressions in Games andPlay (2018) edited by KristineJørgensen and Faltin Karlsen, MIT Press
TandemPlay: Theorizing Sociality in Single-Player Gameplay
Mia Consalvo, Jason Begy, Sarah Ganzon &Rainforest Scully-Blaker, Video Games: AMedium That Demands Attention (2018) edited by Nicholas Bowman, Routledge