Game Cultures
The Game Cultures cluster is BCMCR’s address to the growing field of Game Studies. Our research takes a range of perspectives to the study of both digital and non-digital games in contemporary and historical contexts.
The Game Cultures cluster addresses the growing field of Game Studies. We explore the textual qualities of digital and non-digital games, and their paratextual and metatextual surrounds, but we go beyond this to engage also with players – their discussions about/responses to games, their productive activity in relation to games – with the games industry, and with the political and cultural institutions that create the landscape within which games are consumed/played and understood. Our cluster incorporates people and approaches from Game Studies and Media Studies, but also from other research units at BCU – including Education and Art & Design – as well as from fields such as Historical Studies and Fan Studies.
The main themes emerging from our work at present concern historical game studies; game adaptation and localisation; posthumanism and games; player narratives and play experience; national/transnational representation; the practices of players as fans; and ecocritical approaches to games. Much of our work incorporates themes of gender and sexuality.
Areas of activity
- Historical game studies
- Video game narratives and adaptation
- History and (video)game communities, including fan cultures
- Posthumanism and video games
- Video games and cultural policy
- Games and national/transnational identity
- Video games and ecocriticism
Cluster members
- Dr Nick Webber
- Dr Charlotte Stevens
- Dr Poppy Wilde
- Dr Alex Wade
- Dr Will McKeown
- Eugenio Triana
- Zuby Ahmed
Postgraduate researchers
- Harrison Charles
- Reuben Mount
- Andrew Bell
- Mark Chapman
- Mary Anne Argo Chávez
- Antonio Greff de Freitas
External members and partners
- Dr Bettina Bódi (University of Birmingham)
- Dr Matt Denny (University of Warwick)
- Dr Iain Donald (Edinburgh Napier University; Visiting Research Fellow at BCU)
- Dr Regina Seiwald (University of Birmingham)
- Dr Esther Wright (Cardiff University; Visiting Research Fellow at BCU)