Job: Post-doctoral Fellowship in Game Studies and Design

Post-doctoral fellow to work at Concordia University over the next two years in Game Studies and Design.

The Postdoctoral Fellow in Game Studies and Design will play a central role in launching two newly funded research projects that investigate game culture and game creation, and take as a central objective investigating new forms of play and new types of game mechanics.

Streaming @ the Margins of Play studies live streaming of videogame play via Twitch.tv. It will investigate how the play practices of women, people of colour, older and LGBTQ individuals are reconfiguring our understanding of gameplay. This project investigates how such play is being (re)built as a site for entertainment, for leisure, and for community building.

The research-creation project Playing with Ambiguity: A Game Exploring Moral Dilemmas and Player Agency investigates how better game design conventions can be developed to persuade individuals to explore morally ambiguous situations through play, to understand complex societal issues as well as individual actions that seem morally suspect.

The PDF will work with Dr. Consalvo at the mLab and the Technoculture, Art and Games (TAG) Centre, which has 15 faculty members and 30 graduate students from departments across arts and science, fine arts and engineering. The Centre has the single largest concentration of work of this kind in Canada. TAG’s faculty and students have a commitment to developing collaborative projects and mentoring in an open concept studio/lab based environment.

Academic qualifications required

PhD in Communication Studies, English, Media Studies or a related field, with experience in qualitative methods. In addition to helping with the management of these projects, the PDF should have an independent research program that focuses either on research about live streaming of gameplay or a focus related to players, morality and ethics, and digital gameplay.

Eligibility requirements

• Applicants must not currently hold a postdoctoral appointment at Concordia
• Priority will be given to postdoctoral fellows who have obtained their PhD from another university although in exceptional cases Concordia graduates may be considered
• Applicants must adhere to the postdoctoral fellow eligibility criteria outlined in Concordia University’s Postdoctoral Policy

Full details
http://www.concordia.ca/research/students-and-postdocs/postdoctoral-fellows/horizon-postdoctoral-fellowships/1003.html

For more information
Mia Consalvo, Ph.D.
Professor and Canada Research Chair in Game Studies & Design
Director, the mLab
Exec Board, Centre for Technoculture, Art & Games (TAG)
Author of Atari to Zelda: Japan’s Videogames in Global Context, 2016, MIT Press
Co-author of Players and their Pets, 2015, U of Minnesota Press