Dear Members,
As the new DiGRA executive board has officially begun our term, we wish to introduce ourselves, our goals and values, and inform you of some of the work we have already begun.
First, we wish to give thanks to the previous board for their hard work, stewardship, and professionalism during the transfer process. Running an organization of the size and prestige of DiGRA is a large task, and one not easily accomplished. We give gratitude and honor the accomplishments of the previous board.
As we are a new board, introductions are in order. Each of us has prepared a couple sentences about ourselves so that you can learn a little more about who we are and what we do.
- President Ashley Guajardo– Hello! My name is Ashley and I am an associate professor (lecturing) at the University of Utah. I am honored and humbled that DiGRA members chose me to lead this organization and I will forever be in awe of the kind and thoughtful people who volunteered to be on the executive board with me. I cannot wait to see you all in Malta!
- Vice President Elina Roinioti– Hi, I’m Elina, an assistant professor at the University of the Peloponnese, based in the city of Nafplio. Here’s a bit about me: the last game I played was Slay the Princess, and our last chance to connect was at CEEGS 2024. Looking forward to seeing you again at DiGRA 2025!
- Secretary Tom Apperley– Hi, my name is Tom and I am a Senior Research Fellow at the Centre of Excellence in Game Culture Studies at Tampere University, Finland.
- Student Officer Yisong Han– Hello, my name is Yisong, and I am a PhD student at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia. My research focuses on gender diversity and inclusion in videogame avatar customization systems, and my recent work has been published in Games and Culture. I am honored to be part of the executive board as the student officer and to represent the voices of students within the community.
- Open Seat Iris Kleinecke-Bates– Hi, I’m Iris, I’m a lecturer in Screen Studies at the University of Hull in the UK. My research focuses on visual narratives, affect, memory and nostalgia and in the past I have published on representations of the past, memory, nostalgia, and design on television. I’m currently working on post-apocalyptic narratives in film and video games, with a specific focus on urban environments and ruins. An article on The Last of Us and Horizon: Zero Dawn is forthcoming in 2025-6, and a monograph on post-apocalyptic urban spaces is in the works.
- Open Seat Jim Malazita– Hi everyone, my name is Jim Malazita and I’m an Associate Professor of STS and Game Design at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, NY, USA, and the incoming Director of RPI’s Critical Game Design Ph.D. program. My first book, Enacting Platforms: Feminist Technoscience and the Unreal Engine, uses feminist and Black theories of science and technology to examine game engine platforms, histories of game development, and the coproduction of race, cinema, and computer graphics, and is available Open Access from the MIT Press.
The 2025-7 board is excited for the opportunity to build an open, safe, and productive space for game studies scholars. Our board values lie within transparency, accountability, and respect; and we are eager to show you how we plan to put those values into action. While there is much work to be done, here’s how we’ve begun:
- We’ve established infrastructure on the main DiGRA website to easily access meeting minutes via the membership portal. You can view the minutes from our first meeting here.
- The board looks forward to hosting quarterly ‘fireside chats’ with members, with the first of such chats to take place in March (precise date and zoom link to be sent soon). The purpose of these chats is to include a high level summary of what the board accomplished during the quarter, as well as to listen to community feedback and answer questions in a real-time, video chat.
- We are also looking forward to starting a monthly newsletter, featuring fieldwide news from the board, and member-submitted job ads, graduate positions, publication announcements, and other relevant items. The newsletter will be tied into new functionality for the DiGRA website, which we hope can serve as a field-wide informational portal.
As the new board of directors for DIGRA, we would also like to invite you to share your vision for the next two years. What would you like to see change? What practices should we consider adding? While we cannot promise that every idea will be implemented, we are committed to hearing your voices.
Join us on Discord, use the channel #digra_future, and actively participate in shaping our community’s future.
From all of us,
Happy New Year!