PhD Course - Eludamos Symposium Doctoral Consortium: The Future of Games and Game Studies

April 6 - April 8

The editorial board of Eludamos: Journal for Computer Game Culture has the pleasure to invite you to a PhD consortium and scholarly symposium at ITU Copenhagen, April 6–8, 2022.

The theme of the symposium is The Futures of Game Studies. During its around 20 years of existence, game studies has put computer games on the academic map. The field has provided a response to effect studies by demonstrating that games are social arenas of intrinsic value to the individuals that use them, and that they are cultural products able to comment on society in new ways. From a more practical perspective, technical oriented game studies has driven developments in artificial intelligence and virtual reality.

But where will game studies go in the future? What are the challenges that game studies will face as computer games mature and become a medium not only for entertainment but also for politics and activism? What will happen to games as technological developments take new and unforeseen directions? How can we as a scholarly community be able not only to respond to these rapid developments but also be able to define what games should be in the future? Through a focus on the work by young scholars, the symposium will be an attempt to illuminate potential avenues for the future of game studies.

The event will consist of a series of talks by experts in the field (TBA) and sessions for discussion of full paper submissions by PhD candidates. The talks will be open to the public while participation in the paper sessions will be limited to registered participants of the PhD consortium.

We would like to invite PhD candidates to submit proposals for full papers to be discussed during the event. Please submit a title and abstract (max. 600 words excl. references) by January 31^st, 2022 to eludamos@gmail.com. Papers can have a rather loose connection to the overall theme of the symposium.

The organizing team will assess the incoming proposals and send out invitations to submit full papers by February 15^th, 2022. Submission deadline for invited full paper drafts will be March 15^th, 2022. Please submit as PDF, TRF, or Word document.

The PhD consortium consists of a series of feedback sessions overseen by Kristine Jørgensen, Holger Pötzsch, and Hanna Wirman. Draft papers will be distributed to all registered participants at least 15 days prior to the event. We dedicate approx. 45 minutes to discussion of each full paper.

During the feedback sessions we expect every participant to have read all the submitted draft papers. Each contribution will be briefly introduced and contextualized by the author(s) (max. 5 minutes). Please do not give lengthy summaries. Then, each draft will be commented on by at least one expert (5–10 minutes) and one fellow PhD candidate (5–10 minutes). The remaining time will be dedicated to open discussion among all consortium participants.

Very promising contributions will be invited to undergo review in the journal Eludamos with prospect for publication as part of a special issue on Futures of Games and Game Studies scheduled for winter 2022 or spring 2023.

Organizers:

Joleen Blom (External: Postdoctoral researcher at the Centre of Excellence in Game Culture Studies at Tampere University, Finland)
Dom Ford (PhD Student, ITU)
Hans-Joachim Backe (Associate Professor, ITU)

Lecturers:

Professor Holger Pötzsch (UiT The Arctic University of Norway)
Professor Kristine Jørgensen (University of Bergen)
TBD: 3 external guest speakers

Dates of the course:

6–8 April 2022

Time:

09:00-16:30

Location:

IT University of Copenhagen (Rooms TBD)

Course description:

Course Description

This course is a doctoral consortium attached to a symposium. The symposium itself features a number of invited speakers, who will present relevant research and engage in discussions with attendees. The doctoral consortium gives participants a chance to engage with respected scholars in the field and receive feedback on work-in-progress.

The theme of the symposium is The Future of Games and Game Studies. During its approximately 20 years of existence, game studies has put computer games on the academic map. The field has demonstrated that games are social arenas of intrinsic value to the individuals that use them, and that they are cultural products able to comment on society in new ways. From a more practical perspective, technically-oriented game studies has driven developments in artificial intelligence and virtual reality.

But where will games go in the future? And where, then, will the study of games go? What are the challenges that game studies will face as computer games mature and become conceivable as an artform – a medium not only for entertainment but also for critical reflection, politics, and activism? What will happen to games as technological developments take new and unforeseen directions? How can we as a scholarly community respond to these rapid developments and shape what games should be in the future? Through a focus on the work of young scholars, the symposium is an attempt to illuminate potential avenues for the future of games and game studies.

Participants of the consortium are welcome and encouraged to attend the whole symposium. The consortium will be run by members of the editorial board of Eludamos, including its editors-in-chief Professors Kristine Jørgensen and Holger Pötzsch, alongside three external speakers, who will each give talks and provide feedback in the consortium.

At the consortium, participants will be expected to have a draft paper as a starting point (this can be a chapter, conference paper, journal article, etc.). The draft papers will be distributed to all registered attendants not later than two weeks prior to the event. Participants will present their draft both to other participants and to the organizers and guest lecturers, who will offer feedback.

While the draft paper does not have to be a journal article, the sessions and the feedback will be geared towards writing for journals. As such, participants will learn from editors themselves what is expected of a successful journal article, how the peer-review process works, how best to structure a paper, and how to present one’s ideas effectively in academic writing. They will also get experience in both receiving feedback from senior scholars, and in providing it to peers, learning what makes for good, actionable and fair criticism and feedback.

Intended Learning Outcomes:

Understand the process of submitting to a journal, having work peer-reviewed and iterating based on that. In doing so, participants will learn to…
- Reflect on key topics in the field of game studies.
- Listen to feedback and apply the relevant changes to a work-in-progress.
- Provide and discuss feedback on others’ works-in-progress.
- Report and communicate one’s research in progress to peers

Reading list:

Participants will read two other participant’s papers and prepare notes for feedback. All papers will receive feedback by the organizers of the doctoral consortium.

Programme:

Programme

Day 1

9:00 - 12:00: Symposium + Mandatory lecture external guest #1

12:00 - 13:00 Lunch

12:30 - 13:00 Walk-in, informal talks before actual start of the programme

[Consortium programme]

13:00 - 13:15 Introduction

13:15 - 14:45 Draft presentations + feedback by experts (including external guest#1)

14:45 - 15:00 Coffee break

15:00 - 16:30 Group work: writing + feedback by participants on presentation/paper

Day 2

9:00 - 12:00: Symposium + Mandatory lecture external guest #2

12:00 - 13:00 Lunch

12:30 - 13:00 Walk-in, informal talks before actual start of the programme

[Consortium programme]

13:00 - 14:30 Draft presentations + feedback by experts (including external guest#2)

14:30 - 14:45 Coffee break

14:45 - 16:15 Group work: writing + feedback by participants on presentation/paper

Day 3

9:00 - 12:00: Symposium + Mandatory lecture external guest #3

12:00 - 13:00 Lunch

12:30 - 13:00 Walk-in, informal talks before actual start of the programme

[Consortium programme]

13:00 - 14:30 Draft presentations + feedback by experts (including external guest#3)

14:30 - 14:45 Coffee break

14:45 - 16:15 Group work: writing + feedback by participants on presentation/paper

Prerequisites:

There are no specific prerequisites. Participants should be sufficiently qualified to provide useful feedback to others working on papers.

Exam:

Participants will present their works-in-progress at the consortium to peers, the invited external speakers and members of the Eludamos editorial board, and this presentation will serve as their exam, to be assessed by organiser Hajo Backe.

Credits:

The course is eligible for 2.3 ECTS.

Amount of hours the student is expected to use on the course:

Participation: 13 (22 for whole consortium + symposium)

Preparation: 42 (including paper writing and paper reading)

Participants:

Minimum 5. Maximum 20.

How to sign up:

Participants sign up with their name, email, institution and a 100-500 word abstract for the paper they plan to develop for the consortium. Sign-ups should be sent to eludamos@gmail.com. Participants will need to then submit their draft paper approximately two weeks before the consortium.