Racial Representation in Video Games
As one of the most popular forms of modern media, video games represent the future of storytelling. While they're enjoyed by people of all races, genders and other backgrounds, protagonists are overwhelmingly white, with other races and cultures relegated to villains or minor roles. Even worse, gamers of color are often the target of racial hate speech.
Join Dr. Kishonna L. Gray, Nicolas Guérin, Dr. Tanner Mirrlees and Taha Ibaid for a conversation around racial diversity and representation in the gaming community at Racial Representation in Video Games, Thursday, Dec. 2, 2021, from 1:30 to 2:45 p.m. Phoenix MST:
- In person in Durham Hall Room 135, Arizona State University, 851 S Cady Mall, Tempe, AZ 85287
- Online via Zoom
This event is organized by the Humanities Lab on behalf of students David Jonathan Jaulus, Claire Hetrick, Edwin Wong and Anthony Rosas as their final outcome from Deconstructing Race, a Humanities Lab course taught by Isaac Joslin and Yeukai Mlambo in Fall 2021.
This event is made possible through an Amplifier Student Mini-Grant from Seize the Moment, an initiative of Leonardo, the Humanities Lab and the Global Futures Laboratory at Arizona State University.
If you have any questions, please contact Public Engagement Coordinator Jake Friedman at 480-727-3973 or jake.friedman@asu.edu.
About the Speakers
Dr. Kishonna L. Gray (@kishonnagray) is an Associate Professor in the Writing, Rhetoric, Digital Studies program at the University of Kentucky. She is an interdisciplinary, intersectional, digital media scholar whose areas of research include identity, performance and online environments, embodied deviance, cultural production, video games and Black Cyberfeminism. Dr. Gray is the author of Intersectional Tech: Black Users in Digital Gaming (LSU Press, 2020). She is also the author of Race, Gender, & Deviance in Xbox Live (Routledge, 2014), and the co-editor of two volumes on culture and gaming: Feminism in Play (Palgrave-Macmillan, 2018) and Woke Gaming (University of Washington Press, 2018). Dr. Gray has published in a variety of outlets across disciplines and has also featured in public outlets such as The Guardian, The Telegraph and The New York Times. Follow Dr. Gray on Twitter @KishonnaGray
Spiritfarer’s Creative Director, Nicolas Guérin is also credited as Lead Designer and Lead Writer on the game. A true passion project, Spiritfarer allowed him to finally take the creative liberties and methods only a nimble and dedicated studio such as Thunder Lotus made possible. Before his enthusiastic leap to the Indie scene, he assumed various key design roles throughout his decades-old career in the video game industry, working on AAA franchises such as Assassin’s Creed, Watch Dogs and Skate for Electronic Arts and Ubisoft. To him, games have a duty to mean something, have a purpose and show heart, soul and ambition. Father, husband and proud cat lover, Nick has spent a lifetime fulfilling quests in many different types of digital or physical media, but still sees tabletop RPGs as the pinnacle of interactive entertainment.
Tanner Mirrlees is an Associate Professor in the Communication and Digital Media Studies program in the Faculty of Social Science and Humanities at Ontario Tech University. Mirrlees is the author of Hearts and Mines: The US Empire's Cultural Industry (UBC Press, 2016), Global Entertainment Media: Between Cultural Imperialism and Cultural Globalization (Routledge, 2013), co-author of EdTech Inc.: Selling, Automating and Globalizing Higher Education in the Digital Age (Routledge, 2019), and co-editor of Media Imperialism: Continuity and Change (Rowman & Littlefield, 2019), The Television Reader (Oxford University Press, 2012) and Media, Technology, and the Culture of Militarism (2014).
Taha Ibaid is an independent researcher and graduate of Ontario Tech University, with a master's in criminology and a minor in forensic psychology. His published work brings attention to the representation of minorities within the entertainment industry, with a primary focus on depictions of Muslims in war-themed video games. In addition to his publications in the Islamophobia Studies Journal and the Islamic Society of North America's "Islamic Horizons" magazine, Taha is also an experienced investigative screening agent with a background in risk assessment and litigation searches.
About Deconstructing Race
How can we address contemporary global inequalities that are rooted in racist ideologies? How are race and racism related to economic, social, cultural and ecological inequities? How can we better understand the broad geographical and historical consequences of race? Looking at various colonial legacies, philosophical texts and works of art, this lab will encourage reflection and interpretation of the language and idea of race in order to understand the different experiences of racialized populations and communities, with the explicit goal of promoting a more inclusive vision of humanity for the twenty-first century. Deconstructing Race is taught by Dr. Isaac Joslin and Yeukai Mlambo (Fall 2021). To learn more and view upcoming labs, visit our website at https://humanities.lab.asu.edu/current-and-upcoming-labs.
About the Organizers
The Humanities Lab is an inquiry-driven social change incubator designed to offer students new ways of knowing, doing and being. All Lab courses focus on today’s most pressing social challenges and engage students in team-based, action-oriented, project-centered learning in collaboration with instructional faculty, embedded university librarians and community consultants on and off campus. Learning is activated by students who pose questions, conduct transdisciplinary collaborative research, follow up on research-informed leads, innovate possibilities for positive change and ultimately develop public-facing impact outcomes designed to better our collective future. To learn more, visit our website at http://humanities.lab.asu.edu.
Shaping tomorrow, today, requires path-breaking, creative solutions. In an alarming syndemic of intersecting crises—the coronavirus pandemic, racial injustice and accompanying civil unrest, and cascading environmental hazards—Seize the Moment addresses the grand challenges of the day through transdisciplinary arts, science, technological and humanities collaborations in research, pedagogy and public engagement. Seize the Moment is an initiative of Leonardo, the Humanities Lab and the Global Futures Laboratory at Arizona State University. To learn more, visit our website at http://stm.asu.edu.