People
Director
Hong-An Wu
DirectorHi there! I’m Dr. Hong-An Wu 吳鴻安, and I go by Ann with she/her pronouns. My interdisciplinary scholarship redresses the failures of technologies in education and their inequitable consequences by theorizing critical, careful, and playful pedagogies with technologies oriented toward social justice. My published works appear in Catalyst, Journal of Cultural Research in Art Education, OneShot: A Journal of Critical Games and Play, among others. Currently, I serve as an associate professor in critical media studies at the University of Texas at Dallas.
website: www.wuhongann.tw
email: hongan.wu@utdallas.edu
Previous Co-Director
Josef Nguyen
Previous Co-DirectorDr. Josef Nguyen (he/him/his) is an associate professor in the Department of Film, Television, and Media at the University of Michigan. His book The Digital Is Kid Stuff: Making Creative Laborers for a Precarious Economy (University of Minnesota Press, Dec 2021) argues that debates over creative digital youth operate to assuage profound anxieties about—and to defuse valid critiques of—both emerging digital technologies and the precarity of employment for “creative laborers” in twenty-first-century neoliberal America. He is also interested in feminist and queer game studies, the politics of consent, and DIY, craft, and maker cultures.
website: www.josefnguyen.net
email: josefn@umich.edu
Collaborators
Abby Cole
CollaboratorAbby Cole is a PhD Candidate in the ATEC program at UTD. She specializes in media and communication technologies with additional expertise in journalism, documentary studies, and feminist science and technology studies. Her research examines the social, political, technical, and cultural contexts of media and technology’s influence on shaping narratives and audience behaviors. Her dissertation investigates communication technologies, such as artificial intelligence, to propose an emerging journalism praxis with a specific interest in the phenomenon of polarization.
email: abby.cole@utdallas.edu
Angie Vo
CollaboratorI’m Angie Vo (she/they) and I’m a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Texas at Dallas in the Arts, Technology, and Emerging Communication Program! As a queer academic, my work and research lie at the intersection of Asian American studies, critical media studies, and community-based participatory research. I’m interested in exploring Asian American activism, political communication, and the effects of emerging media in society. My published work can be found in the International Journal of Communication and I am always looking to host community workshops in the DFW area!
website: https://www.helloangievo.com/
Cameron Irby
CollaboratorIt’s Dr. Irby (he/him/his)! I’m an adjunct faculty teaching game studies at UTD and UNT with an emphasis on how games shape and are shaped by culture. I have a Ph.D. in Arts, Technology, and Emerging Communication (2024) with a three-fold emphasis on narrative media, queer theory, and fan studies. Currently, my research focuses on how players engage with and/or contest games as power fantasies, but you’ll often find me wandering around campus waiting to showcase whatever board game has caught my interest.
website: cirby.neocities.org
email: cli170000@utdallas.edu
Luke Hernandez
CollaboratorLuke Hernandez is a doctoral candidate in the Arts, Technology, and Emerging Communication program interested in the complex relationships between play, community, and identity. Their research interests include critical game studies, queer play, latinx studies, and feminist science and technology studies. Luke’s published works include “What Makes Latinx Studies” in Intervenxions and “Doom! Invader Zim as Rasquache” in Animation Studies 2.0. They are also an aspiring visual novel game writer and a proud Aquarius.
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lukio_andrews_hernan/
email: Luke.Hernandez@utdallas.edu
Chatrin Samanchuen
Hello everyone! My name is Chat (he/him/his). I am a PhD student in Arts, Technology, and Emerging Communication at the University of Texas at Dallas. With a background in interactive digital environment production, my research intersects game studies, science and technology studies, and human-computer interaction. I explore the meaning of play for real-life functions, decision-making, and its potential alongside technology as an educational method. In my free time, you can find me playing soccer at the UTD gym. I also enjoy playing Scrabble board games, been playing since junior high school and am still good at it!
website: www.childvfx.com/
email: chatrinsamanchuen@gmail.com
Kasif Rahman
Kasif Rahman (he/him/his) has a Ph.D. in Arts, Technology, and Emerging Communication. His research is situated at the intersection of Digital Media Studies, Postcolonial Feminist Science and Technology Studies, and Cultural Studies, with a particular interest in media and discourse on the traverse of e-waste and ship junks to South Asia. Through an interdisciplinary lens, he pursues questions that emerge at the intersection of technology, power, environment, labor, and culture.
email: kasifur.rahman@gmail.com
Yu Guo
Hello! I’m Yu Guo 郭燏 (she/they), and I go by Yuki. I’m a PhD student in the ATEC program at UTD. My research spans critical game studies, queer theory, digital media, and labor studies, with a current focus on game failure and Chinese game labor. Before my PhD, I worked as a narrative designer in the Chinese game industry. My life game is To the Moon, and I love all games featuring great narratives!
email: yu.guo2@utdallas.edu
Remote Collaborators
Amory Beardsley
Remote CollaboratorAmory received their BA from UT Dallas in 2021. They are currently working at Chewy and making homemade craft goods in their spare time for their etsy shop. Having run the Women in Games program in their latter years at UTD, Amory continues to have an interest in activism and relevant media, and they’re working on getting ready for their master’s. In their free time, they enjoy playing games with friends and petting their cat.
email: amory.beardsley@gmail.com
Atanur Andıç
Remote CollaboratorDr. Atanur Andıç is an Assistant Professor of Communication Design at Özyeğin University, Faculty of Architecture and Design. He holds a Ph.D. in Arts, Technology, and Emerging Communication from the University of Texas at Dallas, where he examined the politics of 3D model making. His research explores the intersections of new media, fan studies, and digital humanities, focusing on how emerging technologies shape cultural production, participation, and authorship.
website: https://www.ozyegin.edu.tr/en/faculty/atanurandic
email: atanur.andic@ozyegin.edu.tr
Chelsea Brtis
Remote CollaboratorChelsea Brtis (she/her) is an assistant professor of digital illustration at University of North Carolina at Charlotte in the College of Arts and Architecture. She received a Bachelor of Architecture from Iowa State University and an MFA in Arts, Technology, and Emerging Communication from the University of Texas at Dallas. In her research, Brtis interrogates topics such as environmental politics, animal-human relations, and inclusive representation through game development. Brtis is the creator of the recognized game concepts Together, which focuses on building communal awareness during COVID-19, and Local Goods, which highlights how our role as consumers impacts the environment.
website: bakiara.itch.io
email: clbrtis@gmail.com
Diamond E. Beverly-Porter
Remote CollaboratorDiamond (She/Her) is an Assistant Professor, Tenure-track with Washington State University in the Digital Technologies and Culture department. Her work explores play, multimodal representations, critical making, and narrative storytelling through digital games and technology. Her work centers around blackness in gaming spaces; fandoms, identity, and Black girlhood. Outside of work, Diamond enjoys playing Dungeons and Dragons, reading fanfiction, playing with her cat J’zargo, and, of course, playing video games. She is also a teaching artist and collaborator with The SmART Project based in Dallas.
email: diamondebp@gmail.com
Jack Murray
Remote CollaboratorJack Murray is a PhD Student in the Texts and Technology program at the University of Central Florida. Jack also received an M.A. in Arts, Technology, and Emerging Communication and a B.S. in Software Engineering both from the University of Texas at Dallas. Their research is interested in the intersections of analog and digital games and play, specifically looking at the ways that games mediate the relationships between players and technology. Jack is also interested in designing and building games and controllers that disrupt normative configurations of play. When not thinking about games, weird controllers, or fencing, Jack likes to collect irresponsible amounts of board games, plush figures, and fake fantasy creature skulls while also telling his dog, Kiska, how much of a good girl she is
website: www.jackademia.com
email: jack@jackademia.com
twitter: @jackademia
Juan Llamas-Rodriguez
Remote CollaboratorDr. Juan Llamas-Rodriguez is assistant professor of global media in the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania. His research and teaching mobilize media theories to critically analyze social phenomena on a global scale.
website: www.llamas-rodriguez.com
email: jalr@asc.upenn.edu
Rinaldo Del Gallo
Remote CollaboratorI also go by Ray (he/him/his). My academic interests involve digital games studies, science and technology studies, and media studies. I also participate in game development, online esports, and TTRPGS. Right now, my work focuses on patch notes and the patching process in live service esports games like League of Legends. I’m also interested in harmful play and ideologies in hardcore gaming cultures.
Sam Owens
Remote CollaboratorSam Owens has a Bachelors of Science in Visualization from Texas A&M University and Masters of Fine Arts from University of Texas at Dallas where she studied game design and game studies. Her research focused on female representation in games and games culture. Currently, she is a QA tester at Dire Wolf Digital where she works on various digital board game and trading card projects. Sam feels her biggest accomplishment since after school was reaching out to make a small group for women at one of her previous QA companies, which allowed them to connect in the workspace and share their concerns of the workplace culture to seek help and change. In her free time, Sam is an avid consumer of k-pop and video games and is often found reading or writing.
website: samowensdesign.wordpress.com
email: samlynnowens@gmail.com
Shad Miller
Remote CollaboratorAfter working in the games industry in Canada and Switzerland, Shad Miller is now a McDermott Fellow pursuing an ATCM Ph.D. with a concentration in Games Development and Narrative at the University of Texas at Dallas. His primary research interests involve play, improvisation, and games as communication.
website: shad-miller.squarespace.com
email: eric.miller@utdallas.edu
Stephen Mallory
Remote CollaboratorStephen Mallory is an Assistant Professor of Game Design in the College of Architecture and Design at Lawrence Technological University in Southfield, Michigan. His research involves the use of educational games to question existing state-approved history curricula. He is also exploring the role of Digital Games in establishing a new critical framework of analysis called Digimodernism (Kirby, 2009).
email: smallory@ltu.edu
Taryn Henry
Remote CollaboratorTaryn Henry received her Bachelor of Arts in Game Studies from UT Dallas in 2019. She is a freelance artist, feminist, and game designer. She co-created the Women in Games organization at UTD, and continues her activist efforts as well as create safe spaces for creators from all walks of life. An aspiring professor, Taryn has interests in alternate reality games, consent in games, and fan studies. In her free time, she loves to watch horror films, knit, and visit abandoned and historic locations.
email: talia.henryart@gmail.com
Shonte Clement
Remote CollaboratorShonte ‘Sho’ Clement is a sculptor and experimental interactive media artist based in Dallas, Texas. Their work sits at the intersection of Black feminist scholarship, Queer studies, and play studies. Through participant interaction with sculptural objects and interactive media, Shonte crafts figurative objects with the purpose of making visceral the emotions they feel sitting at the intersections of their identity. Participants are encouraged to see themselves reflected in the constellation of experiences of another.
Previous Collaborators
Cenk Köknar
Previous CollaboratorDr. Cenk Köknar is a lecturer, researcher, and practitioner in interaction design at the University of Edinburgh. His research focuses on user experience design, applied game design, inclusive design, and the expressive potential of interactive media.
Mohammed Rashid
Previous CollaboratorDr. Mohammed Rashid (he/they) is an Assistant Professor of Critical Cultural Communication and Media Studies at The University of Southern Mississippi. He was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania. Mohammed has a PhD in Arts, Technology, and Emerging Communication from The University of Texas at Dallas. His research has appeared in QED, Media Fields, and Flow. His current book project, Mediated Sexualities, explores the tactical digital media cultures of queer counter-publics in Bangladesh.
website: https://mohammedrashid.net/
email: mohammed.rashid@usm.edu
