CFP, Feminist Game Studies – Ada: A Journal of Gender, New Media, and Technology
CALL FOR PAPERS
Ada: A Journal of Gender, New Media, and Technology
Issue 2: Feminist Game Studies
Editor: Nina Huntemann, Suffolk University
Deadline for submissions: 1 October 2012
Word length: 5000-9000 words
Publication Date: April 2013
Despite worldwide popularity across an increasingly diverse population of players, video and computer games continue to be defined, discussed, debated and derided as “toys for boys.”
The gamer stereotype — young, heterosexual men — and reputation of misogyny in video game culture persists, in part, because many corners of the culture perpetuate these assumptions: homophobic, racist and sexist talk is notorious in online play and in the comment section of video game blogs and message boards; women are hyper-sexualized as characters in video games and at trade shows and fan conventions (i.e. ‘booth babes’); women and racial minorities hold very few creative positions in the industry; and game publishers purposely invoke the stereotypical male gamer to sell games, particular hypermasculinized first person shooter and military-themed games (i.e. Call of Duty, Halo, God of War). As video games have integrated into the everyday lives of millions of people globally, it is no longer accurate (if it ever was) or useful to think of games and game spaces as primarily male domains. As games have migrated onto mobile devices, portable platforms, and cell phones, gaming is no longer (if it ever was) a leisure activity exclusive to young consumers from North America, Europe or Japan. But even as the first quarters dropped into Computer Space, women, people of color and queer players were negotiating their play inside homophobic, racist and sexist game spaces, and notable women and minority designers have created games that challenge a white, hetero-male virtual worldview.
It is the historical portrayal of gaming as male-centered, the disruption of that culture brought on by new forms of play, and the negotiated practices of marginalized players that informs this issue of Ada: A Journal of Gender, New Media and Technology.
Aims and Scope
The second issue of Ada will focus on feminist game studies. Feminist game studies examines how gender — and its intersections with race, class, sexuality, ability, ethnicity, nation and other axes of power — is produced, represented, consumed and practiced in and through digital games. The issue editor invites unpublished work from students, junior and senior scholars, independent authors, and artists that is centrally focused on feminist approaches to digital games, game play, game culture and/or the games industry.
The editor welcomes submissions from a wide range of disciplines and diverse methodological and conceptual approaches. If you wish to discuss a potential contribution for this issue, please email the issue editor, Nina Huntemann,
Topics and approaches might include, but are not limited to:
● Theorizing feminist game play and game design
● Representations of femininity and masculinity in video games
● Queer gaming / queering games
● Gender and labor in video game production (hardware and software)
● Feminist machinima, feminist modding
● Racism, sexism and homophobia in games, game communities
● Organized (and disorganized) challenges to racism, sexism and homophobia by
players
General Submission Requirements:
Authors should submit essays of 5000-9000 directly to the editor in Rich Text Format
(.rtf) or MS Word format (.doc) by 1 October 2012. If your submission includes images,
inquire with the editor about securing proper permissions. All images should be
submitted as separate files, not embedded in the manuscript. Please send one JPG image
for quick download (< 2mb) and one TIF image for archival purposes (200dpi
resolution).
All submissions should be accompanied by the following information in the email
message with your submission attachment:
● Name(s), institutional affiliation(s), email address(es) of the person(s) submitting.
● Title of the text and the issue for which it is submitted.
● An abstract of no more than 100 words.
● A short paragraph (40-60 words) about the contributor(s).
Email submission to Nina Huntemann, nhuntemann@suffolk.edu
About Ada: Ada is an online, open access, open source, peer-reviewed journal run on a
nonprofit basis by feminist media scholars from Canada, the UK, and the US. We do not
– and will never — charge fees for publishing your materials, and we will share those
materials using a Creative Commons License. Read more about Ada, including detailed
information about submission guidelines and the review process at
http://fembotcollective.org/journal/ada-submission-guidelines/.
Illustration by Mara Williams.
