The II Video Game Studies Congress: "The Political Component in Games", will be a hybrid event that will take place over 3 days, organized by the Critical Game Studies Network in collaboration with the University of California, Riverside, and UNIACC University in
Chile. The congress will take place from January 9, 2025 to January 11, 2025 and will develop a wide range of activities, including keynote lectures, talks, exhibitions and discussion spaces.
The congress will focus on the analysis of the political component present in video games and their development, as well as in the communities of developers and gamers, from their explicit representations to their subtle implications.
We will be accepting proposals from people from diverse disciplines, such as social sciences, communication, humanities, design, and the arts, among others. Professional and academic works are welcomed, whether from students or scholars in different stages of their careers. We will also be accepting proposals from non-academic works from people from the game industries, whether developing or working in them. Research about games or work experiences with gamer and player communities in development or finished will also be welcomed.
The congress will feature research presentations, discussion panels, workshops and other activities. It is expected that people from the academic field, game developers, artists, journalists and other professionals interested in the topic will participate, either as attendees or speakers.
Possible themes
The following topics are proposed, although not exclusively:
1. Representations of violence and power
2. Social and political criticism in games and video games
3. Gender, race and sexuality in games and video games
4. Games and activism
5. The ethics of game and video game design
To apply for the conference, you must email your proposal as an attatched document to ludocritica@gmail.com before october 25th, 23.59 (GMT-3). In the attached document please indicate a 250-word summary of your proposal, the number of people who will present, and participation format (online or on-site). You must also add your contact information (name, institutional filiation [if applicable], title of your proposal, country and work format (options avalaible below). We suggest to check the frequently asked questions section before submitting your proposal.
1. Traditional presentation
Duration: 15-20 minutes
Structure:
Introduction: Presentation of the topic, objectives and relevance.
Development: Exposition of the main content, including data, analysis and examples, as
appropriate.
Conclusion: Summary of key points, contributions and future research.
2. Discussion panel:
Duration: 45-60 minutes.
Structure:
Moderator introduces the topic and presents the panelists.
Brief individual presentations by the panelists (5 minutes each).
Moderated discussion among the panelists (20-30 minutes).
Questions and answers from the audience (10-20 minutes).
3. Workshop:
Duration: 60 minutes.
Structure:
Introduction to the topic and objectives of the workshop.
Practical activity guided by the speaker.
Group discussion on the results of the activity.
Conclusions and next steps.
Resources:
Slides (optional)
Materials for the practical activity (tools, worksheets, etc.)
*Please consider participation formato (online or on-site) and the hybrid format of the conference when proposing a workshop.
Schedule
Conference: January 9 - 11 2025
Call for papers: July 29 2024
Submission deadline : October 25 2024, 23.59 (GMT-3). Submission deadline extended: November 04 2024, 23.59 (GMT-3)
Notification of acceptance: November 22 2024
Attendees inscription: December 30 2024 [Inscriptions here]
Program presentation: [Available here]