Bonnie Ruberg at Playthink: 9/10/19

Explicit content warning

09/11/19 • 55 min

Bonnie Ruberg, Ph.D. is an assistant professor in the Department of Informatics and the Program in Visual Studies at the University of California, Irvine. Their research explores gender and sexuality in digital media and digital cultures with a focus on queerness and video games. They are the author of Video Games Have Always Been Queer (2019, New York University Press) and The Queer Games Avant-Garde (2020, Duke University Press) and the co-editor of Queer Game Studies (2017, University of Minnesota Press). Ruberg is also the co-founder and co-organizer of the annual Queerness and Games Conference. They received their Ph.D. with certification in New Media and Gender and Sexuality Studies from the University of California, Berkeley and served as a Provost's Postdoctoral Fellow in the Interactive Media and Games Division at the University of Southern California.

For this Playthink session, we’re changing up the format! Bonnie will do a talk at 5:30PM in SCB 104 (just next door in the Animation building) and we will do our podcast interview earlier in the day. If you are in the neighborhood, please come to the talk and, if you can’t make it in person, look for the follow up interview here on the Playthink podcast!

Talk abstract:

"Video Games Have Always Been Queer"

Video games are a site of rich potential for exploring gender, sexuality, and identity. This talk explores the relationship between video games and queerness. It looks beyond LGBTQ representation in games (such as the inclusion of LGBTQ people and romances on screen) and argues that video games themselves can be understood as queer. To do this, it points to three key ways of finding queer experiences within games: through interpretation, through play, and through design. Looking forward to future work, it also demonstrates the queer implications of the underlying technologies on which video games are built. At once conceptual and political, this work insists that queer people have always belonged in video games, because video games have always been queer.

Talk abstract:

"Video Games Have Always Been Queer"

Previous Episode

Liz Ryerson at Playthink: 4/23/19

Liz Ryerson is a composer, critic, and occasional game designer and podcaster. She is an avowed leftist and a co-founder of Game Workers Unite. She believes strongly that the power of action of people, both collectively and by individuals, against large corporate conglomerates is crucial to preserving and forwarding digital culture for the better of humanity. Her artistic and curation work often explores the strange, ephemeral, and oft-ignored aspects of the digital culture. Notable works include her experimental game Problem Attic, the music for the IGF-nominated Dys4ia, and the music and sound for the cult game Crypt Worlds. She has also written for publications like Jacobin, The New Inquiry, and Waypoint about the political relationship between games and broader culture.

Join us for a conversation between Liz and USC Games professor Jane Pinckard on April 23rd in the SCI 201 Fishbowl at 5:30PM. All are welcome!

Next Episode

Eric Zimmerman at Playthink: 9/15/20

Playthink is back and Zoomier than ever!! Please join us for a Zoom conversation between Eric Zimmerman and Tracy Fullerton about the recently released “The Infinite Playground,” the final book by visionary game designer Bernie De Koven, written with Holly Gramazio and edited by Celia Pearce and Eric Zimmerman. Eric and Tracy Fullerton will be discussing Bernie’s work, his influence on so many other designers, and the importance of the themes of his final book in our world today.