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Mia Consalvo, PhD

Professor and Canada Research Chair In Game Studies & Design, Communication Studies


Mia Consalvo, PhD
A white woman with blonde hair and a black shirt, with foliage in the background.
Marc Bourcier
Office: L-CJ 4407  
Communication Studies and Journalism Building,
7141 Sherbrooke W.
Phone: (514) 848-2424 ext. 2574
Email: Mia.Consalvo@concordia.ca
Website(s): https://www.miaconsalvo.com/
Availability: Please email me to set up a meeting.

Education

BA, Communications, Lyndon State College, Vermont

MA, Communications, University of Washington

PhD, Mass Communications, University of Iowa

Areas of research and teaching

My main focus is game studies, with particular interests in players and the culture of gameplay. I’m currently working several projects, including an examination of live streamers on sites like Twitch who stream to small audiences; and a study of how socio-economic class impacts games, game players, and the game industry

Courses

Fall: COMS 642/893//INDI 620/820 Games and/as Research Research

Winter: COMS 835 Doctoral ProSeminar


Teaching activities

Fall 2022

COMS 642/983 & INDI 620/82 Games and/as Research Creation

This course focuses on games through the lens of research-creation. Time will be spent at the beginning of the class investigating the evolution of research-creation (also known as arts-based research and creative making) as a recognized area of practice as well as the development of games as valid forms of entertainment, art, persuasion and catalysts for change. The course then investigates how we can (1) advance research (broadly defined) through the act of making games; (2) use games as tools for doing research; and (3) creatively present research through games.

 

Readings, class discussions, and course assignments explores these areas, focusing on the following goals: defining research-creation; understanding the multiple ways research-creation can intersect with games; debating/discussing/developing standards for assessing research-creation projects that use games in some way; and experimenting with game creation.


Publications

Books


Real Games: What’s Legitimate and What’sNot in Contemporary Videogames (2019)

Mia Consalvo& Christopher A. Paul, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA

 

Atari to Zelda:Japan’s Videogames in Global Contexts (2016)

Mia Consalvo,MIT Press, Cambridge, MA


Presentations

Book Chapters

All in a Day’s Work: Working Class Heroes as Videogames Protagonists

Michael Iantorno, Courtney Blamey, Lyne Dwyer & Mia Consalvo, Nordicom Review, Vol. 42, N. 3: 88-110, 2021.

 

Hack, Slash & Backstab: A Post-Mortem of University Game Development at Scale

Andrew Phelps, Christopher Egert & Mia Consalvo, International Journal of Designs for Learning, 12(1), 16-33, 2021.

 

Reading Ren’py: Game Engine Affordances and Design Possibilities

Mia Consalvo and Dan Staines, Games and Culture, Online First. DOI:  10.1177/1555412020973823, 2020

 

Getting through a Tough Day (Again): What Possum Springs Says about Mental Health and Social Class

Mia Consalvo and Andrew Phelps, American Journal of Play, Vol. 12, No. 3, pp. 338-362, 2020.


Video Game Engagement onSocial Media in the Middle East

AhmedAl-Rawi and Mia Consalvo, Video Games andthe Global South (2019) edited by Phillip Penix-Tadse, Carnegie MellonUniversity: ETC Press

 

Why We NeedFeminist Game Studies

The Handbook of Contemporary Feminism (forthcoming) edited by Andrea Press andTasha Oren, Routledge

 

ClashRoyale and Gaming Capital

How to Play Video Games (2019) edited by Nina Huntemann and MattPayne, NYU Press

 

Kaceytronand Transgressive Play on Twitch.tv

Transgressions in Games andPlay (2018) edited by KristineJørgensen and Faltin Karlsen, MIT Press

                                                    

TandemPlay: Theorizing Sociality in Single-Player Gameplay

Mia Consalvo, Jason Begy, Sarah Ganzon &Rainforest Scully-Blaker, Video Games: AMedium That Demands Attention (2018) edited by Nicholas Bowman, Routledge

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