Neglected Media:
The 6th Annual Conference of the Communication Graduate Caucus (CGC)
in conjunction with the Paul Attallah Lecture Series
March 10 & 11, 2011
Ottawa Marriott Hotel
Cartier Salons
100 Kent Street
Ottawa, ON
We are pleased to announce the 3rd Annual Paul Attallah Keynote Lecture, to be given by Dr. Lisa Nakamura, on Thursday, March 10, 2011 at 5:00pm
(This talk is free and open to the public)
"'Flag as Inappropriate'":
Neglected Discourses of Racism, Sexism, and Homophobia in Online Games"
Racist and sexist language is common in military networked console games such as Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, a digital game franchise whose most recent release Modern Warfare: Black Ops, broke media sales records. While many video game critics warn users against the dangers of video game violence, racism and sexism that occurs between players of these games are perhaps more worrisome than violent game content, and are poorly regulated and monitored. Social games are part of a new networked public sphere, one where youth are sorting out civility more or less on their own.
However, rather than despairing of online games as spaces where racism flourishes unchecked due to anonymity, it makes more sense to see this as an opportunity to understand why this is happening, who this is serving, and who it is harming.
Bio:
Lisa Nakamura is the Director of the Asian American Studies Program, Professor in the Institute of Communication Research and Media Studies and Cinema Studies Department and Professor of Asian American Studies at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. She is the author of Digitizing Race: Visual Cultures of the Internet (University of Minnesota Press, 2008), Cybertypes: Race, Ethnicity and Identity on the Internet (Routledge, 2002) and co-editor of Race in Cyberspace (Routledge, 2000) and Race After the Internet (Routledge, forthcoming 2011). She is writing a new monograph on social inequality in virtual worlds, tentatively entitled “Workers Without Bodies: Towards a Theory of Race and Digital Labor in Virtual Worlds.”
*Please note: Registration fees for the conference are as follows: Students - $25, Faculty and others - $35. This is a catered event and space is limited. To reserve a space, please send your name and institutional affiliation to: cgc.conference@gmail.com.
