Anthropology

Cyborgs & Singularity
Anthropology, Science-fiction

Cyborgs & Singularity

·5 comments

I know, I’ve been remiss. Even though I’ve been a die-hard anime fan since early high school, it’s taken me until recently to watch Ghost in a Shell, the pivotal Japanese science fiction film released in 1995.

Based on the manga by Masumune Shirow, Ghost in a Shell epitomizes the sheer brilliance of Japanese animation: the illustrations impeccably render a dystopian future in which humans have begun to transcend the limits of the human body by incorporating state of the art technology and cybernetic science into every part of their physicality and cognition.

”Keep Your Politics Out of My Video Games”
Anthropology, Games / gaming, Online communities, Study of geek culture

”Keep Your Politics Out of My Video Games”

·5 comments

Errant Signal released a wonderful video yesterday about politics in video games and the importance of engaging in critical discourse about them.

Title ”Keep Your Politics Out of My Video Games”, the video opens with a description of gamers’ attitudes towards critical discussions: on one hand, they want video games to be taken seriously and respected. They want their gaming knowledge and skills to be acknowledged. On the other hand, they can react rather aggressively to any form of critical analysis of, say, the representations of ethnic groups, women, LGBT or gender roles in games.

Geek Girl Survey Update
Anthropology, Definitions of Geek, Geek Girl Survey, Gender, Study of geek culture

Geek Girl Survey Update

·0 comments

Greetings geeklings!

I will soon finish compiling data from the Geek Girl Survey I announced last August! Thanks to everyone who answered my call or shared it! I have been swamped with emails from enthusiastic geek girls of all ages, and I am delighted to have obtained a lot more data than I originally expected. So many people made Portal references that I’m considering creating a new slogan for this blog: something like ”For science”. It’s a work in progress.

Just to Vex and Be Vexed in Return
Anthropology, Study of geek culture

Just to Vex and Be Vexed in Return

·6 comments

I suppose it’s my turn to introduce myself.

My name is Nick Mizer, and I’m a PhD candidate in cultural anthropology at Texas A&M University, where I’m working on a dissertation analyzing the historical relationships between story, play, and imagined spaces in Dungeons & Dragons.  I’ve been studying D&D since my senior year as an undergraduate, when I came to the topic by way of studies in folklore and mythology. The parallels between ritual and myth on the one hand and play and narrative on the other are the first thing that caught my interest in D&D. Gaining a better understanding of those relationships has been the driving force behind a lot of my research since then.  Here on the blog I’ll probably be posting a lot about gaming, but also about other areas of geek culture too.

Geek Girls: I need your help!
Anthropology, Definitions of Geek, Geek Girl Survey, Gender, Study of geek culture

Geek Girls: I need your help!

·30 comments

I am looking for geek girls and women of all ages to answer a few questions about their involvement in geek culture and their experiences with geek peers. Whether you are 16 or 50 years old, a trekkie, a pegasister or a browncoat, whatever your gender identity or sexual orientation is, or even if you consider yourself more of a nerd than a geek, I want to hear your story.

Confidentiality will be respected, so don’t be afraid to contact me!