Dr. Christine H. Tran
LightNews LightNews
banner
thechristinet.bsky.social
Dr. Christine H. Tran
@thechristinet.bsky.social
2.9K followers 710 following 540 posts
✨Retired tech model writ(h)es about the Internet (they/she)
✨TT Asst Prof @ Alberta University of the Arts
✨Researcher of digital work, play, livestreaming & the creator economy
✨PhD U of Toronto iSchool
✨ https://thechristinet.wordpress.com
Posts Replies Media Videos
Pinned
thechristinet.bsky.social
Dr. Christine H. Tran @thechristinet.bsky.social · Aug 21
What's up, fellow docs? Today, I defended my PhD on Twitch livestreaming & the platform of playing-at-home!

Waves of thanks to all who got me over the finish line: my valiant committee, my pals & anyone who let me watch them play a game 🎮 (1/2)
OP an committee standing and waving before a Zoom screen featuring the hybrid committee members. Screenshot of PhD version of the 2028 game with the win screen "You got a PhD!" Superimposed is a screenshot of OP's dissertation slidedeck. OP in the grad cloth laughing at a Zoom screen of their committee member using the heart filter. OP standing in the Wonder Woman pose in their grad wrap thing.
thechristinet.bsky.social
Every reactionary movement is an effort to hallucinate Vivian “GamerGate” James back into being. But she’ll never happen again. There’s no level of compute that can alchemize this level psychic damage from the proto-egirl troll mascot eve again.
Vivian James.
January 29, 2026 at 1:49 AM
thechristinet.bsky.social
there's nothing easy about EasyChair.
January 28, 2026 at 7:28 PM
Reposted by Dr. Christine H. Tran
midimyers.com
i wrote about mothership.blog for @theguardian.com today by the way. thanks so much to @mackeza.bsky.social for the opportunity to tell more people about mothership and what we are doing with the site <3 www.theguardian.com/games/2026/j...
Why I’m launching a feminist video games website in 2026
I’ve been a games journalist since 2007, but still there isn’t much video games coverage that feels like it’s specifically for people like me. So I’m creating a home for it: Mothership
www.theguardian.com
January 26, 2026 at 8:25 PM
thechristinet.bsky.social
On Feb 23rd, I'll be giving the 2026 Lansdowne Lecture in Media Studies at UVic! Join us virtually to speculate on how feminist game studies warned us about everything—from GenAI scandals to online swarms—and why/if/when we need to burn it all down 🔥

events.uvic.ca/media-studie...
Artificial Fun in Real Time: Livestreaming the End of Gaming’s Influence(rs) in GenAI Imaginaries
Dr. Christine H. Tran’s 2026 Lansdowne Lecture in Media Studies (online; join the event on Zoom)
events.uvic.ca
January 26, 2026 at 7:03 PM
Reposted by Dr. Christine H. Tran
avilewis.ca
1/ As the people of Minneapolis rise up against ICE, it's painful and shameful that Canadian companies are selling armoured vehicles to Trump's masked militia and providing tech support to the dept of Homeland Security.
Two article screenshots side by side. The first: Vancouver tech firm Hootsuite provides services to US Homeland Security. The second: 'Fantastic news': Ford welcomes ICE plan to order Ontario armoured vehicles.
January 23, 2026 at 7:04 PM
Reposted by Dr. Christine H. Tran
histoftech.bsky.social
first taste is always free
easybakedoven.bsky.social Kim, Bestie of Bunzy, Co-CEO Execubetch™️ @easybakedoven.bsky.social · Dec 18
There is no law preventing Google, OpenAI, Anthropic, Meta and Microsoft from deciding tomorrow that any solution their AI creates for you or your business belongs to them and you are required to license the answer or share the revenue you make from building it
January 22, 2026 at 5:40 AM
Reposted by Dr. Christine H. Tran
maxkriegervg.bsky.social
The Red Sauce Sea, after being parted by Mario
January 21, 2026 at 8:55 PM
thechristinet.bsky.social
Hate that I’ll never come up with something this funny:
Benny Sadie to play Bowser Jr. in the Super Mario Galaxy Movie.
January 21, 2026 at 9:15 PM
Reposted by Dr. Christine H. Tran
thechristinet.bsky.social
Bridgerton is a historical AU where the elimination of colonial racism—but endurance of Regency sexism—has accelerated the rise of petroleum-based fabrics at a pre-apocalyptic rate.

England had become a petrocracy for polyester. Season 5 will cover a centuries long Butlerian Jihad against sequins.
Bridgerton season 4 poster featuring Asians in so many sequins of the 1800s? More sequins and polyester.
January 21, 2026 at 6:29 AM
thechristinet.bsky.social
Bridgerton is a historical AU where the elimination of colonial racism—but endurance of Regency sexism—has accelerated the rise of petroleum-based fabrics at a pre-apocalyptic rate.

England had become a petrocracy for polyester. Season 5 will cover a centuries long Butlerian Jihad against sequins.
Bridgerton season 4 poster featuring Asians in so many sequins of the 1800s? More sequins and polyester.
January 21, 2026 at 6:29 AM
Reposted by Dr. Christine H. Tran
ckunzelman.bsky.social
Today is my birthday and all I’m asking for is for you to support and/or talk about your favorite Ranged Touch show or project!

Patreon.com/rangedtouch
January 20, 2026 at 11:24 PM
Reposted by Dr. Christine H. Tran
premthakker.bsky.social
The movie Ice Age (March 15, 2002) is older than ICE’s age (March 1, 2003)
January 20, 2026 at 1:44 AM
Reposted by Dr. Christine H. Tran
lukeplunkett.com
Would love to speak to any regular international GDC attendees who are skipping this year's show (or were going to attend and have now cancelled) due to the current political climate. DMs here or luke@aftermath.site, thank you!
January 17, 2026 at 12:43 AM
Reposted by Dr. Christine H. Tran
katbamkapow.bsky.social
jack asked if i would sketch up a poster to tell people in nearby neighborhoods about the partnership between flock and ring, and this is what i came up with. it can be printed on an 8.5x11 sheet of paper.
YOUR RING CAMERA IS AN ICE AGENT [a drawing of a ring camera with an ice agent dragging a person away in its field of vision] "In October of 2025, Amazon's Ring announced its partnership with FLOCK, an A.I. surveillance group that freely shares its footage with ICE, the secret service, and the navy. Flock customers can use A.I. tools to sift through footage to assist in all manner of operations (like raids and deportations) without a warrant. Unplug Ring! Melt ICE! Protect your neighbors! See: https://blog.ring.com/about-ring/ring-expands-community-requests-to-additional-community-safety-partners/ https://www.404media.co/ice-secret-service-navy-all-had-access-to-flocks-nationwide-network-of-cameras/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pp9MwZkHiMQ https://www.aclum.org/campaigns-initiatives/get-the-flock-out-resource-guide/
January 19, 2026 at 8:15 PM
Reposted by Dr. Christine H. Tran
dmgreene.bsky.social
Guys believe in stoicism in 2025 the same way they believed in sun tzu in 2015--as a flattering portrayal of insensitive masculinity shorn of any historical context.
January 19, 2026 at 10:03 PM
Reposted by Dr. Christine H. Tran
joshgondelman.bsky.social
It’s wild how the owners of big companies used to call themselves “job creators” and now they’re all trying to abolish the idea of paying people to do labor, and not in the cool way.
January 19, 2026 at 7:25 PM
Reposted by Dr. Christine H. Tran
smgdraws.bsky.social
The Nintendo Game Gal - featuring Barbie!
An illustration featuring an alternate take on the Nintendo game boy, it has been renamed the Game Gal and Barbie is popping out of the game screen. The back drop is bright pink and the game gal features lots of Lisa Frank style 90s stickers. The buttons for Start and Select have been renamed What, Ever and the A and B buttons changed to B, U
January 17, 2026 at 11:20 PM
thechristinet.bsky.social
Does anybody in critical disability studies have Thoughts(TM) about 2025's two Big Class War movies building thriller-level ambience over whether the NT protag can sufficiently care for a precocious autistic child? (Aidan Delbis was in high school when he auditioned).
Aidan Delbis as Don in Bugonia. Choi So-Yool as Ri-One in No Other Choice.
January 17, 2026 at 7:38 PM
Reposted by Dr. Christine H. Tran
ositanwanevu.com
Apropos of nothing, let's check in with how things are going at Bari Weiss's free speech university. www.politico.com/news/magazin...
Most people didn’t think much of it when the university dean, Ben Crocker, called a student named Dan into his office on Monday, Sept. 9, the first day of classes. But at 7:44 in the evening, they received an email from three administrators saying that Dan had been removed from campus, “transported to his home out of state,” and barred from further access to the university. The nature of the allegations concerned, at their core, a pair of charged statements Dan allegedly made that would be familiar to any Title IX officer. The first was a general statement implying that UATX girls carried themselves physically in a way that invited sexual assault. The second was a suggestion to a specific female student that she had carried herself in a way that invited sexual assault. Dan had already been the subject of some negative attention on campus because of provocative statements he’d made in a UATX-based Discord “introductions” chat. These included a challenge — “If I catch any of you guys in my stuff, I’ll kill you” — which was a reference to the 1981 movie “Stripes” and likely misunderstood by fellow students. In another exchange, a discussion of transgender issues, Dan expressed reservations about hormone treatment and said that he couldn’t wait “to play devil’s advocate for legalizing pedophilia.” Between 8:30 and 9:00 p.m., Crocker visited the dorms, where he hosted a meeting on the roof to discuss the issue with students. Crocker’s message was that Dan’s conduct had been evaluated to be a “credible threat” — a phrase that would be repeated by the administration many times over the following days. Crocker then faced what one student attendee recalled as a “firing squad” of questions. Some students said that Dan had seemed off, but others saw his hasty removal as an example of the very cancel culture to which UATX was supposed to be the antithesis. Several students noted a lack of diversity. Consistent with its emphasis on “merit-based admissions,” UATX doesn’t publish demographic data. The students with whom I spoke said their classmates — and the college’s leadership — were overwhelmingly white, disproportionately came from wealthy families and had an overrepresentation of apparent neurodivergence. They found ideological diversity to be particularly lacking. “I didn’t realize exactly how conservative it would be,” one current student told me. “You know, when I hear free speech and open debate and all that jazz, I assumed that there was going to be a more equal amount of political views, and there wasn’t.” Classes weren’t as innovative as most students expected. “Year one was exceptionally boring,” the student said. “They did great books, they just didn’t do it in a great way,” said another student, who lamented the amount of memorization required. “I thought we were going to be intensely debating,” he said. Several students shared course syllabi with me. Most are easy enough to imagine being offered on any campus — with the notable exception of math and science. “The math classes go over algebra you learned in ninth grade,” a student told me. “There was just nothing there.” He described the offering as “schizophrenic” and described a class he’d taken at University of Texas at Austin as “exponentially more important.” Indeed, the syllabus I reviewed for a class called “Intellectual Foundations of Science II” covered a range of topics unusual for a science class including “The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief.” A student who’d taken the course shared a slide with me on “ensoulment” — the principally religious question of when a soul enters the human body — and said that the class had been told that IVF but not abortion could be consistent with the Catholic belief about ensoulment. The poor quality of the science offerings had bothered Heying and Pinker. “Others thought I was the token liberal,” Heying told me, “but I came to understand myself as the token scientist.” In an email, Pinker wrote, “They should have hired a widely esteemed scientist and proven program builder to set up their science division.” Another surprising similarity with other colleges stemmed directly from Dan’s expulsion: The students feared cancellation. “At any moment a frivolous Title IX complaint could be filed against you,” a former student told me. “I’ve never felt my speech was so chilled as it was in the classroom at UATX.” During the many conversations I had reporting this story, two questions came up more than any other. The first: Where was Bari Weiss? Many of the people I interviewed told me about internal conversations and shared internal emails. Weiss, who remains on the board of trustees, was almost never present in the conversations as they were related to me, and while I saw many emails on which Kanelos and Ferguson were copied, I never saw any including Weiss. speaks onstage during an event in New York City, on Nov. 19, 2024. | Noam Galai/Getty Images for The Free Press One person I spoke to, who was present during the early planning stages, told me that Weiss was “very elusive” and almost never present in person. This was ironic since UATX was closely associated with Weiss — a bust of whom now resides in the school library. Weiss, meanwhile, has only risen further during the Trump 2.0 era and is now editor-in-chief of CBS News, where she has been criticized as genuflecting to the Trump administration. A spokesperson for CBS News did not respond to a request for comment from Weiss. One former member of the development team told me that they would routinely ask prospective donors how they got to know UATX. “Eighty percent of the time, the answer was Bari Weiss,” they said. “It was very often referred to as Bari Weiss’ University, or Bari Weiss’ University Project, or Bari Weiss’ University of Austin.” For several people, this was a source of resentment. “I don’t care whether she wants to pretend this is all gone now — she is the reason that this place exists. She was huge, she was held in such high regard, she had such an enormous impact,” the former staffer said. “I want her to be held to account,” she added. “I’m pissed.”
January 16, 2026 at 4:40 PM
Reposted by Dr. Christine H. Tran
brendelbored.bsky.social
It’s so funny to be like “this is when women were WOMEN”
Ps1 Lara Croft with right angled breasts
January 16, 2026 at 1:50 PM
thechristinet.bsky.social
Love that I haven’t seen a single post or headline trying to defend Scott Adams’s legacy as “complex” or anything. No Bridget Bardot treatment for you, bud. You lived in a Dilbert-shaped castle whose eyeglasses windows were in the bathroom for your cats. And the racism. Too weird to defend!
January 14, 2026 at 6:08 AM
Reposted by Dr. Christine H. Tran
srirachachau.bsky.social
Dogbert weighing Scott Adams’ heart against a feather
January 13, 2026 at 6:05 PM
Reposted by Dr. Christine H. Tran
junlper.beer
one of scott adams best posts
January 13, 2026 at 5:41 PM
Reposted by Dr. Christine H. Tran
lucasderuyter.bsky.social
I need to see Tim Robinson's "Friendship" as a toxic yaoi anime immediately.
aelkus.bsky.social ae @aelkus.bsky.social · 16d
we often talk about “what anime would you adapt into a movie” but here is a reverse: what movies would you adapt into an anime?
January 13, 2026 at 4:31 AM
Reposted by Dr. Christine H. Tran
michaeliantorno.com
I'm not upset that we're hiring international researchers, but I'm livid that we're not increasing university base funding outside of American headhunting.
Opinion: Ottawa is dangling money for American researchers. But what about our own?
For hardworking and idealistic young Canadian scholars, the reality is bleak
www.theglobeandmail.com
January 12, 2026 at 7:59 PM