In Memoriam: Marsha Kinder 1940-2025

It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of Marsha Kinder, Emerita University Professor at the University of Southern California and a pioneering figure in film, television, and digital media studies.

Our brand-new and bilingual website for CGSA 2026 is now live (a whole day early, go us!): event.fourwaves.com/cgsa2026

We're officially ready receive your wonderful proposals (click the "Submissions" tab in the top-left).

As always, email us if you encounter any issues or have any questions. <3

Girls will be like “I know a place” and then take you here

Meet the dynamic duo behind Strange Pixel Studio! @gcwblomquist.bsky.social is a writing wizard, music maestro, and design doctor. He relies on a deep lore of cosmic horror to build unknowable and perplexing characters for our players' delight and terror.
#IndieDev #GameDev #PixelArt #RetroHorror

Next time someone asks me why I, as an assistant professor with a PhD, would spend my time researching the connections between games culture and larger political culture, I am just going to show them these two images.

Happy 25th anniversary to the release of Pokémon Gold and Silver in North America!

To mark the occasion, I wanted to share this amazing pixel art of Red Gyarados and me from the incredibly talented @coryrupert.bsky.social.

It's the opening slide for all my Pokémon talks!

10 horror movies to get to know me:

🛏️ The Exorcist (1973)
🔪 Halloween (1978)
🥚 Alien (1979)
💀 Evil Dead II (1987)
🧟‍♂️ 28 Days Later (2002)
👺 Insidious (2010)
💤 Doctor Sleep (2019)
☄️ Colour Out of Space (2019)
🧜‍♀️ The Lighthouse (2019)
🐴 Nope (2022)

📣✨Call for Papers!📣✨

CGSA 2026 will take place at Concordia University in Montreal, Quebec from June 11-14th, 2026.

This year’s chosen theme is “On Repeat”.

Submissions are due January 7th, 2026 at 11:59 PM PST

Full CfP here: gamestudies.ca/conference-c...

I'm once again sharing my starter pack of Canadian Game Studies Folks!

Follow and let me know if you, or someone you know, might be a good fit. 🕹️✨

I don't repost stuff often enough
#pixelart

Gregory Blomquist is up next with his presentation “Shadowing the Shadow Broker: Transmedia Detectives and Media Heterarchy in Mass Effect” which continues a trend in #ICGAN2025 by referencing media scholar Henry Jenkins!

#uwaterloo #thegamesinstitute #researchimpact #interdisciplinaryresearch

Delighted to have given a Pokémon talk at MVC Comic-Con this weekend! While there, I was asked, “why give a talk on Pokémon?” From discussions of strategy, collecting, ethics, and preservation, Pokémon allows us to ask important questions on video games through the biggest franchise in pop culture.

In honour of Pokemon Red/Blue's North American release anniversary later this month, I decided to take a nostalgia-fueled journey through the classics!

I'm thrilled to be part of a great line-up at this year's MVC Comic-Con sharing my Pokémon research!

Thank you to the Olds (@oldslibrary.bsky.social), Carstairs, Sundre, and Didsbury Libraries for organizing and hosting the event!