Designated Commentators:
Dr Hanne Wagner is a Research Fellow in the Mixed Reality Lab, School of Computer Science at the University of Nottingham. She has a background in Political Science, Psychology, Law and Human Computer Interaction. Her PhD thesis was on the relationship of politics in video games, in particular on how games can create and further political engagement. When not furthering her research in this area, she is also interested in the areas of policy, cards as (design) methods and tools as well as political psychology and wellbeing.
Dr Souvik Mukherjee is assistant professor in Cultural Studies at the Centre for Studies in Social Sciences Calcutta, India. Souvik’s research looks at the narrative and the literary through the emerging discourse of videogames as storytelling media and at how these games inform and challenge our conceptions of narratives, identity and culture. Related interests and expertise include a broad spectrum of topics in Game Studies ranging from identity and temporality in videogames to the videogame industry in South-East Asia. Currently, he is researching how videogames relate to Postcolonial Studies and separately, also how certain ancient Indian board-games contribute to the understanding of gameplay. Souvik is the author of two monographs, Videogames and Storytelling: Reading Games and Playing Books (Palgrave Macmillan 2015) and Videogames and Postcolonialism: Empire Plays Back (Springer UK 2017). He is also the co-editor of the special issue ‘Postcolonial Perspectives in Videogames’. Souvik has been named a ‘DiGRA Distinguished Scholar’ in 2019.