Braxton Soderman
Braxton Soderman is an Associate Professor in the Department of Film & Media Studies and co-chairs the Humanities Center’s Digital Humanities Exchange (DHX), a group of faculty, staff, and graduate students who share interests in developing digital avenues for humanities research at UCI. He researches videogames, critical theory, new media aesthetics, and theories of play. He is the author of Against Flow: Video Games and the Flowing Subject (MIT Press, 2021) which critically analyzes Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s theory of psychological flow in relation to game studies and the concept of play. He recently completed a co-authored book on the Intellivision videogame system, developed by the toy company Mattel in the late 1970s. Intellivision: How a Videogame System Battled Atari and Almost Bankrupted Barbie™ will be published within MIT’s Platform Studies Series in Fall 2024. In addition to his books, Professor Soderman has published articles in differences: a Journal of Feminist Cultural Studies, The Journal of Visual Culture, Games and Culture, and elsewhere. He is excited to be working with the Digital Humanities team at UCI and extending its work through a new critical data studies initiative.
Ricky Crano
Ricky Crano, co-chair of DHX, is a critical media and cultural theorist specializing in algorithmic epistemologies, affective infrastructures, data power, the comparative media histories of liberalism and fascism, and the environmental and psychodynamic implications of compulsory digitality. At UCI, Ricky holds an Assistant Specialist research post in the Humanities Center and is a lecturer in Film and Media Studies and Anthropology. He holds a Ph.D. in Comparative Studies from The Ohio State University and has previously taught at Tufts University and the Columbus College of Art and Design. His work has appeared in myriad interdisciplinary humanities journals, from Convergence and Angelaki to Foucault Studies and Media-N. His manuscript-in-progress is titled Swipe Right: Participation, Authority, and the Partial Joys of Networked Self-Reflection. He is thrilled to be a collaborator in the recent launch and ongoing development of a critical data studies initiative through UCI’s Digital Humanities Exchange.
Steering Committee Members
SueJeanne Koh, Humanities Center
Dwayne Pack, School of Humanities OIT
April Urban, UCI Libraries
Christine Guiyangco (Comparative Literature), DHX Student Fellow
Chelsea Lee (English), DHX Student Fellow
And you!
Attend one of our upcoming events
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Get in touch via email – hum-dh@uci.edu