Call for Abstracts
“Call of Duty: A Call to Action”: Video Games and Civic Engagement
National Communication Association (NCA) 2016 Pre-Conference
Wednesday, November 9
Temple University
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania USA
Submission deadline: August 31, 2016
Although commonly studied through the lens of media entertainment, digital games are more than just frivolous distractions. Games are used for action in the real world: as vehicles for health campaign messages, teaching perspective, training skills and education outcomes, and provoking players into social action are all ways that games can and have been used to move players to action – from the on-screen digital world to the physical and semantic world that they live in.
As part of the National Communication Association’s 2016 convention in Philadelphia, The Game Studies Division seeks to highlight research in games that corresponds with the 2016 theme of “Civic Callings” – focusing on the many ways that games can and do serve as calls to action (both anti-socially and pro-socially). In this, game researchers must also consider their own call to duty as scholars. What should our “civic callings” be in studying games and their subsequent calls to action? As a new Division of NCA, what responsibilities do we have as games scholars; from the type and scope of research that we conduct, to the relationship we hold with the broader study of human communication?
To address these issues, a day long preconference will be hosted at Temple University to discuss emerging theory and research on digital games as tools that inspire civic action, as well as the duty that games scholars have to recognize the ways that games benefit communities both virtual and actual. Our hope is to bring diverse approaches together under one roof, in an effort to foster multidisciplinary collaboration and connect researchers that otherwise may not have come into contact. This preconference will have a format designed to facilitate this unique brand of cross- discipline collaboration: senior panel respondents to synthesize individual contributions, a collaborative research-in-progress incubator session, and a senior scholar keynote aimed at unifying the day’s content.
We are currently seeking submissions for:
RESEARCH REPORTS: We are accepting extended abstracts (~1000 words) of completed primary research. Submissions will be assigned to panels which will be structured much like a typical NCA scholarly panel, with a few key differences. The goal here is to prompt collaborative discussion about how and in what contexts games can be used for action. To help move us in that direction, there will also be time allotted in these panels for group discussion and brainstorming around the primary themes of the panel. Specific panel topics will depend on submissions, but we expect to have the following two themes: (1) Call of Duty: Civic Responsibility in Games and Games Research, (2) Call to Action: Transferring Digital Experiences to the “Real” World. In your submission, you should note which of these categories your study fits into and why.
RESEARCH INCUBATOR: We are also accepting abstracts (~500 words) for research ideas that are still in the formative stages. Accepted submissions in this category will be presented as a poster session where participants will again have an opportunity to discuss possible collaborations, brainstorm ideas, and otherwise interact with others doing game studies across the discipline. The focus of these submissions should be on the research questions being asked, the importance of these questions, and the proposed methodology to answer those questions.
SUBMISSION DETAILS: To submit, please e-mail a PDF of your submission as an attachment to Andy Boyan at aboyan@albion.edu. All submissions must be received by 11:59pm Eastern U.S. time (GMT-5:00) on August 31, 2016. The abstracts will be reviewed by committee. When submitting an abstract, please also include a separate cover page including your name(s), department/organization(s), and e-mail address(es). Notification of acceptance will be sent by September 30, 2016. The extended abstracts and posters submitted for the pre-conference should not have been accepted to any other competitions in the NCA’s main conference or any other venue, nor should they be materially similar to any paper accepted by any such venue. All those who are accepted to present their abstract will need to register for the NCA preconference. The registration fee will be $30 for student members and $40 for everyone else.
Submission/acceptance is not required for attendance or participation in the preconference. We certainly encourage anyone who is doing research in this area or who is simply interested in the work others are doing to plan on attending the preconference. Again, this preconference is structured to encourage collaboration, conversation, and networking around these topics so there will be ample opportunity to get involved even for those who do not have something specific to submit.
If you have any questions or comments, please direct them to Dr. Andy Boyan, Albion College: aboyan@albion.edu