Call for Papers
Canadian Game Studies Association (CGSA) 2025 Conference
Theme: “Breaks”
June 7-10, 2025
Montreal, Quebec and online
https://gamestudies.ca/cgsa-acej-2025-breaks-arrets/
Deadline for submissions: December 13, 2024
The 2025 CGSA/ACÉJ annual conference will be a hybrid event co-hosted by the Technoculture, Art and Games Lab (TAG) at Concordia University in Montreal, Quebec from June 7–10. This year’s chosen theme is “Breaks.” We invite submissions from all disciplines and researchers working on or around games, including digital and non-digital games. Graduate student submissions and submissions from scholars outside of Canada are welcome and encouraged! Please indicate in your abstract if you are a grad student and/or if it is your first time attending CGSA.
In line with our decision to conference independently from the Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences this year, and in response to ongoing conversations and contestations in geopolitical, ecological, and labour spheres both within game culture and beyond, we particularly invite submissions that address the theme of “breaks.”
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To be connected to anyone or any thing opens the possibility of a break. To break is to split one thing into many, and to break causes separations, interruptions, and disruptions. Such moments of rupture can be chosen by us or brought upon us. A break can be an opportunity to stop and reflect, just as it can throw one’s life out of balance and demand immediate action. Can one break an oppressive institution or system before it breaks them? One can “take a break” if they need to rest. What are some things that we need a break from? What factors determine whether we are able to take a break or not? The role of care cannot be discounted here: some breaks are accidental and some things are more fragile than others—things which perhaps cannot afford to be broken. To break from that which harms us can bring us a welcome reprieve, but doing so begs the question of what else we might connect with instead. Papers addressing this theme of “breaks” might consider questions like:
- What does “breaking free/apart/up” in games look like, and what are the opportunities afforded by breaks as endings (and new beginnings) in games and game culture?
- What do game histories tell us about the possibilities and limits of breaks in games?
- What kinds of breaks, in the sense of respite and reprieve, might be generative in games? To what extent is “taking a break” with a game/game studies a question of privilege?
- What lessons can be learnt from breaking games or game studies? From looking at existing breaks in games? What kinds of breaks can we imagine for better possible futures in games?
- What are the limits of breaks in games, and what happens after a break? How do we talk about repair, reconnection, and reformation in this context?
And any other questions which variously orbit some sense of breaks and breaking in games and game culture.
Accepted papers and panels that directly address these and other facets of the theme “breaks” will be highlighted in special sessions throughout the conference. At the same time, we are entirely open to submissions that “break” away from the theme.
Black and/or Indigenous students accepted to the conference will be able to register for CGSA at no cost. All presenters are required to have a current CGSA/ACÉJ membership in order to attend and participate in CGSA/ACÉJ’s conference and events. Registration + Membership information will be made available once the review of submissions is finished.
SUBMISSION GUIDELINES:
CGSA/ACEJ accepts submissions in both English and French; please note that presentations and social events will predominantly be in English.
Presenters are asked to limit their submissions to no more than one (1) paper (in person or virtual) as first author and no more than (1) workshop/other format event.
For help preparing abstracts, including recommendations for relevant and robust works cited, please refer to this guide. Ensure that your submission is anonymized and includes at least three references.
This year we will be accepting proposals for three kinds of submissions:
Individual paper submissions:
For individual paper submissions please upload an anonymized abstract no longer than 500 words (excluding references). Please be sure to indicate if you will be presenting your paper in person or virtually.
Panel submissions:
For panel submissions please include a 250-word panel overview and 150 words (excluding references) describing each individual presentation. The panel organizer should assemble all materials and submit as a single anonymized submission. When submitting the panel proposal, the organizer should be listed as corresponding author, and all other panel participants should be listed as co-authors. Please clearly indicate if one of the panelists will serve as the panel chair.
Workshops/Game Demos/Other formats:
CGSA/ACÉJ enthusiastically welcomes other and experimental types of in-person, virtual, and hybrid contributions including workshops, roundtables, game demonstrations/prototypes, etc. Please contact the CGSA/ACÉJ 2025 organizers in advance of the deadline with a brief summary of your proposed format, anticipated equipment and space needs, and an estimated length of time requested. Be sure to indicate if remote virtual participation will be possible. We are able to offer the use of our OWLs for these but beyond that it is the workshop/game demos/other format organizer’s responsibility to manage any desired virtual participation and the CGSA/ACEJ Conference Committee will support you as best we can!
Deadline for submission is Friday 13 December 2024 11:59pm ET (spooky!). The conference portal can be found here.
We depend on our community to review submissions—we hope you will volunteer.
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