We are thrilled to announce that the Institute of Digital Games (IDG) at UM will be hosting the prestigious Digital Games Research Associate (DiGRA) conference in Malta for the first time!
This is a significant milestone for us at the IDG, and we’re excited to share it with the academic community at UM. Hosting DiGRA is a testament to Malta’s prominent position in the global field of game studies and research. Since its founding in 2003, DiGRA has been a venue for leading researchers, developers, and thinkers from all corners of the world, shaping the future of games research and practice. Over the past twenty years, it has grown into a global organisation with eighteen regional chapters, and its annual conference is firmly established as the most prominent venue for international game studies research.
The DiGRA conference has been held in locations as varied as Japan, the USA, Australia and Mexico, and we are proud to be bringing the conference to Malta for the first time, with the timely and important theme of ‘Games at the Crossroads’. The theme highlights the intersections where games and game studies meet new, diverse cultures and disciplines. It is a chance for scholars and industry leaders to reflect on where games have been and where they are going, all while showcasing Malta’s important geographical and cultural position at the crossroads of the world.
Dr. Daniel Vella and Prof. Stefano Gualeni from the IDG are chairs of the local organising committee, while Dr. Krista Bonello Rutter Giappone from the Centre for Labour Studies at UM is a programme committee chair.
DiGRA 2025 will be held at the Valletta Campus from 30th June to 4th July, 2025. Four prominent keynote speakers will be leading the conference, bringing a range of academic and professional perspectives to the conference theme:
Rasheed Abueideh is a game designer from Palestine. His game Lilya and the Shadows of War (2016) explored the plight of children during the 2014 Gaza War, and he is currently working on a game about the events of the Nakba in 1948.
Cameron Kunzelman is an Assistant Professor of Communication Studies and Theatre at Mercer University (USA), where he directs the Communication Theory Research Lab. His first book, The World is Born From Zero, is on the relationship between speculation and video games. His second book, out in 2025, is on the Assassin's Creed franchise.
Omar N'Shea is the Director of the International School for Foundation Studies at the University of Malta. His research focuses on the Assyrian Empire in the first millennium BCE, particularly on social and political history. His current work includes a monograph on eunuchs and castration as a bureaucratic strategy in the first empire in history, and he has written essayson translating Gilgamesh into Maltese, on the site of Bur Mgħeż and on queer modernity in Malta.
More keynotes will be announced at a later date.
Full paper and extended abstract submissions are open until Monday, 17 December 2024! We welcome submissions relating to games and virtual worlds from perspectives relating to the humanities, the social sciences, design research and beyond.
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