April: Talk -- Kishonna Gray

Black Stories and Digital Narratives: What do Black lives look like in gaming?

Using the lens of racial project, I examine popular console video games for their (in)ability to capture Black stories in a holistic manner. The mediated story of Black characters is limited and situated within buffoonery, crime, or violent contexts. Video games, as part of the larger media ecology, have created essentialist notions about Blackness and what it means to have an 'authentic' Black experience.

Kishonna L. Gray (Ph.D., Arizona State University) is currently a MLK Visiting Scholar in Women & Gender Studies and Comparative Media Studies/Writing. She is also the Founder of the Critical Gaming Lab at Eastern Kentucky University. She is expanding on the work created here to develop new initiatives surrounding Equity in Gaming (www.equityingaming.com). Her work broadly intersects identity and new media although she has a particular focus on gaming.

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