Project and content management for Contemporary Authors volumes
WORK TITLE: Coin-Operated Americans
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE: http://www.sparklebliss.com/
CITY: Chicago
STATE: IL
COUNTRY:
NATIONALITY:
https://humansciences.iit.edu/faculty/carly-kocurek * http://www.sparklebliss.com/about-carly-kocurek/ * http://www.sparklebliss.com/cv/ * https://www.linkedin.com/in/carlykocurek/
RESEARCHER NOTES:
LC control no.: n 2015073669
Descriptive conventions:
rda
Personal name heading:
Kocurek, Carly A.
Found in: Coin-operated Americans, 2015: ECIP t.p. (Carly A. Kocurek)
================================================================================
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS AUTHORITIES
Library of Congress
101 Independence Ave., SE
Washington, DC 20540
Questions? Contact: ils@loc.gov
PERSONAL
Female.
EDUCATION:Rice University, B.A.; University of Texas at Austin, M.A., Ph.D.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago, IL, assistant professor of Digital Humanities and Media Studies, 2012-.
WRITINGS
Contributor of articles to numerous scholarly journals, including Game Studies, Journal of Gaming and Virtual Worlds, Technical Communication Quarterly, and Visual Studies, among others. Contributor of chapters to books. Cofounder and coeditor of the “Influential Game Designers” book series for Bloomsbury.
SIDELIGHTS
Carly A. Kocurek is an assistant professor of Digital Humanities and Media Studies at Illinois Institute of Technology, in Chicago, Illinois. She is a cultural historian specializing in the study of new media technologies and video gaming and the author of two books, Coin-operated Americans: Rebooting Boyhood at the Video Game Arcade, which covers the early rise of video game arcades in the United States, and Brenda Laurel: Pioneering Games for Girls, a consideration of Laurel’s career as researcher and game designer. She is a contributor to numerous scholarly journals, including Game Studies, Journal of Gaming and Virtual Worlds, Technical Communication Quarterly, and Visual Studies, among others, and the contributor of chapters to books.
In Coin-operated Americans, Kocurek presents a study of the coin-operated video game arcade era, beginning with Pong in 1972 to the fall of the industry in 1983. Kocurek looks at the the term gamer and how it developed from the early video arcade games and examines the political, economic, and cultural landscape during this time.
In Library Journal, contributor Paul Stenis called Coin-operated Americans “an excellent study of the early history of the video game industry and how it came to define the gamer as male.” Choice: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries reviewer G. Vorhees wrote: “This detailed study provides a lucid, compelling narrative that will interest a very diverse audience.” On the PopMatters Website, James Orbesen quoted Kocurek, who pointed out that for those who are not gamers themselves it comes as a surprise, that this is “an entertainment industry so substantial it regularly outperforms Hollywood’s profits, and an arena for competition so fierce as to support an entire professional circuit.” Kocurek adds that “video gaming has come of age as an established industry with its own standards, professional organizations, degree programs, and lobbying groups.”
In addition to her books, Kocurek, along with Allyson Whipple, develops interactive games that engage the players—particularly women—with perspectives that leave the player a changed person at the end. In an interview on the Geek Quality Website, Kocurek talked about her reasons for creating these types of games: “I’m a game studies scholar by trade, so games are the medium I have the most nuanced knowledge of, in a lot of ways. There’s also a lot of interest in games for serious purposes, so I have read a lot about that and played a lot of those games. Plus, while circulation is still an issue with web based projects, it’s less of an issue than it is with things that need to be mailed or distributed physically. And, finally, I really wanted something that would ask players to consider and weigh the kinds of choices women face.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Choice: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries, June, 2016, G. Voorhees, review of Coin-operated Americans: Rebooting Boyhood at the Video Game Arcade, p. 1471.
Library Journal, September 15, 2015, Paul Stenis, review of Coin-operated Americans, p. 95.
States News Service, April 17, 2017, “Lewis College of Human Sciences Assistant Professor of Digital Humanities and Media Studies Carly Kocurek Publishes New Book about Gaming Pioneer Brenda Laurel.”
ONLINE
Carly A. Kocurek Website, http://www.sparklebliss.com (May 31, 2017).
Geek Quality, http://www.geekquality.com/ (September 5, 2013), interview with author.
PopMatters, http://www.popmatters.com (September 30, 2015), , James Orbesen, review of Coin-operated Americans.
Carly A. Kocurek, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Digital Humanities and Media Studies
Phone:
312.567.3474
Fax:
312.567.5187
Email:
ckocurek@iit.edu
Office:
SH 212
Web Site:
Casual Scholarship
Education
Ph.D., The University of Texas at Austin, American Studies
M.A., The University of Texas at Austin, American Studies
B.A., Rice University, English and History
Research Interests
Digital culture
Game design
Media studies
History of video gaming
Video games and gender
Video game violence
About
Carly A. Kocurek is a cultural historian specializing in the study of new media technologies and video gaming. She is the author of two books, Coin-Operated Americans: Rebooting Boyhood at the Video Game Arcade, which covers the early rise of video game arcades in the U.S., and Brenda Laurel: Pioneering Games for Girls, a consideration of Laurel’s career as researcher and game designer. Her articles have appeared in numerous scholarly journals, including Game Studies, The Journal of Gaming and Virtual Worlds, Technical Communication Quarterly, and Visual Studies, among others. With Jennifer deWinter, she co-founded and co-edits the Influential Game Designers book series for Bloomsbury.
She is also a game designer specializing in educational and serious games, and Paste Magazine called her game Choice: Texas “one of the best games of 2014.” Currently, she is pursuing a collaboration with Jennifer L. Miller, a developmental psychologist, to design a game for early childhood language acquisition. In 2015, this project was named a finalist for the Nayar Prize.
At Illinois Tech, she teaches courses on digital culture, interactive storytelling, game design, and media history at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. She also works with both undergraduate and graduate students on collaborative research and design projects.
Seeking Ph.D. students with interests in:
Understanding games as a cultural form, including in particular the intersections of games and gaming practices with gender, socioeconomic status, and other facets of identity
Understanding the role of play and games in daily life
Designing and developing games for serious or educational purposes, particularly games that address complex or uncomfortable topics or that aim to intervene in social problems
Interviewing people and/or studying media (Previous experience is useful, but isn’t necessarily essential)
Professional Society Memberships
American Studies Association
Fembot Collective
Immersive Learning Research Network
Learning Games Initiative
Popular Culture Association
Current Projects
Kocurek is currently co-authoring a book, tentatively titled Ultima: The Art of Worldcraft with Matthew Thomas Payne about the Ultima game franchise for the University of Michigan Press. She and Jennifer Miller jointly direct the Developmental Media Lab, which has several projects open related to children’s media production and use.
Her other current projects include two experimental tabletop games; one explores the realities of socioeconomic class in daily life, and the other is intended as a tool for processing grief.
Awards & Honors
IIT Sigma Xi-Junior Faculty Award for Excellence in Research, 2016
Invitee to First White House Summit on LGBT Technical Innovation, 2014
Fellowships
Faculty Entrepreneurship Fellowship (fellow), Coleman Foundation ($5,000), 2016
Game for Early Childhood Language Acquisition (joint-PI with Jennifer Miller), Nayar Prize Phase I Proposal ($100,000), 2015
Brenda Laurel: Pioneering Games for Girls (PI), Dean’s Research Fund Grant ($1,100), 2015
Coin-Operated Americans (fellow), Strong Museum of Play Research Fellowship ($1,000), 2014
Books
Carly A. Kocurek and Matthew Thomas Payne, Ultima: The Art of Worldcrafting, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. Under contract.
Carly A. Kocurek, Brenda Laurel: Pioneering Games for Girls, New York: Bloomsbury. Forthcoming 2017.
Carly A. Kocurek, Coin-Operated Americans: Rebooting Boyhood at the Video Game Arcade, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2015.
Selected Publications
Carly A. Kocurek, “Ronnie, Millie, Lila--Women’s History for Games: A Manifesto and a Way Forward.” American Journal of Play 9, no. 2 (2017). Forthcoming.
Carly A. Kocurek and Jennifer L. Miller, “Olive Dreams of Elephants: Game-Based Learning for School Readiness and Pre-Literacy in Young Children,” Communications in Computer and Information Science: Immersive Learning Research Network 621 (2016). pp. 160-170.
Carly A. Kocurek, “Who Hearkens to the Monster’s Scream? Death, Violence, and the Veil of the Monstrous in Video Games.” Visual Studies 30, no. 1 (2015). pp. 1-11.
Jennifer deWinter, Carly A. Kocurek, and Randall Nichols, “Taylorism 2.0: Gamification, Scientific Management, and the Capitalist Appropriation of Play.” Journal of Gaming and Virtual Worlds 6, no. 2 (2014). pp. 109-127.
Carly A. Kocurek, “The Treachery of Pixels: Reconsidering Feelies in an Era of Digital Play.” Journal of Gaming and Virtual Worlds 5, no. 3 (2013). pp. 295-306.
Carly A. Kocurek, “The Agony and the Exidy: A History of Video Game Violence and the Legacy of Death Race.” Game Studies 12, no. 1. (2012).
About Carly A. Kocurek
Carly Kocurek head shotI am an American cultural historian and media studies scholar with an interest in digital humanities. My research focuses on the history and cultural practices of video gaming. I am particularly interested in how video gaming intersects with gender.
Teaching
I currently teach media studies and digital humanities at the Illinois Institute of Technology. Current and past classes offered are listed here. If you want to take a class, well, you have to be at IIT. In general, I offer 1-2 undergraduate classes per term with the occasional graduate class. I am also actively taking on graduate advisees, should you be interested in working on an M.S. or Ph.D. with me. If you are interested in my classes or teaching materials and aren’t at IIT, feel free to contact me.
Carly A. Kocurek
Illinois Institute of Technology | Humanities Department, 218 Siegel Hall | 3301 S. Dearborn | Chicago, Illinois 60616 | (312) 567-3474 | ckocurek@iit.edu
EDUCATION
Ph.D., American Studies (with Doctoral Portfolio in Cultural Studies), University of Texas, Austin, 2012
M.A., American Studies, University of Texas, Austin, 2006
B.A., English and History (cum laude), Rice University, 2004
ACADEMIC APPOINTMENTS
Assistant Professor of Digital Humanities and Media Studies
Illinois Institute of Technology (Chicago, Illinois), August 2012-Present
PUBLICATIONS
Peer-Reviewed Articles
“Geocaching Activity for Digital Humanities.” Syllabus 2, no. 2 (2013).
“The Agony and the Exidy: A History of Video Game Violence and the Legacy of Death Race.” Game Studies 12, no. 1 (September 2012).
Books
Coin-Operated Americans: Rebooting Boyhood at the Video Game Arcade (tentative title). Under contract to University of Minnesota Press.
Co-authored with Elizabeth Engelhardt, et. al. The Republic of Barbecue: Stories Beyond the Brisket. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2009.
Book Sections
“Rendering Novelty Mundane: Technical Writing in the Golden Age of Coin-Op Computer Games,” for Technical Writing and Computer Games, edited by Jennifer deWinter and Ryan Moeller. Surrey: Ashgate, Forthcoming.
“Community” for The Routledge Companion to Video Game Studies, edited by Bernard Perron and Mark J.P. Wolf. London: Routledge, Forthcoming.
“Snapshot of American Game Ratings and Censorship” for the collection Gaming Globally, edited by Ben Aslinger and Nina Huntemann. New York: Palgrave McMillan, 2012.
“Coin-Drop Capitalism: Economic Lessons from the Video Game Arcade,” Before the Crash: An Anthology of Early Video Game History. Baltimore: Wayne State University Press, 2012.
Book Reviews
“Playing the Past: History and Nostalgia in Video Games,” edited by Zach Whalen and Laurie N. Taylor. (book review). the Resource Center for Cyberculture Studies.
“Gay L.A.: A History of Sexual Outlaws, Power Politics, and Lipstick Lesbians,” by Lillian Faderman and Stuart Timmons. (book review). Intersections: Women’s and Gender Studies in Review Across Disciplines. Fall 2007. p. 68.
“Reading ‘Desperate Housewives’: Beyond the White Picket Fence,” edited by Janet McCabe and Kim Akass. (book review). Film & History. Vol 37 (1) 2007. p. 93.
Encyclopedia Entries
Encyclopedia of Video Games, editor Mark J.P. Wolfe, Westport, Greenwood Press, 2012.
• Entries for City of Mesquite vs. Aladdin’s Castle, Inc.; PlayMeter Magazine; RePlay Magazine; Video Games and Civic Engagement.
The Business of Food: Encyclopedia of the Food Industry, editors Ken Albala and Gary Allen, Westport, Greenwood Press, 2008.
• Entry for Candy and Confectionery
Encyclopedia of Activism and Social Justice, editors Gary L. Anderson and Kathryn G. Herr, Thousand Oaks, SAGE Publications, 2007.
• Entries for Joan Baez, John Lennon, Stonewall Rebellion, Zines
Other Publications
“Alice Remembers Everything,” In Media Res, May 24, 2013.
As Feature Columnist, with Jennifer deWinter:
“We Resign From Sexism in Games Effective Immediately: Positive Steps Toward Gender Equality in Gaming Culture,” Flow 17, no. 10. (2013).
“#1reasonwhy Women in the Gaming Industry Matters,” Flow 17, no. 7. (2013).
“Rescuing Anita: Games, Gamers, and the Battle of the Sexes,” Flow 17, no. 3. (2012)
“Putting Atari to Work,” In Media Res, June 27, 2012.
“The Right to Play: Youth, Video Gaming, and the Law,” Flow 9, no. 10. (2009).
“Gaming for the Gal on the Go: Advertising the Nintendo DS,” Flow 8, no. 3. (2008).
Editorial Service
Co-editor, with Samuel Tobin, special issue on “The Undead Arcade,” Reconstruction Journal. March 2014. Forthcoming.
Theme Week Co-Coordinator with Marianna Martin, “Resident Evil at the Movies,” In Media Res. May 20-24, 2013.
Reviewer, Syllabus, July 2012-present
Editor-at-Large, Digital Humanities Now. Fall Quarter, 2012.
• Reviewed content from RSS feed of submissions.
• Nominated select content to be featured in the News and Editor’s Choice sections.
Senior Editor, Flow. May 2007 – May 2009.
• Participated in management of student editors.
• As Comments Editor, oversaw all comments on journal articles and ensured they adhered to the journal’s comments policy.
Student Editor, Flow, May 2005 – May 2007.
• Served as column editor, ensuring contributers submitted content on time.
• Formatted columns for publication and uploaded them into the journal’s content management system.
GRANTS, HONORS AND AWARDS
Mellon THATCamp Fellowship
($500 to attend THATCamp Games) 2012
University of Texas A.D. Hutchinson Endowed Fellowship
($27, 250 for the 2010-2011 academic year) 2010
Barbara Sudler Award from History Colorado for Republic of Barbecue: Stories Beyond the Brisket, 2010
Best Student Paper in Computer Culture at the SW/TX PCA/ACA for “Arcade Economics: Class Values and Coin Operated Video Gaming,” 2009
SELECTED SCHOLARLY PRESENTATIONS
Conference Panels Organized
The Past, Present, and Future of Women in the Game Industry, Geek Girl Con. Seattle, WA. Served as organizer and roundtable participant.
Remapping Youth: Adolescence as Neoliberal Experience, American Studies Association. San Antonio, TX. November 18-21, 2010. Served as organizer. Individual paper, “Stripmall Citizenship: Consumption as Youth Civil Right.”
Bad Citizenship and Good Games: Video Gaming, Criminality and Citizenship, American Studies Association. Washington, D.C. November 5-8, 2009. Served as panel chair, commentator, and organizer.
Invited Lectures
“Digital Humanities Big and Small,” invited lecture, The Newberry Library, May 21, 2013.
“The Phoenix in the Digital Dustbin: Remaking the ‘Videogame Capital of the World’,” invited lecture, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, February 3, 2012
“Time as Technology : Living and Laboring in the Modern City,” invited lecture, University of Pittsburgh. September Sept. 28, 2010.
“I Want a Refund, I Want a Life: Postindustrial Labor and Living for Twentysomethings,” invited lecture, Rice University. March 26, 2009.
Conference Presentations
Programmers, Hacks, and Designers: Game Designers and the Creative Economy. American Studies Association. Washington, DC. November 21-24, 2013.
8-bit Exhortations: Shocking Graphics, Promotional Ballyhoo, and the Marketing of the Arcade Game. Montreal, CA. June 21-23, 2013.
Once More, With Feelies, SW/TX PCA/ACA. Albuquerque, NM. February 12-17, 2013.
Richard Garriott as Icon: Authorship in Video Game Development, SW/TX PCA/ACA. Albuquerque, NM. February 8-11, 2012.
Selling Outrage: Death Race and the Making of Exidy, 61st Annual Meeting of the International Communication Association. Boston, MA. May 26-30, 2011.
Rebooting the Arcade: Nostalgia and the Longing for Subcultural Space, SW/TX PCA/ACA & PCA/ACA 2011. San Antonio, TX. April 20-23, 2011.
Roundtable Participant. Tuning in to the Fine Print: Law and Social Change in Media. Flow Conference 2010. Austin, TX. Sept. 30-Oct. 2, 2010.
Roundtable Participant. Power-Ups and the Press: How the Game Media Impacts the Gaming Industry. SXSW Interactive 2010. Austin, TX. March 11-15.
Economies of Simulation: Arcade Gaming and the Postindustrial Marketplace. Seventh Annual Meeting of the Cultural Studies Association (U.S.). Kansas City, MO. April 16-18, 2009.
Roundtable Participant. Are Women Taken More Seriously on the Web? SXSW Interactive 2009. Austin, TX. March 13-17, 2009.
Arcade Economics: Class Values and Coin Operated Video Gaming. The 30th Annual Meeting of the SW/TX PCA/ACA. Albuquerque, NM. Feb. 25-28, 2009.
My Year of Meats: Collaboration and Community-Based Research on the Southern BBQ Trail, Sixth Annual Meeting of the Cultural Studies Association (U.S.). New York University, New York, NY. May 22 - 24, 2008.
Unpacking Citizen Vayne: Aleksey Vayner’s ‘Impossible is Nothing,’ the Performance of Masculinity, and the Implications of Viral Distribution, The 28th Annual Meeting of the SW/TX PCA/ACA. Albuquerque, NM. Feb. 14-17, 2007.
Geek is the New Black: Ironic Consumption, the A/V Geeks Archive, and the Recycling of Educational Film, Film and History Fall Conference: the Documentary Tradition. Dallas, TX. Nov. 8-12, 2006.
Commentary
“War Games, War Stories.” Comment at American Studies Association. San Juan, Puerto Rico. November 15-18, 2012.
CONFERENCES AND SYMPOSIA ORGANIZED
Coordinating Committee Chair, “Division Street, U.S.A.” Austin, TX. Sept. 24-25, 2009.
Coordinating Committee Member, Ain’t it Sweet?: An AMS Graduate Student and Alumni Symposium, Austin, TX: April 9, 2009.
Coordinating Committee Member, Flow Conference 2008. Austin, TX. Oct. 9-11, 2008.
Coordinating Committee Member, “mongrel” america. Austin, TX. Oct 2-3, 2008.
Coordinating Committee Member, the Idea of America: Dreams, Desires, Disasters. Austin, TX. Sept. 27-28, 2007.
Coordinating Committee Member, Flow Conference. Austin, TX. Oct. 26-28, 2006.
ORAL HISTORY PROJECTS
The Video Game Oral History Project. To be deposited at the Video Game Archive at the Dolph Briscoe Center for American History at the University of Texas.
Project lead for a collection of interviews with competitive gamers, former and current arcade owners, and others with ties to early arcade history.
The Southern BBQ Trail: A Southern Foodways Alliance Documentary Project. The Southern Foodways Alliance.
Collaborated on interviews of May Archie; Ernest Bracewell, Billy Bracewell, and Bryan Bracewell; Nikki Dugas; Billy Inman and Francis Inman; Chris LeClair; Bobby Mueller.
CONSULTING
“Texas Barbecue Trail,” Website, Foodways Texas (Austin, TX) Fall 2011
“Meat: Texas Barbecue from Feedlot to Plate,” Exhibit, Texas Folklife (Austin, TX) Spring 2010
TEACHING EXPERIENCE
Instructor
HUM 380: “Topics in Humanities: Introduction to Digital Humanities”
Fall 2012 (Illinois Institute of Technology)
An upper-level course intended as an introduction to the history, methods, and practice of digital humanities. The course covers the history of digital humanities as a field while requiring students to cultivate hands-on experience. As this is a writing intensive course, students complete significant writing assignments in varied formats and complete several in-class presentations of work.
AMS 311s/WGS 301: “Making it in America: Sex, Gender, and Sexuality in the United States” Fall 2009/Spring 2010 (University of Texas at Austin)
As a writing-intensive course taught in sections of 25 students each, this class encouraged students to cultivate critical analytical and writing skills by engaging with a wide range of materials. The course covered historical topics and issues related to gender and sexuality, including marriage, family, and sexual identity, with an emphasis on race and class. Students were evaluated on essay writing assignments, in-class discussion, and participation in peer review.
PROFESSIONAL AND RESEARCH EXPERIENCE
UT Austin | Portugal CoLab: Digital Media Program, Research Assistant, (04/07 – 05/10)
Provided support to Dr. Sharon Strover on a collaborative project emphasizing digital media research and education in Portugal.
Helped coordinate international internships for Portuguese students and young professionals.
Assisted with events including a digital media research symposium and faculty visits.
Developed, implemented, and managed the Digital Media Leadership Program, an internship program placing exceptional undergraduate students with Austin-based digital media companies.
Graduate Writing Consultant, University of Texas Learning Center, (01/07 – 08/08)
Met with graduate students on an appointment basis to provide one-on-one help with writing projects.
Provided individualized instruction for undergraduates enrolled in Developmental Reading and Developmental Writing.
Tailored Developmental Reading and Developmental Writing curricula to individual student needs.
ACADEMIC AND DEPARTMENTAL SERVICE
Women’s Committee, the American Studies Association, June 2012-present
Graduate Committee, Department of Humanities, Illinois Institute of Technology, 2012-
Chair’s Advisory Committee, Department of Humanities, Illinois Institute of Technology, 2012-2013
Chair, Digital Humanities Curriculum Committee, Illinois institute of Technology, 2012-2013
Selection Committee Member, Excellence in Graduate Research Award, University of Texas, Austin, 2011-2012
Peer Reviewer, Game Studies Track, Foundations of Digital Games Conference 2012
Moderator, RoboCop, American Studies Film Series, University of Texas, Austin, March 10, 2011
Mentor, Intellectual Entrepreneurship Pre-Graduate School Internship Program, University of Texas, Austin, Fall 2007
Coordinator, Tech Studies Roundtable, University of Texas, Austin, December 2006 – May 2009
Participant, Visual Culture Caucus of the American Studies Association
SERVICE TO THE COMMUNITY
OutYouth, nonprofit providing services to GLBTQ youth
Drop-in Center Volunteer. October 2007 – October 2011.
Named “Volunteer of the Year” for 2008.
Austin Bakes for Bastrop, fundraiser for emergency relief
Volunteer. October 2011.
Austin Bakes for Japan, fundraiser for emergency relief
Site coordinator. March-April 2011.
Explore UT, university-wide event serving K-12 students
Event Volunteer. March 2009, March 2010.
My current project is a cultural history of the early video game arcade, drawn from oral history interviews, popular film and television programs, consumer and trade magazines, and other sources. This work emerged from my own curiosity about how and when video gaming became the kind of all-boy club it is frequently assumed to be. I have also written about misogyny and sexism in contemporary gaming practices, the history of U.S. video game policy, and the emergence of violence as a key thematic concern in video gaming.
Currently, I serve as Assistant Professor of Digital Humanities and Media Studies in the Humanities Department at the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago. I am also a regional director for the Learning Games Initiative.
And, in case you’re interested in my intellectual biography, I completed an M.A. and Ph.D. in American Studies and a doctoral portfolio in Cultural Studies at the University of Texas at Austin, where I worked under Elizabeth S.D. Engelhardt, who is now chair of the Department of American Studies there. As an undergraduated, I double-majored in English and History at Rice University
Carly A. Kocurek is an assistant professor of Digital Humanities and Media Studies at the Illinois Institute of Technology. Her book, Coin-Operated Americans: Rebooting Boyhood at the Video Game Arcade, examines the cultural history of coin-op video games and the emergence of gaming culture, and she is co-editor and co-founder of the Influential Game Designers book series published by Bloomsbury. Her work has appeared in journals such as Game Studies, Visual Studies, and The Journal of Gaming and Virtual Worlds as well as in outlets such as The Atlantic and Ms.
Carly Kocurek
Assistant Professor, Digital Humanities and Media Studies
Greater Chicago Area
Higher Education
Current
Illinois Institute of Technology
Previous
University of Texas at Austin, Austinist, UT Austin | Portugal Digital Media Program
Education
The University of Texas at Austin
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Summary
Researcher and game designer. Expert in cultural history of video games. Author of "Coin-Operated Americans: Rebooting Boyhood at the Video Game Arcade" (University of Minnesota Press, 2015) and "Brenda Laurel: Pioneering Games for Girls" (Bloomsbury, 2017).
Experience
Illinois Institute of Technology
Assistant Professor of Digital Humanities and Media Studies
Illinois Institute of Technology
August 2012 – Present (4 years 10 months)Greater Chicago Area
Courses taught:
COM 380: Fundamentals of Game Design
HUM 208: Digital Culture
HUM 380: History of Video Gaming
HUM 380: Critical Analysis of Video Games
HUM 380: Interactive Storytelling
HUM 380: Transnational Cinema
HUM 380: Gaming Around the Globe
HUM 380: Introduction to Digital Humanities (Fall 2012)
University of Texas at Austin
Teaching Assistant
University of Texas at Austin
August 2004 – May 2012 (7 years 10 months)Austin, Texas Area
Provided instructional support for courses in several departments, including:
AMS 356: Main Currents in American Cultural History 1865 to the Present
(American Studies, Spring 2012)
AMS 355: Main Currents in American Cultural History to 1865
(American Studies, Fall 2011)
AMS 310: Introduction to American Studies
(American Studies, Fall 2008 - Spring 2009)
EE333T: Technical Communication
(Electrical and Computer Engineering, Fall 2005 - Spring 2007)
PHIL 304: Contemporary Moral Problems
(Philosophy, Fall 2004)
Staff Writer
Austinist
2005 – February 2012 (7 years)
Wrote previews and reviews of cultural events, particularly concerts and festivals. Assisted with Austinist events, including parties and shows.
University of Texas at Austin
Instructor
University of Texas at Austin
August 2009 – May 2010 (10 months)
Served as sole instructor for AMS 311s/WGS 301: Making it in America: Sex, Gender, and Sexuality in the United States." Developed course and course curriculum. Instructed 3 sections of approximately 25 students over the course of two semesters.
Research Assistant
UT Austin | Portugal Digital Media Program
May 2007 – May 2010 (3 years 1 month)
Provided support to the program director of the UT-Portugal Digital Media Program. Launched and managed internship programs for Portuguese undergraduate and graduate university students and early career professionals and undergraduate students at the University of Texas. Assisted in event coordination. Designed printed matter and produced written content for program materials both online and in print.
University of Texas at Austin
Graduate Writing Consultant
University of Texas at Austin
January 2007 – August 2008 (1 year 8 months)
Met with graduate students on an appointment basis to provide one-on-one help with writing projects. Additionally, provided individualized instruction for undergraduates enrolled in Developmental Reading and Developmental Writing. Tailored Developmental Reading and Developmental Writing curricula to individual student needs.
Publications
The Agony and the Exidy: A History of Video Game Violence and the Legacy of Death Race
Game Studies 12.1
September 2012
Authors:
Carly Kocurek
Snapshot of American Game Ratings and Censorship
Gaming Globally (Ben Aslinger and Nina Huntemann, editors; Palgrave McMillan)
2012
Authors:
Carly Kocurek
Coin-Drop Capitalism: Economic Lessons from the Video Game Arcade
Before the Crash: An Anthology of Early Video Game History (Mark J.P. Wolf, editor; Wayne State University Press)
2012
Authors:
Carly Kocurek
Putting Atari to Work
In Media Res
June 2012
Authors:
Carly Kocurek
The Right to Play: Youth, Video Gaming, and the Law
Flow 9.10
2009
Authors:
Carly Kocurek
Gaming for the Gal on the Go: Advertising the Nintendo DS
Flow 8.3
2008
Authors:
Carly Kocurek
Coin-Operated Americans: Rebooting Boyhood at the Video Game Arcade
University of Minnesota Press
2015
Publisher's Description: "
How and why video gaming culture became the domain of young men and boys
Carly A. Kocurek examines the factors and incidents that contributed to the widespread view of video gaming as an enclave for young men and boys. Coin-Operated Americans holds valuable lessons for contemporary culture as we struggle to address pervasive sexism in the domain of video games—and in the digital working world beyond."
Authors:
Carly Kocurek
Education
The University of Texas at Austin
The University of Texas at Austin
PhD, American Studies
2006 – 2012
The University of Texas at Austin
The University of Texas at Austin
M.A., American Studies
2004 – 2006
Rice University
Rice University
BA, English, History
2000 – 2004
Activities and Societies: The Rice Thresher, Golden Key International Honour Society, KTRU, Rice Women's Rugby, Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellow
Honors & Awards
A.D. Hutchinson Endowed Fellowship
The University of Texas at Austin
2010
Year-long academic fellowship awarded to support the completion of my dissertation project.
Best Student Paper in Computer and Gaming Culture
SW/TX PCA/ACA Computer and Gaming Culture Area
2009
Awarded for my paper, "Arcade Economics: Class Values and Coin Operated Video Gaming."
Volunteer of the Year
OutYouth
November 2008
Recognized as volunteer of the year for service to OutYouth, a nonprofit providing services to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, questioning and ally youth in the greater Austina area.
IIT Sigma Xi-Junior Faculty Award for Excellence in Research
Illinois Institute of Technology
2016
Organizations
American Studies Association
Starting 2008
Popular Culture Association
Starting 2006
International Communication Association
Starting 2010
Skills
BloggingEditingResearchHigher Educationvideo game studiesAmerican HistoryQualitative ResearchDigital HumanitiesUniversity TeachingGrant WritingStudent DevelopmentCopy EditingCreative WritingTeachingCurriculum DesignSee 7+
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Texas Exes - The University of Texas Ex-Students' Association
Texas Exes - The University of Texas Ex-Students' Association
Digital Humanities / Humanities Computing
Digital Humanities / Humanities Computing
Choice: Texas – A Q&A with Carly Kocurek and Allyson Whipple
Posted on September 5, 2013 by Tanya
No matter how much some stalwarts may resist it, gaming as a medium for creative expression is evolving and growing. More and more independent game creators are able to reach a wider audience with the help of social media and crowd funding, while established developers are releasing titles that incorporate deeply personal storytelling elements, such as last year’s Papo & Yo from Minority Media. Games and interactive fiction also allow more opportunities to engage the player with important perspectives, potentially leaving the player changed after their interactive journey.
Inspired by the options interactive fiction presents for raising awareness and engagement, writers Carly Kocurek and Allyson Whipple recently launched an IndieGoGo fundraiser for Choice: Texas, a web based game that would allow players the opportunity to navigate the complex and troublesome waters of abortion access in the state of Texas. Incorporating real research into healthcare, policy, and socioeconomic factors, the game will provide a very personal, empathetic way to be educated on the real circumstances so many women face.
I caught up with Carly and Allyson recently to find out more about their inspiration for the project, the creative approach, and what they hope to accomplish.
Choice: Texas character design by Grace Jennings
Choice: Texas – Latrice, character design by Grace Jennings
How did the inspiration for this project come about?
Carly: About a year ago, I got interested in the idea of a pen-and-paper or card-based RPG about abortion access, because I was trying to think of a way to really show how different factors limit who has access to what. I couldn’t ever quite settle on a way to make it work, though, and then I played Spent and Depression Quest, and I got the idea to do something web-based that would be more of an interactive fiction game. When I landed on that, I got in touch with Allyson, because I thought it would be a good opportunity for us to work together, since we’re old friends, and also because I thought we’d bring different skill sets and knowledge.
Allyson: We talk online all the time, and every couple of weeks she’d make reference to it. It started as something that might become a tabletop or card game, and then grew into an interactive fiction. When she asked me to jump on board, I didn’t even have to think about it. I was in!
I like that the topic of choice is going to be addressed through a game, a medium that is all about choice. Could you talk a little bit more, though, about what specifically appealed to you about taking your message and telling the narrative through a game, rather than a different format (comic book, for instance.)
Carly: I’m a game studies scholar by trade, so games are the medium I have the most nuanced knowledge of, in a lot of ways. There’s also a lot of interest in games for serious purposes, so I have read a lot about that and played a lot of those games. Plus, while circulation is still an issue with web based projects, it’s less of an issue than it is with things that need to be mailed or distributed physically. And, finally, I really wanted something that would ask players to consider and weigh the kinds of choices women face.
Allyson: What appeals to me about the game is a sense of immediacy. When I play Depression Quest, for example, it’s very difficult for me, emotionally. It’s easy for me to fall into the world of the game and feel such empathy for the character I’m playing. Now, as a writer, I know that obviously happens in comic books and novels as well. But there’s something about having to make decisions for your character, and have to help them navigate the world they’re in, that resonates. Because this is a game about awareness and empathy, I think it’s very well-suited to the game form, because we want that type of connection.
What narrative games and other interactive fiction examples have served as inspiration for you?
Carly: Well, Spent and Depression Quest, which I mentioned earlier. Cart Life is really huge, too. I’ve also been thinking a lot about classic Choose Your Own Adventure books, which I think are just so artfully structured and organized.
Allyson: Carly has cited Depression Quest, and that’s very true for me as well. This project, for me, has been an interesting and surprising return to work I did in graduate school with interactive fiction and hypertext stories. I took several courses on interactive narratives. Although when I left grad school I turned my focus to poetry and did very little to extend my studies, this has been a fun return to that interest. Though what we’re doing here is going to have a much more contemporary aesthetic, obviously.
Choice: Texas character design by Grace Jennings
Choice: Texas – Leah, character design by Grace Jennings
Can you tell us a little bit about the people who you hope will be involved with the completion of the project?
Carly: We’re working with Grace Jennings on the art. We have a couple of her illustrations up on our Tumblr already, and we’ll be posting more from here in the next couple months.
Allyson: I’m thrilled to be working with Grace. Every time she sends us a new draft, I’m continually impressed. As for the rest, we’re holding off on seeing how far the campaign goes and how much we can budget.
Carly: Right now, we’re really engaged in getting the prototype together. We have some names in mind for web development, but we’ve been holding off on negotiations so we can be sure of the kind of budget we have. We’ve hit a point in our fundraising where we can definitely finish the game and get it online, but we really need the full budget to complete the project as we envisioned it. We don’t want to get too far into negotiations with any collaborators unless we’re sure that we’ll have the money, and we also don’t want to underpay someone who’s doing professional work on the project. We — Allyson and I — aren’t getting paid, but it was really important to us that anyone we asked to work on this thing get paid for their work.
What are some unique challenges you’ve encountered while working on the project and a few take-aways?
Carly: As we’ve been working on the game, it’s increasingly become a game about reproductive healthcare, broadly. A lot of the factors that influence abortion access line up with gaps or issues in the availability of reproductive healthcare more generally, so the game both relies and and delves into some of that context. Access, also, is a moving target, particularly in Texas at this moment. We started working last January, and the most recent state legislative session really made the project seem more timely and urgent.
I think the project we’re working on is a little unique because of that, because the landscape is changing as we’re writing, and we’re having to research and re-research and triple fact check everything. This is a fictional game, but we want it to be very much based in and reflective of reality. The speed with which the proverbial sands have been shifting beneath our feet has both been driving the game but also making it a more complicated project.
Allyson: Carly and I are both trained researchers, but sometimes, we’ve really had to dig deep. Making sure your facts are solid can be a real challenge, especially when the political aspect surrounding the issue is on such uneven footing. What I’ve learned is that story games are all about the details. On some level, I always knew that to be true — players can really appreciate accuracy and attention to detail. But making this game has reinforced that — made it hit home, in a way. This project has been an illuminating experience not just from the research end, but I’ve learned more about gaming than I ever did as a player or a student.
Thank you both for your time. We can’t wait to see the finished project.
The fundraiser is less than 20% away from reaching the set goal, with 13 days left, so consider pitching in, or if it’s something you cannot afford, spread the word to help make this important project a reality.
Kocurek, Carly, A.: Coin-Operated Americans: Rebooting Boyhood at the Video Game Arcade
Paul Stenis
140.15 (Sept. 15, 2015): p95.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2015 Library Journals, LLC. A wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
http://www.libraryjournal.com/
Kocurek, Carly, A. Coin-Operated Americans: Rebooting Boyhood at the Video Game Arcade. Univ. of Minnesota. Sept. 2015. 272p. illus. notes, bibliog. index. ISBN 9780816691838. pap. $22.95. GAMES
Kocurek (director, digital humanities, Illinois Inst, of Technology) brings us a case study of the coin-operated video game era, stretching from the launch of Pong in 1972 to the industry crash in 1983. It traces the emergence of the term gamer as an identity and examines the cultural, political, and economic strains surrounding key periods in the industry's earliest days. Drawing on press coverage, narrative media, trade journals, oral HIST ories, and marketing and advertising, Kocurek ties the pressures of the moment to the gaming's efforts at gaining respectability. Her research reveals the industry's portrayal of gamers as "idealized visions of youth, masculinity, [and] violence," a collection of traits Kocurek calls "technomasculine." She also leads a phenomenological tour of the arcades of the late 1970s and early 1980s, deconstructs "world record culture," documents the rise of violence in video games, shows how moralists fought the business, analyzes the portrayal of gamers in film, looks at why arcades have made a comeback, and more. VERDICT An excellent study of the early history of the video game industry and how it came to define the gamer as male.--Paul Stenis, Pepperdine Univ. Lib., Malibu, CA
Stenis, Paul
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Stenis, Paul. "Kocurek, Carly, A.: Coin-Operated Americans: Rebooting Boyhood at the Video Game Arcade." Library Journal, 15 Sept. 2015, p. 95. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA429499613&it=r&asid=36b2651ee6820f8aa63429d66b2c5348. Accessed 12 May 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A429499613
Kocurek, Carly A. Coin-operated Americans: rebooting boyhood at the video game arcade
G. Voorhees
53.10 (June 2016): p1471.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2016 American Library Association CHOICE
http://www.ala.org/acrl/choice/about
Kocurek, Carly A. Coin-operated Americans: rebooting boyhood at the video game arcade. Minnesota, 2015. 244p bibl index afp ISBN 9780816691821 cloth, $80.50; ISBN 9780816691838 pbk, $22.95
(cc) 53-4257
GV1469
2015-19104 CIP
Few resources perform a more important intervention into the present day than Coin-Operated Americans. Kocurek (Illinois Institute of Technology) traces the emergence of the "gamer" identity construct. One strength of the study is that the author situates the arcades in the tangle of discourses circulating around the cultural, economic, and political contexts that define them. By recounting and parsing the significance of efforts to celebrate the competition arcades fostered and to reveal the violence arcades represented, Kocurek thoroughly excavates the video game arcade as an important site in American society and the public imagination. But she also treats the arcade as an assemblage of technologies, people, practices, and relationships and in so doing pins down and explains how arcades function as apparatuses for the production of a personhood organized around technomasculinity. This detailed study provides a lucid, compelling narrative that will interest a very diverse audience. Summing Up: ** Recommended. Lower-division undergraduates and above; general readers.--G. Voorhees, University of Waterloo
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Voorhees, G. "Kocurek, Carly A. Coin-operated Americans: rebooting boyhood at the video game arcade." CHOICE: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries, June 2016, p. 1471. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA454942668&it=r&asid=e972f581bd3933e1f774f900bcde02f7. Accessed 12 May 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A454942668
LEWIS COLLEGE OF HUMAN SCIENCES ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF DIGITAL HUMANITIES AND MEDIA STUDIES CARLY KOCUREK PUBLISHES NEW BOOK ABOUT GAMING PIONEER BRENDA LAUREL
(Apr. 17, 2017):
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2017 States News Service
Chicago, IL -- The following information was released by the Illinois Institute of Technology:
Carly Kocurek, assistant professor of digital humanities and media studies at Lewis College of Human Sciences, has published a new book about gaming pioneer Brenda Laurel.
Laurel is best known for her work with Purple Moon, the gaming company she co-founded in the 1990s. Purple Moon's games are based on years of research Laurel conducted to better understand why girls expressed little interest in computer games. Through sources such as trade journals, newspapers, recorded interviews, and an original interview with Laurel herself, Kocurek explores Laurel's contributions to the early development of games for girls and her overall contributions to research-informed design in game development.
Brenda Laurel: Pioneering Games for Girls was published by Bloomsbury Publishing in February 2017.
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"LEWIS COLLEGE OF HUMAN SCIENCES ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF DIGITAL HUMANITIES AND MEDIA STUDIES CARLY KOCUREK PUBLISHES NEW BOOK ABOUT GAMING PIONEER BRENDA LAUREL." States News Service, 17 Apr. 2017. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA489804001&it=r&asid=a02efbfb7f53b5894e542ed2717f42e6. Accessed 12 May 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A489804001
'Coin-Operated Americans' Tells of the Time When Arcades Took the Children of Displaced Workers
by James Orbesen
30 September 2015
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America’s youth crowded arcades, deposited quarters, and saw a way out of the modern, productive industrial economy of the post-war US and into the postmodern, postindustrial consumer economy that we inhabit today.
Pinball image from Shutterstock.com.
cover art
Coin-Operated Americans: Rebooting Boyhood at the Video Game Arcade
Carly A. Kocurek
(University of Minnesota Press)
US: Oct 2015
Amazon
Most video game arcades today are either relics of the past, preserved through sheer will and by the weight of history, or are newer, modern (yet retro) spaces that traffic in craft beer and nostalgia. However, as professor and author Carly A. Kocurek demonstrates in her latest book, Coin-Operated Americans: Rebooting Boyhood at the Video Game Arcade, arcades were once big business, expanding from a niche market into something major, and nabbing national attention throughout the late ‘70s and early ‘80s, until an economic crash in 1983 submerged many, kicking off a slow, not always assured, decline.
Kocurek’s book comes at a prime moment. Between widely disseminated and examined controversies like GamerGate and the growing impact of video games on our culture, and wallets, examining the roots of this once subculture is long overdue. Indeed, for many non-gamers, the explosion in popularity of, as Kocurek notes, “an entertainment industry so substantial it regularly outperforms Hollywood’s profits, and an arena for competition so fierce as to support an entire professional circuit” is a shock. With this steadily growing power, “video gaming has come of age as an established industry with its own standards, professional organizations, degree programs, and lobbying groups.”
The research gathered by the author, and the story told, is perhaps indicative of larger transformations in American culture. Images of the gamer from the late ‘70s / early ‘80s (youthful, mischievous, rebellious, epitomized by Matthew Broderick in 1983’s WarGames) linger in the popular, collective unconscious. Though dated, they say a great deal about what the arcade was and how this space birthed a new power, one fixated on disruption, consumption, and creative destruction.
As Kocurek observes, “To journey through the arcade conceptually is to confront the digitation of culture, a process that has transformed everything from banking and education to film production and television viewing practices, and also to think critically about the role of money in daily life.”
So, what was the arcade? What was this place? And, though now largely running on nostalgia, or fixtures of larger entertainment complexes, who did the arcade cater to? Kocurek speaks to how arcades represented the future of America’s economy. Sprouting up in suburban shopping centers, these spaces catered to a youthful clientele, coming of age during deindustrialization, in a jaded, post-Watergate environment of deregulation, accelerating globalization, and stagnating wages. The factory lights in countless towns went dim, then dark. But the arcade, bright, noisy, open, took in the sons (and, despite common perceptions, daughters) of these displaced workers.
Although a shrinking middle class, declining wages, and an increase in temporary labor are trends common today, partly expected, in the late ‘70s early ‘80s, the arcade’s genesis moment, they were invasive forces, abnormalities, assaults on prosperity previously unheard of in the U. S. of A. With dimming prospects, many of America’s youth crowded arcades, deposited quarters, and saw a way forward, away from the modern, productive industrial economy of the post-war United States, and into the postmodern, postindustrial consumer economy that we inhabit today.
The author notes that this field of scholarship, about arcades and video games, is still in its infancy and, partly, that shows in the repetition of material, limited availability of outside sources, and her calls for further inquiries. Nevertheless, Kocurek makes commendable contributions, especially during interviews with an arcade owner in Ottumwa, Iowa, proprietor of the legendary Twin Galaxies Arcade, a key fomenter of early gaming competitions. Kocurek’s long analysis of the Life 1982 “Year in Pictures” of teenagers posed in Ottumwa, and how it mainstreamed the image of the gamer, is also rich and nuanced.
It’s when the author traces today’s information economy to the arcade culture of the late ‘70s / early ‘80s that Coin-Operated Americans is its most engaging. The title itself is a double entendre. It points to the denizens of the arcade, while also hinting at the piecemeal, bit work, the contingent, contractual labor that an increasing number of Americans engage in, especially younger ones. Sites like Elance, TaskRabbit, Uber, Lyft, just to name a few, along with the flexible scheduling software of big box stores and fast food restaurants, and temp agencies farming workers to subcontractors for Amazon, thematically, though tangentially, have their root in the arcade: the digitization of physical objects and services.
Even beyond America’s economy, the arcade challenged our concepts of freedom of expression and individual identity. After a landmark case, City of Mesquite vs. Aladdin’s Castle, Inc., where a small Texas town’s statute banning arcades was overturned, Kocurek notes, “the ruling nods not so subtly towards the late capitalist assertion that the freedom to consume is a fundamental civil liberty.” In a way, through the arcade, “individual identities [came] to be affixed to consumer products and practices…” People became what they liked, not who they were, fostering the rise of tags like the aforementioned “gamer”.
That’s not the end of the story of the arcade, as the author notes, nor should her verdict be definite. The arcade’s influence on our culture is deep and long obscured and that excavation is only in its infancy. So the arcade was many things: a place where boys became men, where culture became digitized, where the industrial economy became the informational economy or, as Kocurek notes wandering through a modern arcade, Dave & Buster’s, “maybe it is whatever makes money.”
Coin-Operated Americans: Rebooting Boyhood at the Video Game Arcade
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