Playful promotion of young talent – University of Innsbruck
The promotion of young scientists is important for all disciplines, but it is of particular importance for a young discipline such as game studies. For this reason, the AKGWDS (Working Group on Historical Science and Digital Games) organized a two-day conference.
Game studies, including research into digital games, can already look back on several decades of research history. Nevertheless, the subject has not yet been able to make the leap to becoming an institutionalized discipline. One of the reasons seems to be that generation after generation of researchers are networking with computer games, but the lack of courses means that the knowledge is hardly passed on to integrated ones.
In order to counteract this and to promote networking among young scientists, AGGWDS (Working Group on History and Digital Games) under the leadership of Aurelia Brandenburg (University of Würzburg), Peter Färberböck (Uni of Salzburg), Tobias Unterhuber (Uni of Innsbruck) and Tobias Winnerling (Uni of Düsseldorf) on 27./28. May 2022 the online student conference “Level 1”.
The event was divided into two parts and ended with a workshop entitled “Everything you always wanted to know about game studies but were afraid to ask”. The organizers give the students insights into everyday academic life and practical tips, from the way to the first publication to career opportunities. In the evening of the day, the students had the opportunity to ask further questions and to network in a discussion round.
The second part of the event was contested by the students themselves. In five panels on the topics of digital storytelling, constructions of the past and conventions of imagination, identities and intersectionality, didactics and mediation, and performance and spectacle, students primarily from Austria and Germany, from a wide variety of subjects, universities and career levels (from Bachelor students to pre- Docs) presented their own research projects in lectures and discussed them with each other. All participants revealed a really impressive quality in their contributions, which made it clear that students can and must be taken seriously as researchers. The euphoria of the successful event was palpable among both the students and the organizers.
Tobias Unterhuber also made this clear in his conclusion at the end of the first day: “If this is the future of game studies, and you are, then rosy times are ahead of us.”
(Tobias Unterhuber)