Scholarly biography and interests

Helen W Kennedy is an educator and researcher in media, and an expert in the culture of game cultures and play.

She has been researching and writing about games since 1993. She was co-organiser of the first UK International conference on games Game Cultures in 2001. Since then she co-founded and chaired (from 2004 to present) the Play Research Group at UWE and has played a key role in the organisation of colloquia and symposia on issues relating to games Power Up (ideology and games), Playful Subjects (embodiment and gameplay) PSii (technology and games) which led to a co-edited special issue of Games and Culture that addresses this theme and PSiii (Wii Technicities) which led to a special issue of Journal of Television and New Media, published in 2010. This group holds regular play sessions through which to develop collaborative approaches to the analysis of digital games and play in general.

Helen's research is focused on technology, aesthetics and embodied perception in relation to games and play. Helen is an active member of the Women in Games (WiG) steering committee and has helped to organise conferences and network events since its inauguration in 2004. Helen has represented the group at a number of public events (eg. the London Games Festival Fringe and in March 2008 a games panel at Birds Eye View Film Festival). She also co-convened (with Emma Westecott) the WiG strand within DiGRA 2009. WiG has been instrumental in raising the visibility of women within the games industry as well as encouraging ongoing projects to highlight the role of women in the development of games technologies, game design and as game players. Helen is also a Co-Investigator in an International collaboration ‘Feminists In Games’ which seeks to identify to roots of the digital divide in games participation and to intervene in its reproduction: www.ludicjunk.com/fig.  In 2012 Helen worked with Auroch Digital, UKIE & Ada Lovelace Day to convene the first ever all female games jam which took place as part of the London Games Festival. A film was commissioned to document the event: https://vimeo.com/61886636.

Helen was until recently President of the Digital Games Research Association having been a board member since 2005. Helen is also the author (with Jon Dovey) of Game Cultures: Computer Games as New Media, McGraw Hill, Open University Press, 2006 and has published in Game Studies, Games & Culture and tekka.net.

Research activity