The speaker series is also part of the events and publications organized under the research innitiative Playing the Field, a collaborative interdisciplinary research initiative started by German American Studies scholars in 2018. Its objective is to create a welcoming and informal environment that fosters academic conversations about video games in our field and beyond. Broadly speaking, we are interested in how the theories and methods of American Studies may be fruitfully brought to bear on video games as objects of research, and how in turn video games change these theories and methods. We pursue these questions together with other international scholars, scientists, and artists from various disciplines.
To create a forum for these conversations, “Playing the Field” began its life in 2018 as an international conference, and it has now grown into a conference series that regularly brings together researchers from around the globe.