Six scholars have been selected to complete residencies at UNLV Special Collections as part of its Gaming Research Fellows Program for the 2012-2013 academic year. More than two dozen fellowships have been awarded since the program began in 2007.
Each fellow will deliver a talk and write a paper for a Gaming Research Center publication as part of the fellowship.
The 2012-2013 fellows are as follows:
Beverly Geesin
Senior lecturer, English language and linguistics, York St. John University
Residency: Jan. 17-31, 2013
Geesin's doctoral thesis examines contemporary forms of surveillance and develops a theoretical framework for understanding individual practices of resistance with a focus on everyday life, urban space and consumption. She also researches how surveillance becomes normalized through consumption and the relationship between surveillance and urban renewal.
David J. Hart
Assistant professor of philosophy, West Texas A & M University
Residency: Jan. 31-Feb. 15, 2013
Hart's primary research interests are early modern thought, the history of empiricism, and the intersections of philosophy and literature. Forthcoming publications from Hart include a philosophical essay on sovereignty and literary essays on James Joyce and J. L. Borges.
Diana Tracy Cohen
Assistant professor of political science, Central Connecticut State University
Residency: March 18 - 28, 2013
Cohen conducts research in the areas of Internet and media politics, campaigns and elections, sport, family, and gender. She is currently working a book project that examines a population that she calls Iron Dads - men who balance work, family and endurance sport.
Stephen C. Andrade
Associate professor of computer graphics, Johnson & Wales University
Residency: April 1-14, 2013
Andrade has been active in the technology field for over 35 years. He has spent the past four years cultivating a special relationship with GTECH - the world's leader in wager-based gaming and lottery systems. His work includes ongoing research into visual metaphor and games of chance for the digital generation. He has consulted with the U.S. Department of Defense, the Department of Commerce and the White House on issues of technology innovation and reform.
David T. Courtwright
Presidential professor, department of history, University of North Florida
Residency: April 28-May 11, 2013.
Courtwright has published influential books on drug use and drug policy, both in American and world history; the social problems of frontier environments on the land and in the air; and the culture war that roiled American politics during and after the 1960s. He is currently working on another project in this vein, a book about pleasure, vice, addiction and capitalism in the modern world.
Brian Beaton
Assistant professor, school of information sciences, University of Pittsburgh
Residency: May 6-17, 2013
Beaton's research concerns interactions between technology, information, and people. Among his current research projects, Beaton is studying public participation in the sciences and the crowdsourcing of scientific and biomedical research. His work at UNLV will focus on the growing use of online games designed to involve ordinary people in the collection, manipulation, and analysis of large scientific data sets.
Each fellow will give a talk at The Gaming Colloquium Series next spring. Scheduled events are listed below. The events are held at 3:30 p.m. at the UNLV Special Collections Reading Room in the UNLV Lied Library.
Colloquium Series Schedule
- Jan. 31- Beverly Geesin - "Surveillance and the Marketing of Vice"
- Feb. 14- David J. Hart - "An Illegitimate Child: Epilepsy, Gambling, and the Birth of Probability"
- March 28- Diana Tracy Cohen - "Advertising Parenting in Las Vegas: An Analysis of Time and Space"
- April 11- Stephen Andrade - "Visual Metaphor in Games of Chance - What You See is What You Play"
- May 9- David Courtwright - "Learning from Las Vegas: Addiction, Limbic Capitalism, and Pleasure Meccas"
- May 16- Brian Beaton - "Drawing Crowds to Citizen Science: Data Collection and Analysis as Everyday Gaming"
About the UNLV Center for Gaming Research
UNLV's Center for Gaming Research has been awarding gaming fellowships since 2007 as part of its mission to promote the scholarly investigation of gambling. The Center for Gaming Research is a world-class hub for the scholarly analysis of gambling and gaming issues. Located within Special Collections at UNLV's state-of-the-art Lied Library, its main resource is the Gaming Collection. Many unique primary resources can be found only within the Collection.
The center is committed to providing support for scholarly inquiry into all aspects of gaming. Students, faculty and community members interested in academically-oriented gaming research are welcome to use the collection.
