About Me

Who am I?

I'm an Associate Professor of Communication in the Department of Communication, Journalism, and Public Relations at Oakland University in Michigan. My research examines race, video games, and the political economy of the video game industry. My work has appeared in Social Media + Society, First Mondays, Games and Culture, and Television and New Media. I teach a wide variety of courses in the department. However, I specialize in teaching media production. Prior to becoming an academic, I worked for over a decade in the high tech industry. In that capacity, I mainly consulted on municipal wireless networks, agribusiness projects, open source technology, and streaming media systems.

I earned a PhD (2014) from Temple University in Media and Communication. 

My dissertation, Speaking about race: Biopower and racism in the videogame landscape, examined the political economics of the videogame industry and how professional norms, cultural beliefs, and market uncertainty maintain videogame narratives and tropes that are racially problematic.

While my research investigates how race and racism is embedded in videogame culture, I don't investigate videogame producers or titles, per se. Rather, my work focuses on the larger production ecosystem and how -- even in the absence of intention -- racism is maintained.