Current Research

My research illustrates the ways that posthuman subjectivity occurs as a permeable and fluid embodiment between human and non-human others. I have previously focused on the intersections between avatar and gamer, seeking to create empirical accounts of posthuman experience. My continuing research expands on my initial observations to explore the avatar-gamer posthuman subjectivity through different angles, such as death and technoaffect, as well as moving my exploration of posthumanism into alternative areas of media and culture, including makeover TV, zombies, and posthuman performance. My further publications explore videogames and critical posthumanism through issues of affectivity and intra-action, post-apocalyptic narratives, the non-human, and agentic capabilities. Please see my publications and blog posts for further detail. 

Posthuman Gaming: Avatars, Gamers, and Entangled Subjectivities

My first monograph (Routledge, 2023) is based on my doctoral research, which I completed in 2017, and extends this research with additional data, information, and themes of analysis. The research explores the lived experience of posthuman subjectivity using autoethnographic data collected during game play in the massively multiplayer online role playing game World of Warcraft. Through my autoethnographic reflections, I document the emotional, affective, embodied, empathic and performative aspects that are at play in the relationship between avatar and gamer. As Braidotti suggests, ‘the relationship between the human and the technological other has shifted in the contemporary context, to reach unprecedented degrees of intimacy and intrusion’ (2013: 89), and in this monograph I argue that the avatar-gamer is one embodied example of this.

I discuss embodiment and subjectivity when shared with an avatar, demonstrating the ways in which this links with research around the posthuman and utilising aspects of articulation of self, acting, performance, empathy, affect, and experiences of death and endings amongst others to deconstruct this emergent posthuman subjectivity. The research illustrates one way that posthuman subjectivity occurs as an entangled and fluid embodiment between human and machine. In this regard, the research uses theory to help us make sense of the everyday and “mundane” practice of gaming. It, therefore, identifies an example of a posthuman subjectivity, demonstrating the everyday application of theory through its use in a popular way of engaging with the media. Furthermore, the research considers the ways in which being “posthuman” feels very “human” thus articulating a space in between the utopian and dystopian versions of posthumanism by arguing that this posthuman subjectivity is as complex a subjectivity as any other that we embody.

It is hoped that the research could have wider applications for researchers interested in the intersections of subjectivity and technology.

You can find out more information about the book here. I am grateful for the support of the Birmingham Centre for Media and Cultural Research that has made it possible to publish two chapters open access. They can be downloaded free of charge now.