Projects

On this page are Academic Projects and Presentations, as well as Creative Projects that I have made/helped make.

"Otome Games as Women Empowerment."

This presentation, presented at MPCA 2022, is an emerging research project to analyze the inter-connectivity of gendered gamers and the genre of otome games. In other words, the perception of otome games as a more "feminine" genre of video games helps female gamers own their identity while also empowering them to be a part of a historically male-dominated field. Otome-style games originated in Japan; however, in the past decade social media, globalization, fan connections, and the rise in female-oriented video games have raised the popularity of the otome genre, especially in the western hemisphere. The goal of this project is to analyze three otome games, explore why this genre appeals to women, and discuss how the otome genre empowers women in video gaming, making the globalization of this genre important for women gamers.

Under Maintenance

Under Maintenance is a Visual Novel/Otome game developed by a group of ladies. This was their first time creating a game, and this game is a submission to OtomeJam 2022 and the Indie Abortion Bundle 2022, both on itch.io (Itch.io is a platform for indie developers to share their creative works).

I helped create, write, and edit Under Maintenance, as well as help with the social media content. The game is completely free to download by using the link provided.

If you want more information about this creative project, please contact me!

"Collecting Husbands: Fan Discourse of Mr. Love: Queen's Choice"

This is a presentation over a discourse analysis from 2021-2022. The paper, published in the FANS journal in 2022, focuses on a small fan community over the mobile game Mr. Love: Queen's Choice and explores fan attachments. Mr. Love has produced multiple online fan communities ranging across different social media platforms, including Reddit, Facebook, Twitter, and Discord. These communities actively discuss Mr. Love’s gameplay mechanics, characters, and story while also building a community of shared interests. The overall fan discourse surrounding the game and its components indicate that many female gamers are not only consuming this media but have become highly engaged with Mr. Love. One of these phenomena is the lasting relationships built between community members, as seen in a small, Discord community dedicated to the game, titled “r/MrLove”. This Institutional Review Board (IRB) approved research evaluates the gender dynamics of players as well as how fans are performing--or challenging--gender expectations. Some of the guiding questions for this research include:

How are fans performing, or challenging, gender expectations and language in this discourse community surrounding Mr. Love: Queen’s Choice?
Do the fans complicate or revise the gender norms?
What does fan culture teach society about online communities, especially in female-dominated spaces?

Full Paper Link: "Collecting Husbands."

"The Future is Alienated: A Marxian Analysis of Psycho Pass"

This is a presentation over one of my scholarly papers from 2021. The paper focuses on Psycho Pass, a Japanese anime that first aired in 2012. This anime takes elements from cyberpunk society as well as adding in psychological horror to paint this futuristic society in Japan. The goal of this paper was to analyze the first season of Psycho Pass - which will be referred to as Psycho Pass I - through a Marxist lens, namely through Marx’s concept of alienation and estranged labor. By applying these concepts to the cyberpunk movement/genre as a whole, I then discuss how alienation and estranged labor is seen in Psycho Pass I and how these concepts cause a sense of dehumanization for key characters, such as protagonist Akane Tsunemori and antagonist Shogo Makishima. Juxtaposing overarching tropes of the cyberpunk genre within Marx's alienation concepts, I pick apart how the world of Psycho Pass I fits within the tropes and alienation itself.

If you would like to read the full paper, please contact me and ask!

"Multimodality and Composition"

This is both a short research paper and a presentation over multimodal components and their usage within the composition classroom. Provided are tips for instructors to include multimodal components within their composition classes to be more open to varying forms of expression and communication. This was created in 2020.