Spring Seminar 2026: Events and Communities

Stenros

We are excited to announce the theme of our 22nd Spring Seminar: Events and Communities!

The seminar will be held at Tampere University, Finland, on 5-6 May 2026. Attending the seminar is free of charge.

The Call for Papers can be found here.

Please submit your extended abstract by Wednesday January 14th, 2026.

Special Issue on Meta

Stenros

We are exited to announce that the special issue based on the 2024 spring seminar Meta is now out from Games: Research and Practice. The issue, edited by Rainforest Scully-Blaker, Johan Kalmanlehto, Henry Korkeila, and Maria Ruotsalainen includes six articles. This is also the third collection of papers from specific spring seminars to come out in the last four months!

Arts and Games Commentators

Stenros

We are proud to announce the expert commentators of this year’s spring seminar:

Cindy Poremba is a digital media researcher, gamemaker and curator. They are an Associate Professor (Digital Futures) at OCAD University (Tkaronto/Toronto, CA) and Co-Director of OCAD’s game:play Lab. Dr. Poremba has presented internationally at conferences, festivals, and invited lectures, on topics relating to game art and curation, capture in postmedia practices, and interactive documentary. Their research and critical writing has been published in international journals, edited collections, art catalogs, and magazines. Cindy has held positions on numerous award juries including the Independent Game Festival, served as Co-Chair for the IndieCade, and currently sit on the Board of the Game Arts International Network (GAIN). Cindy also organizes non-traditional exhibitions as an independent curator. Their award-winning game and “New Arcade” work, independently and as a member of the kokoromi experimental videogame collective, has been featured in both international game and digital art exhibitions.

Grayson Earle is a contemporary artist and activist from the United States. His work deals with the role that digital technologies and networks play in protest and political agency. He is known for his guerrilla video projections as a member of The Illuminator, a guerrilla video projection collective, and Bail Bloc, a computer program that posts bail for low-income people. His art and research has been presented at the Whitney Museum of American Art, KW Institute for Contemporary Art, and the Singapore Art Museum.

Monstrosity Book Is Out

Stenros

An edited collection based on the 2021 spring seminar, Monstrosity in Games and Play, has just been published! The book was edited by Sarah Stang, Mikko Meriläinen, Joleen Blom, and Lobna Hassan and it is available from Amsterdam University Press. According to the back cover:

Monsters fascinate us. From ancient folklore to contemporary digital games, they are at the core of the stories we tell. They reflect our fears, deepest desires, and the monstrosity hidden within ourselves. Monsters hold a mirror to our contemporary society and reveal who we truly are.

This edited collection examines monsters and monstrosity in games and play. Monsters are a key feature of most games: we fight, kill, and eat them—and sometimes, we become them. However, monsters in games and play are not only entertaining but also a reflection of the monstrosity of our world. In this book, twenty-two scholars explore how themes such as mental health, colonialism, individualism, disability, gender, sexuality, racism, and exclusion are reflected in the monsters we interact with in games, play, and our daily lives both online and offline.