2026 | Program

Below you will find the program for the 2026 Tampere Spring Seminar. The organizing committee reserves the right to make changes to the program.

Monday, May 4th

19:00-21:30 Social program: Pre-seminar dinner and drinks in Brewery Restaurant Plevna, Itäinenkatu 8, Finlayson area (self-financed).

Tuesday, May 5th

8:30 Registration opens

9:00-9:15 Opening words

9:15-10:45 Session 1: Collectible game communities

  • Aska Mayer: Interpreting Labubu through customization. Engagements with material and immaterial toy affordances in fan communities
  • Christopher Paul, Amy Meyer, Piper Paul, & Ella Meyer: Making and Breaking Game Communities: Case Studies of Disney Lorcana
  • Vilma Varismaa: Building Community Through Competition: An Ethno-Case Study of Flesh and Blood TCG

11:00-11:45 Keynote 1: Matt Coward Gibbs: Creating Accessible and Equitable Tabletop Gaming Events

11:45-12:45 Lunch (self-financed)

12:45-13:30 Keynote 2: Taina Myöhänen: Those people were not my people: Reflections on community, safety, and inclusion

13:45-15:15 Session 2: Game making communities

  • Jan Švelch & Jan Houška: Industry Event Organizing as Cultural Intermediation: The Case of Volunteer Labor in Brno Video Game Ecosystem
  • Erix Verkaaik: ‘Out of my own pocket and energy reserves’: the labour of organising informal gamemaking communities
  • Elina Koskinen, Nevena Sicevic, & Lauri Komulainen: Sense of Community Among Migrant Game Developers: Case IGDA Finland

15:30-17:00 Session 3: Histories of role-play events

  • Elisa Saggioro: The Closed Circle of Tendre: A Selective Role-Playing Event
  • Johanna Koljonen, James Lancaster, & Jaakko Stenros: Centring the Convention in Role-Playing History
  • Mary Anne Argo-Chávez, Alonso Soto-Cerda, Sebastián Reyes-Díaz, & José Zagal: Chile’s Concilio de Dragones: “The Largest Role-Playing Event”

18:00-20:00 Social program: Games and snacks at Oasis, the Game Research Lab’s unique social learning and research space (Pinni B, second floor, Tampere University).

Wednesday, May 6th

9:00 Registration opens

9:30-11:30 Session 4: Gender, desire, and boundaries

  • Aasa Timonen, Emilia Lounela, Maria Ruotsalainen, & Mikko Meriläinen: Gendered constructions of in- and out-groups in incel and gaming communities
  • Piotrus Watson: “Morrowind always did seem pretty gay to me” – An investigation into the Woke Content Detector and how it interacts with existing canonical works
  • Tom Legierse: No Events Without Bodies: The (Un)Desirable Bodies of Berlin-based Gaming Practices
  • Kellynn Wee: “Will we get along? Will we vibe?”: The ambivalences of friendship in tabletop roleplaying games

11:45-12:30 Keynote 3: Essi Taino: Social Sustainability of Digital Game Activities

12:30-13:30 Lunch (self-financed)

13:30-15:00 Session 5: Designing and transforming community

  • Burcin Genis-Ergun: Events as Interfaces: A Semiotic Reading of Interaction Design in Game-Culture Gatherings
  • Melissa J. Rogerson & Sasha Soraine: Leveraging and Creating Local Boardgame Communities for Participatory Research
  • Hanne Grasmo: Who Cares? Larp Festivals as Playful Counterpublics and Democratic Intimacies

15:30-17:00 Session 6: Esport events

  • Egil Trasti Rogstad: From Play to Power: A Literature Review of Soft Power, Geopolitics and Diplomacy in Esports
  • Usva Friman & Matilda Ståhl: Gender as portrayed, experienced, and observed in women’s Nordic esports events
  • Moses Nderemani, Pauliina Baltzar, & Markku Turunen: Designing and Organizing Accessible Gaming and E-sports Events

17:00-17:30 Closing words

18:00-20:00 Social program: Board games and light eating at Taverna, Finland’s first board game café, Rautatienkatu 10, Tampere (self-financed). Participation fee is 4€/person (3,5€ for students).