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Meet our team

Meet the Games Design Lab team in the section below.

 

Lab members

Dr Andra Ivanescu Dr Andra Ivanescu
Email Dr Andra Ivanescu Senior Lecturer in Games Studies
Andra is a Lecturer in Game Studies and a ludomusicologist. Andra’s research interests are broad, going beyond her primary focus of music in videogames, and including appropriation and nostalgia, genre, gender studies, and film studies. Her research has been published in journals like The Soundtrack (2015) and she has presented papers at a variety of conferences including Myth, Fantasy and Fairy Tales in Literature and the Arts (Cambridge, 2013) and the Ludomusicology Conference (Chichester, 2014; Utrecht, 2015; Southampton, 2016). She is also co-editor of the academic journal Book 2.0. Andra has also led (and co-led) two Global Lives-funded research clusters focusing on creative processes in poetry and games, as well as the dissemination of academic research through digital games. Andra's first monograph - Popular Music in the Nostalgia Video Game: The Way It Never Sounded - is now available from Palgrave Macmillan. Andra teaches a number of game studies modules at both undergraduate and postgraduate level, including Game Studies 1: Introduction to Game Studies, Game Genre, and Socio-Cultural Studies. My research interests fall at the intersection between video games, music, and popular culture. Video Game Music Nostalgia Popular Music Quotation and appropriation (especially in relation to popular music and screen media) Gender Studies and Video Games Game Studies Game Genre Research Methods Socio-Cultural Studies
Dr Ivan Girina Dr Ivan Girina
Email Dr Ivan Girina Senior Lecturer in Games Studies
Ivan Girina is a Senior Lecturer in Game Studies and holds a PhD in Film and Television Studies from the University of Warwick, his research is currently focused on digital games asethetic, particualrly its relationship with cinema and larger visual media landscapes. Ivan is also co-founder and member of the Editorial Board of the international academic journal G|A|M|E – Games as Art, Media and Entertainment. He has published on a variety of topics such as: cinematic games; video game agency; film and new media; media literacy and education; and Italian regional cinema. I am Module Convenor for: FM2608 (BA) - Game Studies 2: Concepts and Analysis FM3615 (BA) - Theory Project: Business & Development FM3616 (BA) - Theory Project: Game Analysis GD3600 (BA) - Film and Video Games GD5600 (MA) - Interdisciplinary Module GD5604 (MA) - Game Studies: Cocepts, Contexts & Analysis

 

 


Current PhD students 

<span class='contactname'>Samuel Morgan</span>
Samuel Morgan
Interrogating the function of affect that has emerged in game studies, as a radically constructive force that serves the transmission of radical politics between gaming subjects.
<span class='contactname'>Weizhi Gan</span>
Weizhi Gan
Experimental film study on psychedelic art and the British Chinese diaspora with critical race, and double consciousness. Visual art and the fluidity of identity.

 

Past PhD students

Dr Adriana Mallary
Thesis title: Designing a Framework for VR mechanics That Elicit Targeted Emotions