Listed below are presentations I have previously delivered for college, high school and community audiences. Other topics regarding media are possible. If you are interested in scheduling a lecture, please email me.

Play Like a Man: Masculinity in Video Games

Although video games are enjoyed equally by men and women, boys and girls, the industry is dominated by a male culture. This presentation explores the gendered nature of video games and critiques the meaning of masculinity presented to players. Significantly, the overwhelming lesson about masculinity is that violence is the preferred means for accomplishing goals, resolving conflict and even for creating and maintaining interpersonal relationships with women.

Beyond Ms. Pac-man: Images of Women in Video Games

This presentation offers an historical overview of the changing role of female game characters from damsels in distress to ass-kicking, modern-day warriors. This presentation is a critique of the representations of female characters from contemporary video games, which focuses on three common features of women in video games: 1) body size and proportions; 2) roles assigned to female characters, including their relationship to male characters; and 3) the hyper-sexualization of women in video games.

Video Game Violence: It's Not What You Think

This presentation addresses the issue of violence in video games and its influence on players by investigating video games as cultural artifacts, not as behavior triggers. When examined as artifacts of contemporary culture, we can see how video games (and the industry within which video games are produced and distributed) depict a certain kind of violence: Violence that is justified, rewarded, vigilante-style, revenge-oriented, autonomous, consequenceless, and escalating. As an alternative to censorship, media literacy is presented as a more effect method for intervention and policy-making.

Joystick Soldiers: Video Games and the New Militarism

This presentation is an historical and contemporary analysis of the relationship between the video game industry and the military. In particular, I focus on war and military-themed video games, which represent a large portion of games sold in the US, and argue that video games are the Why We Fight films of today. By paying hyper-attention to the details of modern warfare technology and tactical strategy, military-themed games show players how we fight wars, but rarely address questions of the moral responsibility and local and global consequences of military action.