Tag Archives: Critical

What makes for a good critical argument in computer gaming?

Academic, design, Digital Humanities, game, virtual heritage, ,

Here are 10 working ideas/guidelines:

Ideally a critical position / argument about computer games should be:

  1. Falsifiable and verifiable. Not such a common feature in the Humanities, and not always relevant, but in my opinion a good argument should be saying where and when it is contestable, and where and when it can be proven or disproven.
  2. Extensible and scalable. We should be able to add to it, extend it, apply it to more research questions and research areas or add it ot current research findings or critical frameworks.
  3. Reconfigurable. Components are more useful than take it or leave it positions.
  4. Is useful even if proven wrong in terms of data, findings, methods, or argument (possibly this heuristic should be combined with number 3).
  5.      Helpful to the current and future design of computer games, and has potential to forecast future changes in design, deployment or acceptance.
  6. Not in danger of conflating describing computer games with prescribing how computer games should be. Several of the arguments cited in this book appear to make that mistake.
  7. Understands the distinction between methods and methodology, the selection or rejection of methods should always be examined and communicated.
  8. Is lucid and honest about the background, context, and motivations as factors driving it.
  9. Aiming for validity and soundness of argument.
  10. Attempting to provide in a longterm and accessible way for the data, ouptut, and results of any experiment or survey to be examinable by others.

Post-Doctoral Research Fellow in Critical Heritage Studies

Postdoc, , , , , ,

Post-Doctoral Research Fellow in Critical Heritage Studies

The University of Gothenburg announces two positions as; Post-Doctoral Research Fellow in Critical Heritage Studies
Reference number: PER 2012/113 as part of the University of Gothenburg’s special initiative in Heritage Studies.
To qualify for the position of post-doctoral fellow, applicants must have a PhD in Sweden, or an artistic competence considered to be of an equivalent merit or a foreign degree determined to be of equivalent merit. The candidate must have earned the doctoral degree not more than three years prior to the application deadline except under special circumstances. Heritage Studies is a multi-disciplinary subject area, so candidates are not limited to a specific academic background; on the contrary, we want to encourage anyone interested in conducting research in the field of Heritage Studies to apply.
The fellowship positions will last for at most two years during which time each fellow will execute his or her own research plan within the field of Heritage Studies. The Heritage Studies initiative has been running since January 2010 and the understanding of the research field together with the possible options for continued research at University of Gothenburg, has led to the formulation of four strands guiding the activities in Gothenburg:

  • ‘Globalized heritage in a decolonial setting’
  • ‘Heritage region West Sweden’,
  • ‘Archives, memory and the production of heritage’
  • and ‘Artistic practice and heritage research – identifying a heritage poetic’.

For more information, see
http://www.science.gu.se/english/research/prominent-research-environments/areas-ofstrength/Heritage_Studies