)

We are living in a global political moment in which research on gender is increasingly under pressure. Scholars in game studies who focus on gender and games are all too familiar with these challenges. While #Gamergate remains one of the most illustrative historical examples, the violent harassment of scholars in our field – particularly those who occupy marginalized identity positions – sadly continues. In this light, we identify the need for scholars working on gender and games to come together, form bonds, and unite in a network of care, write Tom Legierse and Ida Martine Gard Rysjedal, PhD candidates at the University of Bergen.

In addition to the pressures from the outside, Amanda Phillips has critiqued game studies’ own history of being unwelcoming to feminist perspectives and the negging of marginalized scholars. Kelly Bergström further directs our attention to the ‘blood on the tracks’ of games and game studies, underscoring the exclusionary harms that these fields so often sustain themselves on. We must learn from these experiences, and work on creating sustainable and inclusive cultures around games and gender scholarship.

It is all the more challenging to create sustainable practices and cultures as game studies scholars are scattered across universities and departments, and gender and games researchers maybe even more so. Thankfully, we regularly find each other at (inter)national game studies conferences and events. Gender and games researchers form informal ties within more formalized game studies networks, like DiGRA and its local chapters. However, we feel it is time to mobilize these ties into a more formalized space that centers gender and games in ways that are complementary to the already existing structures.

In this light, we identify the need for scholars of gender and games to come together, form bonds, and unite in a network of care. Such a network should bring together the various disciplinary traditions and theoretical and methodological approaches in order to think across boundaries on how our work on gender and games can lead to progressive change.

In this light, we identify the need for scholars of gender and games to come together, form bonds, and unite in a network of care.

The work we do is often seen as killing joy, but following Sara Ahmed, we view this as a productive act. Yet, when we kill joy alone, our efforts are more easily dismissed. Ahmed reminds us of a simple truth: “The more we are, the louder.” Becoming louder is not only about being heard—it is about amplifying the collective force through which we make, and demand, progressive change in the world.

This year, together with Maria Ruotsalainen, we are organizing a series of three workshops on gender and games, laying the foundations for the Interdisciplinary Network for Research on Gender and Games. The first workshop, focused on feminist approaches to esports research, took place in November 2024 in Jyväskylä. The second will be held at CEEGS 2025, in collaboration with Robin Zingarelli Longobardi and Giulio Enea Bevione, and will center on future directions for research on gender and games. The series will conclude in Bergen with a two-day event in November, highlighting doctoral research on gender and games supported by the Nordic Gender Fund.

With these workshops, we have continuously considered two interrelated goals. First, the workshops function as standalone events that aim to further the individual works of scholars and the field as a whole. Second, we consider the connective tissue between these workshops to be their relation to the network. We envision the network to be a space in which the fruitful discussions and potential collaborations that spring out of these workshops can be sustained. Whether it is through reading groups, workshops, co-authored pieces, joint projects, or other forms of collaboration, we wish for the network to be a space in which scholars find a community from which they can build up their careers.

We cannot speak about this network without acknowledging the key role that Usva Friman, Maria Ruotsalainen, and Matilda Ståhl have played. By setting up a reading group on sustainable esports cultures following CEEGS 2022, they laid the groundwork for what we now aim to achieve with the network. For us, the reading group has exemplified the vital role of feminist communities in fostering a sense of belonging. We build on the informal bonds and connections that emerged through this initiative in an effort to create a formal space where scholars can find community and safety. We see this as particularly important for junior scholars, who are often most affected by the precarity that can come with working in gender and game studies.

The work toward establishing the Interdisciplinary Network for Research on Gender and Games is well underway. Following a productive workshop that brought researchers together to exchange ideas and feedback, we are now moving into the planning stage and exploring future activities and events for the coming year.

The work toward establishing the Interdisciplinary Network for Research on Gender and Games is well underway.

If you are a scholar working on gender and games, we warmly invite you to reach out. Share your ideas, insights, and hopes with us, and join the ongoing efforts to shape the network’s official launch in 2026. We look forward to collaborating with you!