Keynotes

Alex Wade is Senior Research Fellow in the Faculty of Health, Education and Life Sciences at Birmingham City University, UK. As a sociologist, his research interests include the histories of media, young people and electronic media, mental health and social theory. He has written two books on the histories of videogames, including Playback: A Genealogy of 1980s British Videogames (2016: Bloomsbury). (More : bcu.ac.uk)

Maria B. Garda is a postdoctoral researcher at the Centre of Excellence in Game Culture Studies, based at the University of Turku, Finland. She is an expert in media history, and her current work focuses on comparative history of game cultures. Her recent publications have dealt with cultural sustainability, digital heritage, and independent games. She was previously involved with several research projects, including “Creative Micro-Computing in Australia, 1976–1992” (Flinders University, 2017–2018) and “Alternative Usage of New Media Technology during the Decline of People’s Republic of Poland” (University of Lodz, 2013–2017). Since 2022, she has been the chair of the COST Action “Grassroots of Digital Europe: From Historic to Contemporary Cultures of Creative Computing (GRADE)”, as well as a researcher on the Erasmus+ project « Greening Games. Building Higher Education Resources for Sustainable Video Game Production, Design & Critical Game Studies. » She is currently working on a book manuscript with Paweł Grabarczyk, under a working title: Digital Epigones? A Cultural History of the Late 8- and 16-bit Video Games. » (More : www.mariabgarda.com)