DiGRA Australia 2020 National Conference

We invite you to contribute to a two-day game studies conference to be held on the 10th and 11th of February at Queensland University of Technology (QUT). Registration for DiGRA Australia conferences is free.

The DiGRA Australia 2020 National Conference has been made possible due to financial support from QUT’s School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, and the QUT Digital Media Research Centre.

Key Dates

October 18th – Submission deadline *Submission deadline extended until Friday 1 November*
November 15th – Notification of submission outcomes
February 10th and 11th – Conference dates

Details

The academic field of game studies is alive and well in Australia. Previous DiGRA Australia events have brought together a vast range of junior and senior scholars, embedded in different disciplines, approaching game research from a variety of perspectives.

In recognition of this diversity, the DiGRA Australia 2020 National Conference will not impose a theme on submissions. Instead, you are invited to make a submission relevant to your own ongoing research. Our intent is to acknowledge the vibrancy of game studies in Australia, and to ensure DiGRA Australia continues to be a space that facilitates community, conversation, and collaboration.

Following on from the success of previous DiGRA Australia events, DiGRA Australia will remain a single track conference.

DiGRA Australia is actively concerned with cultivating an inclusive research community. As such, and consistent with previous DiGRA Australia events, registration for the 2020 National Conference will be free. We welcome and encourage submissions from graduate students, researchers located ‘outside’ game studies who approach games from different perspectives, and researchers without an institutional affiliation. Game developers, too, are encouraged to make submissions they feel are relevant to critical discussions of games research.

Further, up to ten travel bursaries of up to $500 each will be available for students and non-salaried early-career researchers (no more than five years out from the end of their PhD) from Australia, New Zealand, or South-East Asia to help cover travel and accommodation costs. Further information can be found below.

Submission Format

We invite interested authors or makers to submit either a 400–800 word abstract (not including references) or a full paper no longer than 5000 words (not including references), anonymously for peer review.

We have decided to include the option for full paper submissions to better acknowledge that some researchers may require an accepted full paper to access institutional funding options. Please note that full paper and extended abstract submissions will receive the same amount of presentation time, and will be reviewed to the same standard.

Accepted abstracts will be available on the DiGRA Australia website. Accepted full papers will be published on the open-access DiGRA Digital Library. After the conference, the possibility of a special issue of the Transactions of the Digital Games Research Association journal for select submissions (both full papers and abstracts) will be explored.

We advise potential authors to review abstracts accepted for publication at previous DiGRA Australia conferences [see here] as a guide to the expected tone and quality. Some further tips:

• Submissions from academics are typically expected to have references to reflect the author’s engagement with existing scholarship.
• We welcome submissions that explore both in-progress and complete works, but should represent novel (unpublished) scholarship. If the submission resembles previously published work, we recommend the author explicitly identify the additional contribution of their DiGRA Australia submission.
• We recommend that submissions articulate the issue or research question to be discussed, the methodological or critical framework used, and indicate the findings or conclusions to be presented and/or the relevance to the wider game studies discipline.
• Papers can present any kind of research, analysis or commentary, but should be written so that the importance of the work can be understood by reviewers working in different disciplines or using different approaches.

Accepted abstracts and papers will be published on the DiGRA Australia website as part of the conference program.

Submission Process

Submissions are to made online via EasyChair at this link.

Submissions should be formatted according to the extended abstract and full paper templates.

We ask authors not to submit more than one submission to the conference as lead author (see below).

Submission Rules

To ensure as many people as possible have the opportunity to present their work at the conference, only one submission may be made per lead author, and individuals may only present one paper during the conference. There is no limit on secondary authorship.

From 2020, DiGRA Australia is implementing a ‘grey list’ policy for accepted submissions that are withdrawn with no reason provided, or for which the presenter simply does not attend. Please familiarise yourself with the specifics of this policy here.

Travel Bursary

DiGRA Australia will offer up to ten travel bursaries of no more than $500 to students or sessionally-employed early-career researchers based in Australia, New Zealand, or South-East Asia.

Applications for a travel bursary can be made through this form. Please submit your extended abstract or full paper to EasyChair before you apply.

Conference Committee

• Dr Brendan Keogh, Queensland University of Technology
• April Tyack, Queensland University of Technology
• Dr Benjamin Nicoll, Queensland University of Technology
• Dr Dan Padua, Queensland University of Technology
• Erin Maclean, Griffith University
• Ori Diskett, University of Queensland