Steffi Shook, Ph.D.
School of Arts and Sciences, Purchase, NY
Social Links
Biography
Professor Shook is an expert in social media, video games, film, media, gender and sexuality, and media representation.
Areas of Expertise
Fandom during quarantine
Gender and Sexuality
Film
Video Games
Media
Media Representation
Accomplishments
2017
Ohio Communication Association
2017
Media Arts and Studies, Ohio University
2017
Ohio University
2016
Media Arts and Studies, Ohio University
2016
Media Arts and Studies, Ohio University
Education
2019
Ph.D. Mass Communication: Media Arts and Studies
2013
M.A. Film Studies
2011
B.A. Communication
Affiliations
- Lambda Pi Eta, National Communication Honor Society, Advisor
Links
Selected Event Appearances
Popular Culture Association/ American Culture Association National Conference, 2019
Washington, DC
Different Games, National Conference, 2018
Worcester, MA
Popular Culture Association/ American Culture Association, National Conference, 2018
Indianapolis, IN
Empathic Landscapes: Walking With/In Difference Conference, Regional Conference
Cincinnati, OH
Ohio Communication Association, Regional Conference, 2017
Springfield, OH
Selected Articles
Ohio University
2013
The heteronormative endings that conclude American film musicals can be read as camp or ironic in light of the subversion of hegemonic relationship sanctions that proves consistent throughout the genre. In order to understand the reading of camp into these endings one must examine the ways in which American film musicals subvert hegemonic relationship sanctions. This subversion takes place through the allowance of female agency via musical performance, the abundance of gender play, the presentation of alternative family structures specifically through the glorification of communal living, and the possibility for alternative masculinities. While these endings make the films available to camp readings, this thesis focuses on their ironic function in that they constitute a marked reversal of the films' subversive tropes.
Ohio University
This dissertation examines small, independent video games which focus on personal narratives and contain nonnormative characters in order to assess their potentialities and place within an exclusionary gamer culture. I propose the category “super-indie games” to describe this unique form of production as these games are made by one or a few people, in their spare time, with their own money, utilizing free or low-cost software that requires little to no programming knowledge. I historically justify this category of video game production by comparing it to video art of the 1970s and highlighting the sociopolitical conditions surrounding super-indies’ emergence in the 2010s. This work proposes a methodological intervention in the field of game studies: game space analysis. Predicated on the unique nature of game space, this method is able to account for the political, historical, and social conceptual spaces surrounding gameplay, and is well-suited for examining complex texts such as super-indie games. Using game space analysis, I find that super-indie games use failure to communicate the hardships of their marginalized player characters and seek to evoke empathy in players through textual interruptions. Ultimately, super-indie games allow nonnormative developers to carve out their own space within an industry and culture that actively excludes them.