- Special Issue Introduction: Politicizing agency in digital play after humanism Chia, Aleena and Ruffino, Paolo. 2022. Special Issue Introduction: Politicizing agency in digital play after humanism. Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies, 28(2), pp. 309-319. ISSN 1354-8565
Dr Aleena Chia
Aleena researches cultures of creativity and digital labour in game production and computational wellness.
Staff details
Links
Dr Aleena Chia uses ethnographic and textual methods to study cultures of creativity such as vocational passion and computational creativity in digital game production, New Age innovation rituals in tech cultures, and wellness discourses in social media disconnection.
Academic qualifications
- PhD (Indiana University) 2017
Teaching and supervision
Dr Chia teaches the modules Key Debates in Media Studies, Race and Technology, and is programme co-convener (Theory) of the BA in Media and Communications. Aleena is available to supervise PhD & MA students who use interpretive approaches to study digital labour, media theory, creative industries, critical game studies, and ethnography of media.
Featured publications
Publications and research outputs
Article
- The Data Pharmacy: Wearables from Sensing to Stimulation Chia, Aleena and Neves, Joshua. 2022. The Data Pharmacy: Wearables from Sensing to Stimulation. Media Theory, 6(2), pp. 77-110. ISSN 2557-826X
- The artist and the automaton in digital game production Chia, Aleena. 2022. The artist and the automaton in digital game production. Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies, 28(2), pp. 389-412. ISSN 1354-8565
- The metaverse, but not the way you think: game engines and automation beyond game development Chia, Aleena. 2022. The metaverse, but not the way you think: game engines and automation beyond game development. Critical Studies in Media Communication, 39(3), pp. 191-200. ISSN 1529-5036
Book
- Technopharmacology Neves, Joshua; Chia, Aleena; Paasonen, Susanna and Sundaram, Ravi. 2022. Technopharmacology. Lüneburg, Germany: Meson Press in collaboration with the University of Minnesota Press. ISBN 9783957960290
Book Section
- Reckoning with Social Media in the Pandemic Denouement Chia, Aleena; Jorge, Ana and Karppi, Tero. 2021. Reckoning with Social Media in the Pandemic Denouement. In: Aleena Chia; Ana Jorge and Tero Karppi, eds. Reckoning with Social Media. Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield, pp. 1-10. ISBN 9781538147405
- Ethics and Experimentation in The Light Phone and Google Digital Wellbeing Chia, Aleena and Beattie, Alex. 2021. Ethics and Experimentation in The Light Phone and Google Digital Wellbeing. In: Aleena Chia; Ana Jorge and Tero Karppi, eds. Reckoning with Social Media. Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield, pp. 127-146. ISBN 9781538147405
Conference or Workshop Item
- The Engine Is the Message: Videogame Infrastructure and the Future of Digital Platforms Chia, Aleena; Malazita, James; Young, Chris J.; Nieborg, David B.; Joseph, Daniel J. and Gantt, Matthew D.. 2023. 'The Engine Is the Message: Videogame Infrastructure and the Future of Digital Platforms'. In: AoIR2022: The 23rd Annual Conference of the Association of Internet Researchers. Dublin, Ireland 2 - 5 November 2022.
Aleena received her PhD in Communication and Culture from Indiana University in 2017 and was a postdoctoral researcher at the Academy of Finland's Centre of Excellence in Game Culture Studies in 2018. Before joining Goldsmiths, she was Assistant Professor in the School of Communication at Simon Fraser University, Canada. Her work has been supported by funding from the Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada and the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research, and an internship at Microsoft Research New England's Social Media Collective.
Dr Chia is available to supervise PhD & MA students who use interpretive approaches to study digital labour, media theory, creative industries, critical game studies, and ethnography of media.
Photo Credit: Jenni Toivonen