Dr Rob Gallagher
Lecturer
My profile
Biography
I’m a Lecturer in Film and Media, and a member of the Manchester Metropolitan Game Centre. My research focuses on digital cultures, online communities and interactive media. I’m particularly interested in how videogames reflect and shape popular understandings of identity, embodiment and subjectivity, and much of my recent work has centred on auto/biographical games, and on how digital gameplay is represented in life-writing and literature. I’ve also researched and written about a range of other digital forms, from animated gifs to grime music, memes to ASMR videos. Alongside my published research I’ve explored these topics and technologies through podcasts, performances, digital animations and other creative outputs, working with a range of collaborators.
Since joining MMU I’ve taught on the level 4 unit Metropolis and the level 5 unit Media Platforms.
Academic and professional qualifications
- 2021 Postgraduate Certificate in Academic Practice in Teaching and Learning, Royal Holloway University of London
- 2013 PhD Humanities and Cultural Studies, The London Consortium
- 2008 MSt. English Literature, University of Oxford
- 2007 BA English Language and Literature, University of Oxford
Reviewer for Academic Publishers and Journals
I have reviewed maunscripts and prospectuses for Bloomsbury, Routledge and the MIT Press, and act as a peer reviewer for journals including Games and Culture, Surveillance & Society, Game Studies, Convergence, SoundEffects, Biography, Visual Communication and Television and New Media
Research outputs
Monographs
2017 Videogames, Identity and Digital Subjectivity (London; New York: Routledge)
Peer-reviewed articles
2022 ‘Humanising gaming? The Politics of Posthuman Agency in Autobiographical Videogames.’ Convergence April 2022. doi:10.1177/13548565221083485
2020 ‘Dirty Footprints and Degenerate Archives: Tabitha Nikolai’s Impure Walking Sims’. Journal of Gaming and Virtual Worlds 12(11): 105-122. https://www.ingentaconnect.com/contentone/intellect/jgvw/2020/00000012/00000001/art00007
2019 ‘’The game becomes the mediator of all your relationships’: Life Narrative and Networked Intimacy in Nina Freeman’s Cibele’. European Journal of Life Writing 8. https://doi.org/10.21827/ejlw.8.35549
2019 (with Clare Brant). ‘Digital Media: Life-Changing Online Introduction’. European Journal of Life Writing 8. https://doi.org/10.21827/ejlw.8.35545
2019 ‘Volatile Memories: Personal Data and Posthuman Subjectivity in The Aspern Papers, Analogue: A Hate Story and Tacoma’. Games and Culture. https://doi.org/10.1177/1555412019841477
2018 ‘“ASMR” Autobiographies and the (Life-)Writing of the Networked Self’. Convergence 25(2), 260–277. https://doi.org/10.1177%2F1354856518818072
2018 ‘Minecrafting Masculinities: Gamer Dads, Queer Childhoods and Father-Son Gameplay in A Boy Made of Blocks’. Game Studies 18(2). http://gamestudies.org/1802/articles/gallagher
2018 ‘‘All the Other Players Want to Look at my Pad’: Grime, Gaming and Digital Identity Work’. GAME 6. https://www.gamejournal.it/all-the-other-players-want-to-look-at-my- pad-grime-gaming-and-digital-identity-work/
2017 (with Carolyn Jong and Kalevo Sinervo). ‘Who Wrote the Elder Scrolls? Modders, Developers, and the Mythology of Bethesda Softworks’. Loading… 10(16). http://journals.sfu.ca/loading/index.php/loading/article/view/169
2016 ‘Eliciting Euphoria Online: The Aesthetics of “ASMR” Video Culture’. Film Criticism 40(2), 2016. http://dx.doi.org/10.3998/fc.13761232.0040.202
2015 (with Ana Parejo Vadillo). ‘Animating Sight and Song: A Meditation on Identity, Fair Use and Collaboration.’ 19: Interdisciplinary Studies in the Long Nineteenth Century 21, 2015. http://doi.org/10.16995/ntn.754
2014 ‘Careless Whispers: Hints of Queer Possibility in the Spaces of Dishonored.’ Media Fields 8. http://mediafieldsjournal.org/careless-whispers/2014/5/30/careless-whispers-hints-of-queer-possibility-in-the-spaces-o.html
2014 ‘From Camp to Kitsch: A Queer Eye on Console Fandom’. GAME: The Italian Journal of Game Studies 3. https://www.gamejournal.it/3_gallagher/
2012 ‘No Sex Please, We’re Finite State Machines: On the Melancholy Sexlessness of the Videogame’. Games and Culture 7(6). https://doi.org/10.1177%2F1555412012466287
Chapters in Edited Collections
2022 ‘That Joke Isn’t Funny Anymore (Or Is It?): On Hitman’s Humour(lessness)’ in Games and Comedy, ed. Krista Bonello Rutter Giappone, Tomasz Z. Majkowski and Jaroslav Švelch. Palgrave.
2018 ‘Plotting the Loop: Videogames and Narratability’ in The Edinburgh Companion to Contemporary Narrative Theories, ed. Zara Dinnen and Robyn Warhol. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
2017 (with Ashley ML Brown). ‘Gaming and Sex’ in Sex in the Digital Age, ed. Paul G. Nixon and Isabel K. Dusterhoft. London; New York: Routledge.
2015 ‘Intergenerational Tensions: Of Sex and the Hardware Cycle’ in Rated M for Mature: Sex and Sexuality in Videogames, ed. Evan Lauteria and Matthew Wysocki. New York: Bloomsbury.
2012 ‘’Faux Raccord’: Mismatch, Noise and Transformation in the work of Jean-Luc Godard’ in Godard’s Contempt: Essays from the London Consortium, ed. Colin MacCabe and Laura Mulvey. London: Wiley.
Reviews
2020 ‘High Performance Theory: A Review of Darshana Jayemanne’s Performativity in Art, Literature and Videogames.’ The Journal of Games Criticism.
Podcasts, Exhibitions, Performances and Creative Collaborations
2021 Reactionary Digital Politics. Eight-part podcast series reporting on the findings of a research project investigating the political ideologies, rhetorics and aesthetics shaping the age of digital politics. Featuring interviews with leading scholars including Whitney Phillips, Becca Lewis and Bharath Ganesh https://reactionarydigitalpolitics.podbean.com/
2020 ‘Live Action Dating Sim’ text for artist Marija Bozinovska-Jones’ Fabricated Intimacies project, exhibited at Chronus Arts Centre Shanghai’s ‘Crypto Manifold’ exhibition https://fabricatedintimacy.tech/articles/live-action-dating-sim
2018 ‘Treebour.’Immersive audio installation created with Marija Bozinovska-Jones, featured in Furtherfield gallery’s Playbour: Work, Pleasure, Survival exhibition and the Serpentine’s 2018 Work Marathon
2016 ‘Moving Past Present: Reanimating the Gaiety Girls.’ Collaboration with artist Janina Lange resulting in a ‘pop-up’ motion capture studio where early film performances by Gaiety theatre stars were remediated as 3D animations
2015 ‘An Archive of Tingles.’ Radio show and podcast exploring ‘ASMR’ culture created with YouTubers WhispersRed and Muted Vocal, supported by the Arts and Culture Unit and Resonance FM https://www.mixcloud.com/Resonance/modulations-26th-june-2015/
2015 ‘Animating Sight and Song.’ Illustrated online edition of an 1892 poem by Michael Field, created with Ana Parejo Vadillo
2014 ‘Waiting for You at San Bartolo Island.’ Audiovisual performance at Videofag gallery Toronto for the Vector Videogame Arts Festival
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Books (authored/edited/special issues)
Gallagher, R. (2017) Videogames, Identity and Digital Subjectivity.
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Chapters in books
Gallagher, R. (2023) 'Avatars, Alter Egos and Ventriloquists' Dummies: Voice and Vicariousness Online.' Ego Media Life Writing and Online Affordances. Stanford University Press,
Gallagher, R. (2022) 'That Joke Isn’t Funny Anymore (Or Is It?): On Hitman and Gamer Humour(lessness).' Video Games and Comedy. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham,
Gallagher, R. (2022) 'That Joke isn’t Funny Anymore (Or Is It?): On Hitman and Gamer Humour(lessness).' Video Games and Comedy. Palgrave Macmillan,
Gallagher, R. (2018) 'Plotting the Loop: Videogames and Narratability.' The Edinburgh Companion to Contemporary Narrative Theories. Edinburgh Companions to Literature,
Brown, A.M.L., Gallagher, R. (2017) 'Gaming and sex.' Sex in the Digital Age. pp. 191-200.
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Media
Gallagher, R., Topinka, R., Finlayson, A. (2021) Reactionary Digital Politics podcast.
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Journal articles
Gallagher, R., Topinka, R. (2023) 'The politics of the NPC meme: reactionary subcultural practice and vernacular theory.' Big Data and Society, 10(1) pp. 1-16.
Gallagher, R. (2022) 'Humanising gaming? The politics of posthuman agency in autobiographical videogames.' Convergence: the international journal of research into new media technologies, 28(2) pp. 359-373.
Gallagher, R. (2020) 'Dirty footprints and degenerate archives: Tabitha Nikolai’s impure walking sims.' Journal of Gaming and Virtual Worlds, 12(1) pp. 105-122.
Brant, C., Gallagher, R. (2019) 'Digital Media: Life-Changing Online. Introduction.' European Journal of Life Writing, 8pp. DM1-DM11.
Gallagher, R. (2019) '‘The game becomes the mediator of all your relationships’: Life Narrative and Networked Intimacy in Nina Freeman’s Cibele.' European Journal of Life Writing, 8pp. DM33-DM55.
Gallagher, R. (2019) 'Volatile Memories: Personal Data and Post Human Subjectivity in The Aspern Papers, Analogue: A Hate Story and Tacoma.' Games and Culture, 15(7) pp. 757-771.
Gallagher, R. (2018) '‘ASMR’ autobiographies and the (life-)writing of digital subjectivity.' Convergence, 25(2) pp. 260-277.
Gallagher, R. (2018) 'Minecrafting Masculinities: Gamer Dads, Queer Childhoods and Father-Son Gameplay in A Boy Made of Blocks.' Game Studies: the international journal of computer game research, 18(2)
Gallagher, R. (2016) 'Eliciting Euphoria online: The aesthetics of "asmr" video culture.' Film Criticism, 40(2)
Parejo Vadillo, A., Gallagher, R. (2015) 'Animating <i>Sight and Song</i>: A Meditation on Identity, Fair Use, and Collaboration.' 19: Interdisciplinary Studies in the Long Nineteenth Century, 2015(21)
Gallagher, R. (2012) 'No sex please, we are finite state machines: On the melancholy sexlessness of the video game.' Games and Culture, 7(6) pp. 399-418.
Press and media
Media Interviews
2020 Interview for DiGRA and Critical Distance’s Keywords in Play podcast
2018 Interview with New York Times journalist Jamie Lauren Keiles on ASMR research
2018 Interview for ‘Algorithms, Aesthetics and ASMR’ episode of Think: Digital Futures podcast
2018 Interview for Radio Deutschland segment ‘The ASMR Trend: Making Money from Noise’
2016 ‘In conversation’ with artists Daniel Rourke and Gretchen Andrew for Arebyte gallery podcast
Newspaper and Magazine Articles
2021 ‘Adventures in the Asset Store.’ Article in The Architectural Review issue 1483.
2021 ‘Building Virtual Worlds.’ Article in The Architectural Review issue 1481.
2018 ‘World of Wardrobecraft.’ Article in Dirty Furniture magazine, issue 4.
2017 ‘If They Are to Understand our Digital World, MPs Should Play Videogames.’ Guardian editorial. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/sep/25/mps-play-videogames-tech-gaming-industry
2013 ‘Playing withDeath.’ Article for The New Inquiry. https://thenewinquiry.com/playing-with-death/