Console-ing passions 2014 plenary

re-entering WoW as post-Mom of Gamer

Well once a Mom always a Mom - but my gamer son is adult now and could potentially be my colleague or boss in my workplace....

And that's just my point ... when I name myself "post mom-of-Gamer" .... as a Mom of teenage gamers and gamer who was in his 20s, I learned a lot about the gamer generation - and felt no need to get in-game to understand the gaming culture. I have loads of ethnographic material and informal interviews with boys of that generation gaming.

So instead of getting into game worlds - I spent a lot of time exploring and inhabiting secondlife and then playing farmville and then sims on my ipad.... I did dabble in some WoW occasionally after my son left for college - but didnt feel motivated to continue because my secondlife life was taking up a lot of my time and immersion - with my avatar starting a handloom sari business there and another avatar teaching in secondlife and holding office hours from there...

But now... these boys are going to be in management - as are the girls who were games - even though I was less exposed to gaming girls as a mom of a gamer since I have only a male child and hardly any of my female college students and graduate advisees of those days identified as gamers.

Today the scene is different - I have graduate student advisees who have been gaming for years and undergraduate students who play console games in their everyday - both female and male.

The logics of gaming pervades our everyday everywhere.


And... besides, talking to various Fiber crafters and collecting oral histories - I realized that there are (and have been for nearly 10 years or more) women fiber crafters who are avid gamers - and there are guilds I can be part of... (well, Stephanie Pearl-McPhee - http://www.yarnharlot.ca/  - and others have been both gamers (geekgrrls) and fiber enthusiasts for quite a while I know).

So finally I've joined the DS folk through ravelry so I can be mentored into the game.

http://instagram.com/p/mdxujKNGq4/

Spinning Yarn - Oral Histories Research about Yarn enthusiasts of all kinds

Hello fellow Yarn enthusiast

I am a faculty member in the American Culture Studies program and the School of Media and Communication at Bowling Green State University. I am researching handmade movements and entrepreneurs worldwide and am very interested in the work you are doing. I too am an avid consumer of fiber my main skills include crochet, spinning and weaving. I am a member of both etsy.com and ravelry.com and have enjoyed being a part of those online communities for five years now.

I was hoping you would agree to be interviewed by email and/or maybe Skype and/or telephone. At minimum perhaps we could exchange one or two emails based on the questions I have for you. Depending on how you feel about continuing the conversation with me, I will request follow-up interviews by Skype or telephone. If, however, you feel more comfortable speaking to me on phone rather than replying at length by email, that is fine too. I will need to record our conversations. These will be stored on my password-protected computer and kept confidential. Further to our email and/or phone exchanges, I my visit your brick and mortar location to continue this research. These research visits will be limited to one or two at the most.

Of course your name will be kept confidential in the publications I write based on the interview unless you actually want to or don’t mind my using your actual names. Whatever I write up - I will share with you before publishing. I would also love to hear stories about your learning process and the community of crafters in your life. I realize that I am asking for your time and time is precious - but hopeful that you will agree to at least a part of this. Even if you are able to give me half an hour of your time on Skype or by phone, it will help my research a lot.

Academic writing doesn't make money - so I certainly wont be making money off of this, it is purely for academic research and conservation of culture in written form.

Regardless, I am always your fan and will keep buying your beautiful yarn and roving whenever I have stash cravings.

Thank you for thinking about this - feel free to ask me as many questions as you like.

If you agree to be interviewed, contact me via email to radhik [at] bgsu.edu .