Hi SIGCIS, I am keen to hear from people interested in being involved in a traditional session on "Game History and the Local" at SHOT2016 - see draft blurb below. I'm delighted that Corinna Schlombs has agreed to act as a respondent, which should bring computer history and game history into conjunction in some interesting ways. Please be in touch if you would like to discuss ideas. Regards, Melanie Game history did not unfold uniformly and the particularities of space and place matter. Yet many digital game and software histories are silent with respect to geography. The orthodoxy that the U.S. and Japan - and to a lesser extent the U.K. - constituted the 'centres' at the outset of the industry has enjoyed such legitimacy that many accounts do not even bother to mention the 'where' that their material or statistics pertain to (eg. Campbell-Kelly). In many ways this parallels the North American default perspective in computer history, critiqued by Schlombs (2006). That many histories have been written by journalists and 'insiders' - comprising what Huhtamo calls the "chronicle era" of game history - largely accepting the game industry's 'global' rhetoric has no doubt also contributed to this situation. However, it means that locality has largely been left out of game history, at least until recently (Saarikoski et al and Kirkpatrick constitute exceptions). Given the great historic diversity of games and contexts for their play, an appreciation of socio-cultural and geographic specificity is important to develop, particularly if other histories are to be told, for instance, from the 'periphery' rather than the 'centre'. There is a burgeoning interest in discussing locality with respect to game history, as evidenced by the Localgamehist listserv, which has 99 members (co-founded by the session proposer). Whilst this degree of interest is welcome, the local needs to be critically-situated if it is not to simply become a new orthodoxy, celebrated for its own sake. This panel seeks contributions from scholars who are interested in reflecting on locality and geography in relation to Game History. Papers might engage with the shape and detail of local game histories, present comparative snapshots of game history/technologies/industries/practices across diverse locales, or reflect on production, distribution, consumption, magazines, cultural memory, etc with a local underpinning. Many approaches are possible and these suggestions are not intended to be definitive, but the panel might work best if each paper incorporates some reflection on the critical potential of such historical work. Where are the audiences for locally focused scholarship? Do such approaches have explanatory power beyond the local, or will they forever remain on the margins? What does such work have to contribute and how might it encourage a maturation of historical work around games? Please send a one page abstract (max 500 words) and a one page short CV with current contact information (max 300 words) to Melanie Swalwell melanie.swalwell@flinders.edu.au by 27th December. -- Assoc. Prof. Melanie Swalwell ARC Future Fellow Screen and Media, Flinders University GPO Box 2100 Adelaide SA 5001 Ph: +61 8 8201 2619 278 Humanities Bldg www.flinders.edu.au<http://www.flinders.edu.au/> http://www.flinders.edu.au/people/melanie.swalwell Researching Creative Micro-computing in Australia: https://youtu.be/hR8-10qjoiI Popular Memory Archive: http://playitagainproject.org<http://www.playitagainproject.org/> Play It Again blog: http://blogs.flinders.edu.au/play-it-again/ Digital Heritage blog: http://blog.ourdigitalheritage.org<http://blog.ourdigitalheritage.org/> CRICOS Provider: 00114A This email and any attachments may be confidential. If you are not the intended recipient, please inform the sender by reply email and delete all copies of this message.