Aleena Chia is Lecturer in Media, Communications and Cultural Studies at Goldsmiths, University of London. She researches creative cultures in game development and computational wellness. Her research on digital game production analyses vocational passion of hobbyists and automation of artists’ work through computational techniques. Her work on wellness examines lucid dreaming practices in high-tech New Age spiritualities and disconnection from social media. 

Dr. Chia 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 in 2021, she was a tenure track Assistant Professor at Simon Fraser University. Her work has been supported by training from the School of Criticism and Theory, funding from the British Academy, and an internship at Microsoft Research New England's Social Media Collective. 

conferences

  • Association of Internet Researchers. Panel Organizer (w/ Jim Malazita) "The Engine is the Message: Videogame Infrastructure and the Future of Digital Platforms." Dublin, Ireland. 2-5 November, 2022. 
  • Foundation of Digital Games. Panel Organizer. "Ideologies of Scale in Procedural Content Generation." Athens, Greece & Virtual. 5-8 September, 2022.
  • Digital Games Research Organization. Workshop Organizer (w/ Jim Malazita) “The Plumbing of the Metaverse.” Krakow, Poland & Virtual: July 7, 2022. Info/apply here. 
    Workshop Organizer (w/ Paolo Ruffino) "Politicizing Agency in Digital Play after Humanism." Info/apply here.
  • Anthropology, AI and the Future of Human Society. Paper Presentation on “Consciousness Hacking, Technodelics, and Inside-out Change.” Royal Anthropological Institute. June 6-10, 2022. Virtual.

Invited Talks

  • King's College London. Human Centred Computing Seminar Series, Informatics: Creativity and personhood in the automation of videogame production. London UK. March 27, 2023.
  • Lusófona University Launch of On&Off, a research project funded by the Portuguese science agency FCT. Online. February 27, 2023.
  • Prague Game Production Studies. Workshop. Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic. October 10, 2022. 
  • Digital Society @ Manchester. Panel. “The Artist and Automaton in Digital Game Production.” Manchester, UK. June 7, 2022. ​
  • Italian Sociological Association Conference, Cultural Processes and Institutions Section. Plenary. “Reckoning with Social Media.” Rome, Italy. May 27, 2022. 
  • University of Antwerp Dept of Communication Studies Spring Seminar Series. “Reckoning with Social Media.” (with Jorge, A. and Karppi, T.) Virtual Event. April 19, 2022. ​
a.chia (at) gold.ac.uk

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