On Friday, March 1, Dr. Kishonna Gray, Associate Professor of Writing, Rhetoric, & Digital Studies and Africana Studies at the University of Kentucky, will give a talk titled Augmenting Reality: Black Praxis in Digital Gaming. This event is being organized by the Gender & Women’s Studies Program at WKU, in collaboration with the Africana Studies Program and the Department of English, as part of the annual Gail Martin Lecture Series.

Dr. Gray’s presentation will explore Black praxis (practices, culture, creation, aesthetics, etc.) in gaming, situating it in other Black aesthetic traditions. By exploring Black haptics, Black sonics, and Black optics, Dr. Gray will demonstrate the impact that these Black digital practices have had on the larger landscape of gaming and streaming.

Dr. Gray is the author or co-editor of numerous books and articles including her foundational 2014 work Race, Gender, & Deviance in Xbox Live: Theoretical Perspectives from the Virtual Margins, 2018’s edited collections Woke Gaming and Feminism in Play (University of Washington press) and most recently Intersectional Tech: Black Users in Digital Gaming. She also has a book currently under contract with NYU Press titled Black Game Studies. She’s a highly sought-after speaker and regularly addresses both academic and industry audiences such as at the Game Developers Conference. She is the winner of a number of awards over the years including The Evelyn Gilbert Unsung Hero Award and the Blacks in Gaming Educator Award.

The event will begin at 4 p.m. in Cherry Hall 125. Everyone is welcome to attend.