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  • Doctoral Student, English - Media, Cinema, and Digitals Studies, PhD

Education

  • Master's in Media Studies, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, 2020
  • Bachelor's in English Education, University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, 2017 

Courses Taught

  • ARTHIST 111 - Entertainment Arts: Film, Television, and the Internet
  • ENGLISH 101 - Introdiction to College Writing
  • ENGLISH 102 - College Writing and Research
  • ENGLISH 111 - Entertainment Arts: Film, Television, and the Internet
  • FILMSTD 111 - Entertainment Arts: Film, Television, and the Internet
  • FILMSTD 205 - History of Film I: Development of an Art
  • JAMS 101 - Introduction to Mass Media
  • JAMS 111 - Gender and Media
  • JAMS 113 - Internet Culture

Research Interests

  • Video game history, theory, and criticism
  • Race, gender, and sexuality in video games and digital media
  • Digital communities and fandoms
  • Games and/as pedagogy

Related Activities

“Meet You at the Crossroads: Gender, Queerness, and Orientalism in Fan Communities of Japanese Games.” Console-ing Passions, Bloomington IN. June 20, 2024.

“Love, Law, Luigi: Nintendo’s Partnership System.” Society for Cinema and Media Studies Conference, Boston MA. March 17, 2024.

“‘I’m Weebin’ Out’: Ludo-Orientalism in Japanese Video Game Fan Tourism.” Fan Studies Network – North America Conference. October 12, 2023. Presented online via Discord.

“Playing with Racialized Erotics in Visual Novels.” Society for Cinema and Media Studies Conference, Denver CO. April 12, 2023.

“Correcting the Narrative: Reflections on a Community Partner Prison Literacy Project.” Conference on College Composition & Communication. Chicago, IL. February 18, 2023.

“Challenging the Norms of Academic Writing.” Center for Excellence in Teaching and
Learning Conference, UW – Milwaukee. January 12, 2023.

“Aging on the Registry: Embracing Openness to Address New Challenges in Prison Literacy Work.” Rhetoric Society of America: UW – Milwaukee Chapter Conference. December 2, 2022.

“‘So be yourself and try to have a good time:’ Reinventing the Gendered Urban Gamer in the First Look at Nintendo Switch”. Console-ing Passions. June 23, 2022. Presented online.

“Dice and Equity: Navigating Decolonization and Anti-Racism through Gameful Action” Workshop. Canadian Game Studies Association Conference. June 2, 2022. Presented online.

“Gendered Access” Panel Respondent. Midwest Interdisciplinary Graduate Conference. Milwaukee, WI. May 8, 2022. Presented online.

“Rethinking Participation in the College Classroom.” Midwest Interdisciplinary Graduate Conference. Milwaukee, WI. May 8, 2022. Presented online.

“Creepy Watson and the Limits of the Term ‘Fan Labor.’” DePaul Pop Culture Conference. Chicago, IL. May 7, 2022.

“‘Even if it’s deleted I will remember!’: Appeals to Liveness in Podcast Streaming on Twitch.” Society for Cinema and Media Studies Conference. April 2, 2022. Presented online.

“Live Stream in Progress: Using Twitch for Research Instruction in FYC.” College Conference on College Composition and Communication. February 28, 2022. Presented online.

“Playing with Dirt: A Livestream about Land, Identity, and Videogames.” Connected Learning Summit. July 21, 2021. Presented online.

“Gaming Reborn: Queer Play and Pleasure in Pokémon Fan Mods.” The Queerness and Games Conference. Accepted, conference rescheduled due to COVID-19. Presented on YouTube, November 18, 2020. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WD0 Plsv20xM.

“Fandom and Gaming Salon”. Fan Studies Network - North America Conference. October 13, 2020. Presented online.

“‘Well Excuse Me, Princess:’ Designed Identity and Gendered Heroism in Nintendo Switch Advertising.” Digital Heroisms Conference. Glasgow, Scotland. August 5, 2020. Presented online.

“Serious Play: A Game Studies Livestream.” Electronic Literature Organization Conference and Media Festival. Orlando, FL. July 17th, 2020. Presented online.

“‘Discrepancy Detected:’ Operationalizing and Critiquing Immigration and Border Policy in Papers, Please.” Society for Cinema and Media Studies. Denver, CO, April 2020. Paper accepted, conference canceled due to COVID-19.

“Locked and Loaded: Masculine Performativity in Robert Yang’s The Tearoom.” Midwest Interdisciplinary Graduate Conference. Milwaukee, WI. February 15th, 2019.

Academic Awards

  • Distinguished Dissertation Fellowship, Graduate School, UW – Milwaukee, 2024-2025
  • Distinguished Graduate Student Fellowship, Graduate School, UW – Milwaukee, 2022-2023
  • Chancellor’s Graduate Student Award in English, UW-Milwaukee, 2020-2021
  • Chancellor’s Graduate Student Award in Media Studies, UW-Milwaukee, 2018-2019

Selected Publications

“Pokémon Reborn: Queer Fan Mods as a Space for Identity Exploration.” Book chapter in Pikachu’s Transmedia Journey, edited by Ross Garner and EJ Nielsen. Revised and resubmitted to editors. Under contract with University of Amsterdam Press.
“‘There! Right There!’: Locating Queerness and Orientalism in East Asian Video Game Fan Videos.” Book Chapter in Liberate Me Plenty – The Queer and Now of Digital Gaming, edited by Greg McGuinness and Stephanie Farnsworth. In press, Palgrave Macmillan, 2025
Kocik, David, Jill Budny, Jon Cassie, Wren Dalton, Laya Liebeseller. “The Quiet Year.” In Learning, Education & Games, Volume 4: Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, edited by Karen Schrier, Rachel Kowert, Diana Leonard, & Tarja Porkka-Kontturi, pp. 221-227. Pittsburgh: ETC Press, 2024.
Kocik, David, PS Berge, Camille Butera, Celeste Oon, Michael Senters. “‘Imagine a Place: Power and Intimacy in Fandoms on Discord.” Transformative Works and Culture no. 42, 2024. https://journal.transformativeworks.org/index.php/twc/article/view/2497.
Kocik, David, Rainer W. Dalton, Morgan Forbush, Erik Kersting, Janelle Malagon, Christopher J. Olson, & Casey O’Ceallaigh. “(Pandemic) Play-Testing Copresence and Kairotic Spaces in Quarantined Academic Streaming.” In Well Played Retrospective: The Past, Pandemic and Future of Video Games, Value and Meaning, edited by Drew Davidson, et al., pp. 27-36. Pittsburgh: Carnegie Mellon University Press, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1184/R1/16699579.v1.
“‘Discrepancy Detected:’ Operationalizing Immigration and Border Policy in Papers, Please." Democracy Dies Playfully: (Anti-)Democratic Ideas In and Around Video Games, special issue of Gamevironments, no. 13, 2020, pp. 35–63. https://doi.org/10.26092/elib/401.

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