Conference Programme

Conference Schedule:

Day 1: Philosophy and Psychology of Games

11:00 am – 1:00 pm :
(i) Angshuman Dutta (Jadavpur University, Kolkata): ‘The Erhabenheit of Space: The sublime in Outer Wilds’

(ii) Samuel Poirier-Poulin (Université de Montréal, Canada):
‘The Wounds That Never Healed: Videoludic Trauma in Cry of Fear’

(iii) Nisarga Bhattacharya (English and Foreign Languages University, India):
‘Emergent Behaviour or Artificial Intelligence? The Question of Ethical Behaviour in Gaming’.

1:00 – 2 pm: Lunch Break

02:00 pm – 3 pm : Keynote by Meghna Jayanth

3:00 pm – 5:00 pm:
(i) Achintya Debnath (Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta):
‘A Psychoanalysis of Player Unknown’s Battle Grounds (PUBG) in the Context of India 2020-21.

(ii) Poonam Chowdhury (EFLU, Hyderabad): ‘Game Over?: Spirituality of Death in Spiritfarer’

(iii) Xenia Zeiler (University of Helsinki) and Satyajit Chakraborty (game designer):
‘Durga Puja Beyond Borders. Teaching Indian Festival Culture through Video Games’

(iv) Haryo Pambuko Jiwandono (Brawijaya University, Indonesia):
‘Re-thinking Asura’s Wrath as an Indian Epic’.

Open Lobby

Day 2: Games, Postcolonialism, and India

11:00 am – 12:00 pm : Keynote by Poonam Chowdhury and Zahra Rizvi

12:00 pm – 02:00 pm :
(i) Abhirup Maity (Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta): ‘Alternative History from the Lens of Video Game(s): Colonial India and Mahatma Gandhi’

(ii) Anandadeep Roy (Independent researcher):
‘The Game as Interpretation: Identity, Absurdity, and the Horror of Colonialism in Disco Elysium’

(iii) Geoffrey Fernandez (Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS), Pilani):
‘A Critical Study of Problematic Historical Narratives in Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla’

02:00 pm - 3 pm : Lunch Break

3:00 pm – 5:00 pm:
(i) Neil Nagwekar (Independent researcher):
‘On the Postcolonial Analysis of ‘Indians’ in Age of Empires II’

(ii) Prabhash Ranjan Tripathy (Jawaharlal Nehru University):
‘An Invisible Technician and The Unknown Child: Absences that Construct the Reality of Gaming in India’

(iii) Samya Brata Roy (IIT Jodhpur):
‘No Racism? That’s pretty ‘sus’! Or is it?
A study of Identity and scope for conflict in the gamic space of Among Us.’

(iv) Srija Chowdhury (Calcutta University):
“Not just a player, but a gamer: A sociological study on the web of identities in Gaming”

Open Lobby