Curriculum Vitae
Last updated 2/6/2012
Zach Whalen
Department of English, Linguistics and CommunicationUniversity of Mary Washington
1301 College Avenue
Fredericksburg, VA 22401
(540) 654-2355
zwhalen at umw dot edu
zach.whalen at gmail dot com
Professional Experience
University of Mary Washington
| Assistant Professor, Department of English, Linguistics and Communication. | 2008 - present |
University of Florida
| Teaching Assistant, Department of English. Alumni Doctoral Fellow. Image Lab Assistant, CLAS Computing. Research Assistant, Comics Studies. |
2002 - 2008 2004 - 2008 2003 - 2008 2004 |
Education
- Ph.D. in English; University of Florida; 2008
- Focus: Digital Media/Visual Rhetoric, Video Game Studies
- Dissertation: "The Videogame Text: Typography and Textuality."
- Directors: Dr. Donald Ault and Dr. Terry Harpold.
- M.A. in English; University of Florida; May 2004
- Focus: Digital Media Studies
- Thesis: "Play Along: Video Game Music as Metaphor and Metonymy."
- Directors: Dr. J. Yellowlees Douglas, Dr. Donald Ault.
- B.A. in Philosophy, English, minor in Music; Carson-Newman College; May 2002
- Honors Thesis: "TheorySpace v2.03 : Applications of Critical Theory in Hypertext Literature."
- Directors: Dr. Ernest Lee and Dr. D. Brian Austin.
- Playing the Past: History and Nostalgia in Video Games
- Eds. Zach Whalen and Laurie N. Taylor. Nashville, TN: Vanderbilt University Press, 2008.
- "Deviant Materialities: Reflective Surfaces and Hollow Bodies in CSI"
- Refractory: a Journal of Entertainment Media. 13 (2008).
- <http://blogs.arts.unimelb.edu.au/refractory/2008/05/24/deviant-materials-reflecting-surfaces-and-hollow-bodies-in-csi-zach-whalen/>
- "Game Studies and Web 2.0: Finding an Audience Online"
- Flow. Department of Radio-TV-Film at UT Austin. Special Video Games Issue (2007).
- <http://flowtv.org/?p=51>
- "Game/Genre: A critique of Generic Formulas in Video Games in the Context of 'The Real'"
- Works and Days. 22:43/44 (2004): 289 - 303.
- "Play Along: An Approach to Video Game Music"
- Game Studies: The International Journal of Computer Game Research
- <http://www.gamestudies.org/0401/whalen/>
- "Ludology -- Who Gets to Play?"
- M/C: A Journal of Media and Culture 7:2. (March 2004).
- <http://journal.media-culture.org.au/0403/08-ludology.php>.
- “game(text): videogames and textual aesthetics”
- Invited Guest Lecture. Center for Digital Discourse and Culture, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA, February 12, 2010.
- “The Videogame Text”
- Invited Guest Lecture. Maryland Institute for Technology in the Humanities' Digital Dialogues series. University of Maryland. October 14, 2009.
- "Close Enough"
- 2012 Modern Language Association Convention, Seattle, WA, January 8, 2012.
- “Alternate Reality Games, Transmedia Textuality, and the Immaterial Archive”
- 2011 Modern Language Association Convention, Los Angeles, CA, January 8, 2011.
- “Zork and the Videogame Canon, or, a Program for Videogame Pedagogy”
- 2010 Society for Cinema and Media Studies Annual Conference, Los Angeles, CA, March 20, 2010.
- “Alternate Reality Games and Futures of Textuality”
- 5th Annual Florida Digital Assembly Conference: Futures of Digital Studies, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL. February 25, 2010.
- "Ideology and Discourse in Videogame Co[ntext]de"
- Southern American Studies Association Biennial Meeting. George Mason University. Fairfax, VA. February 12, 2009.
- "An Archaeology of the Videogame Image"
- 2008 Society for Cinema and Media Studies Conference. Philadelphia, PA. March 7, 2008.
- "Quest for Saddam / Quest for Bush: Fantastic Abstractions in Videogame Rhetoric"
- UF English Graduate Organization 7th Annual Conference. Gainesville, FL. October 18, 2007.
- "Heads-Up Display: Text in the Videogame Interface"
- 2007 Society for Cinema and Media Studies Conference. Chicago, IL. March 9, 2007.
- "Lost in Emulation: World of Difference in Videogame Typography"
- 3rd Annual UF Game Studies Conference, "World Building: Space and Community." Gainesville, FL. March 1, 2007.
- "Bodies and/as/of Evidence: CSI: Dark Motives and Uncanny Doubles"
- PCAS/ACAS 2005 Conference. Jacksonville, FL. October 4, 2005.
- "Reading as Cryptography: The Role of Encoding and Decoding in Digital Print Culture"
- Elective Affinities IAWIS/AIERTI 7th International Conference on Word & Image Studies, Philadelphia, PA. September 26, 2005.
- "House of Leaves and Digital Ontology"
- Visual Culture: Image, Icon, and Ideology. 14th Annual KSU Cultural Studies Conference. Manhattan, KS. March 11, 2005.
- "Playing with the Past: Structural Pastiche and Visual Nostalgia XIII and Viewtiful Joe"
- Comics & Animation: Simultaneity & Sequentiality. 2004 UF Conference on Comics. Gainesville, FL. October 29, 2004.
- "Survival Horror Stories: Musical and Aural Landscapes"
- Narr@tive: Digital Storytelling, 2004. UCLA. Los Angeles, CA. April 23, 2004.
- THATCamp Games Participant
- THATCamp Games 2012. University of Maryland, January 20 - 22, 2012. <http://thatcampgames.org/>
- THATCamp Participant
- THATCamp 2011. Center for History and New Media, George Mason University, June 3 - 5, 2011. <http://chnm2011.thatcamp.org/>
- Workshop Participant, “Doing Digital in the Classroom: Planning for a Course with Academic Technologies,”
- 2011 Faculty Academy. University of Mary Washington, Stafford, VA, May 11, 2011.
- Workshop participant, “Teaching Media Studies with Video Games”
- 2011 Society for Cinema and Media Studies Conference. New Orleans, LA. March 10, 2011.
- Session organizer, "ARGs, Archives, and Digital Scholarship.”
- THATCamp 2010. Center for History and New Media, George Mason University, May 23, 2010. <http://chnm2010.thatcamp.org>
- “Is Digital Scholarship Really Scholarship?”
- 2010 Faculty Academy. University of Mary Washington. May 12, 2010.
- Session organizer (Drupal as LMS)
- THATCamp 2009. Center for History and New Media, George Mason University, June 27, 2009. <http://thatcamp.org/2009>
- “How I use Drupal to roll my own”
- 2009 Faculty Academy. University of Mary Washington. May 14, 2009.
- “Altering Reality: Teaching with and about ARGs”
- 2009 Faculty Academy. University of Mary Washington. May 14, 2009.
Honors, Grants and Awards
UMW Faculty Supplemental Development Grants (travel funding), 4 total between 2009 and 2012
Faculty Research Grant, Summer 2009 (UMW)
Designated Travel Grant, 2009 (TeachUMW )
Alumni Fellowship, 2004 - 2008 (University of Florida)
Grinter Fellowship, 2002 - 2004 (University of Florida)
Departmental Travel Awards, 3 awards from 2002 - 2007 (University of Florida)
