Zach Whalen

Department of English, Linguistics and Communication
University of Mary Washington
1301 College Avenue Fredericksburg, VA 22401
(540) 654-2355
zwhalen [at] umw [dot] edu

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."
<http://etd.fcla.edu/UF/UFE0004911/whalen_z.pdf>.

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.

Academic Employment

University of Mary Washington

2008 - present

Assistant Professor, Department of English, Linguistics and Communication.

University of Florida

2002 - 2008

Teaching Assistant, Department of English.

2004 - 2008

Alumni Doctoral Fellow.

2003 - 2008

Image Lab Assistant, CLAS Computing.

2004

Research Assistant, Comics Studies.

Publications

Edited Collection

Playing the Past: History and Nostalgia in Video Games.

Eds. Zach Whalen and Laurie N. Taylor. Nashville, TN: Vanderbilt University Press, forthcoming 2008.

Articles

"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>.

Book Chapters

Taylor, Laurie N. and Zach Whalen. "Introduction to Playing the Past."

Playing the Past: Video Games, History, and Memory. Eds. Zach Whalen and Laurie N. Taylor. Nashville, TN: Vanderbilt UP, forthcoming 2008.

"Film Music vs. Game Music: The Case of Silent Hill."

Music, Sound and Multimedia: From the Live to the Virtual. Ed. Jamie Sexton. Edinburgh: Edinburgh U P., 2007.

"Cruising in San Andreas: Ludic Space and Urban Aesthetics in Grand Theft Auto"

The Meaning and Culture of Grand Theft Auto. Ed. Nathan Garrelts. Jefferson, NC: McFarland Press, 2006.

Encyclopedia Entries

"James Agee's A Death in the Family"

The Facts On File Companion to the American Novel, 3-Volume Set. Ed. Abby H. Werlock. New York: Facts on File, 2006.

"Mark Z. Danielewski's House of Leaves"

The Facts On File Companion to the American Novel, 3-Volume Set. Ed. Abby H. Werlock. New York: Facts on File, 2006.

Other Publications

Gameology.org essays, reviews, and articles

"Futures of Video Gaming's Past, parts 1 and 2"

Gameology.org. 19 January 2007 and 17 February 2007. <http://www.gameology.org/blog/futures_of_video_gamings_past_part_1>
http://www.gameology.org/blog/futures_of_video_gamings_past_part_2>

"Product Placement and Virtual Branding in Video Games."

Gameology.org. 1 January 2006. <http://www.gameology.org/commentary/products_in_games>.

"Quest for Bush / Quest for Saddam: Content vs. Context."

Gameology.org. 26 September 2006. <http://www.gameology.org/reviews/quest_for_bush_quest_for_saddam_content_vs_context>.

"Review of Bogost, Ian. Unit Operations: An Approach to Videogame Criticism"

Gameology.org. 5 June 2006. <http://www.gameology.org/node/1066>.

"Review of Alexander Galloway's Gaming: Essays on Algorithmic Culture"

Gameology.org. 13 November 2006. <http://www.gameology.org/reviews/review_of_gaming_essays_on_algorithmic_culture>.

Columns for The Satellite

"Paid to Play"

Satellite Magazine 4.11 (2005).

"Video games and the law"

Satellite Magazine 4.9 (2005).

"Do new video games suck?"

Satellite Magazine 4.5 (2005).

"Game Studies 101"

Satellite Magazine 4.3 (2005).

"Video Games with a Message: 'Buy Something.'"

Satellite Magazine 4.2 (2005).

"The Rhetoric of Video Game Violence"

Satellite Magazine 4.1 (2005).

"Local band plays a different set of classics"

Satellite Magazine 3.12 (2004).

Presentations

"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.

"The Silence of the Hills: Video Game Music, Diegesis, and the Poetics of Empty Space"

Constellations of Youth: Intersecting Adults' and Children's Culture. UF EGO Conference, 2004. Gainesville, FL.

October 22, 2004.

"Survival Horror Stories: Musical and Aural Landscapes"

Narr@tive: Digital Storytelling, 2004. UCLA. Los Angeles, CA.

April 23, 2004.

"Play Me a Story; Music and Narrative in Video Games"

Graduate and Professional Student Forum, 2003. Gainesville, FL.

April 1, 2003.

Projects

ROMscrape, 2007.

A web based search engine for analyzing visual patterns in videogame machine code developed to facillitate dissertation research. Utilizes PHP and MySQL to retrieve results from a programmatically compiled query index.

ImageTexT special issue design, 2007

Special site layout and design in a Blakean idiom for special issue on William Blake and Visual Culture 3.3 (2007).

Space Refugees, 2006.

A game coded in ActionScript and animated in Flash. "Space Refugees" inverts the classic "Space Invaders" game by putting players in the position of the doomed aliens. As the player's character is inevitably disintegrated, a flashback animation tells the story of the aliens' home world being destroyed. Available online at <http://www.gameology.org/files/videos/refugees.html>.

Gameology.org, 2006.

A collaborative weblog, discussion platform, and resource for game studies scholarship. Built with customized installation of Drupal extended with several custom modules written in PHP/MySQL including a reference module and an automatically generated listing of CFPs. Custom theme and UI components designed utilizing clean XHTML and CSS.

Reference Module, 2006.

Custom Drupal module created for Gameology.org. Allows authors to attach citations to content and uses those associations to link together relevant material.

Template System, 2006.

Site architecture, content theming, and metadata management system for ImageTexT. Relies on Server Side Includes to automatically format content, optimize for search engine indexing, and communicate with scholarly indexing services.

Image Obfuscation Method, 2005.

A method for protecting images hosted on ImageTexT from being hotlinked on other sites or downloaded and distributed. This was developed at the request of UF General Counsel in order to strengthen Fair Use claims for image content. Uses JavaScript to obfuscate image source files.

Academic-gamers.org, 2004.

A collaborative game studies weblog (now absorbed into Gameology.org). Built on Blosxom and extended with custom modules for content creation, profile management, and bibliography management.

Submissions and Review System, 2004.

Web based submission and review management for ImageTexT. Allowed users to submit articles and reviewers to blind-review submissions.

Teaching

University of Mary Washington

"ENGL 376MM: New Media: The False and the Virtual"

This course approaches New Media by asking what Virtual Reality (particularly as a trope of science fiction during the 1980s and 90s) has in common with Alternate Reality Gaming. Students build web pages, compose interactive fiction, and participate in designing ARGs.

"ENGL 251A: Forms of Narrative"

In this class, narratology provides a framework for approaching New Media. The trajectory of the readings move from more "traditional" narratives toward the avant-garde. Eventually, electronic literature and videogames are examined to determine their narrativity and whether the tools of narratological analysis are appropriate for the task of studying media.

University of Florida

"Writing the Labyrinth" [ENG 1131 - Writing through Media]

In this course, students used the theme of a labyrinth to explore uses of mazes and labyrinths as allegorical depictions in postmodern fiction in relation to the use of the labyrinth as a metaphor for media technology. Students created hypertext and MOO projects to explore these interactions and put theory into practice.
Fall 2003 (syllabus) and Fall 2005 (syllabus).

"Argumentative and Expository Writing" [ENC 1101 - introductory writing course]

Annette Rottenberg's Elements of Argument was the primary text used to teach a Toulmin Method-based approach to argument. One section (Summer 2003) incorporated MOO technology to perform a simulation of the "Scopes Monkey Trials" in Dayton, TN, to experience argument in historical context. (Spring and Summer 2003). Also used Joseph M. Williams' Style: Ten Lessons in Clarity and Grace. Supplemental readings and projects included analyzing rhetorical practices in television commercials.
Summer 2004 (syllabus), Summer 2003 (syllabus), and Spring 2003 (syllabus).

"Technical Writing" [ENC 2210]

This course instructed and advised students on writing for professional situations. Assignments included resumé writing and instruction manuals. Used Mike Markell's Technical Communication and Joseph M. Williams's Style: Ten Lessons in Clarity and Grace. Coursework emphasized clarity of presentation including graphical design of documents.
Spring 2004 (syllabus), Fall 2002 (syllabus).

Training Courses

"Designing with CSS" [Image Lab Training Course]

This 4-week elective training course instructed graduate and faculty in advanced Cascading Style Sheet (CSS) techniques for design. Emphasized web standards and accessibility as a fundamental philosophy for creating web content.
Spring 2006.

"Learning CSS" [Image Lab Training Course]

This 4-week elective training course instructed graduate students and faculty on how to use Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) in designing course websites and materials. Used Eric A. Meyers' Cascading Style Sheets: The Definitive Guide.
Spring 2005

Teaching Interests

Media Studies, Visual Rhetoric, Computers and Composition, Video Games and Writing, Digital Culture, Postmodern Novel, Hypertext, Visual Design, Comics/Graphic Novels, and Film.

Academic Service

Production Editor, ImageTexT: Interdisciplinary Comics Studies.

Reviewer, Games and Culture: A Journal of Interactive Media

Reviewer, Game Studies: The International Journal of Computer Games Research

Reviewer, DiGRA 2007 Conference

Editor, Gameology.org

Co-founder and President (2004 - 2006), Game Studies Group

Conference Organizing

Conference Coordinator, 2007 UF Games and Digital Media Conference:

"World Building: Space and Community."

Conference Coordinator, 2007 UF Comics and Graphic Novels Conference:

"World Building: Seriality and History."

Conference Organizer and Chair, 2006 UF Game Studies Conference:

"Videogames and the Alien / Other."

Conference Organizer, Chair and Co-Founder, 2005 UF Game Studies Conference:

"Playing the Past: Nostalgia in Video Games and Electronic Literature."

Conference Organizer, 2004 UF Comics and Graphic Novels Conference:

"Comics and Animation: Simultaneity and Sequentiality."

Web Design

Designed and maintain Gameology.org:
<http://www.gameology.org>

2006 - present.

Designed and maintain ImageTexT : Interdisciplinary Comics Studies:
<http://www.english.ufl.edu/imagetext/>

2004 - present.

Designed Websites for UF "World Building" Conferences:
http://www.english.ufl.edu/worlds/
http://worlds.gameology.org/
http://worlds.comic-studies.org/

2006.

Co-designed website for 2006 Comics Conference, "Comics & Childhood:"
<http://www.english.ufl.edu/comics/2006/>

2005.

Designed and maintained Academic-Gamers.org:
<http://www.academic-gamers.org>

2004 - 2006.

Designed Center for Children's Literature and Culture website:
<http://www.clas.ufl.edu/cclc/>

2005.

Maintained and developed United Faculty of Florida (UF chapter) website:
<http://www.uff-uf.org>

2004 - 2005.

Designed and maintained UF Center for Jewish Studies website:
<http://www.jst.ufl.edu/>

2004 - 2005.

Designed and maintain Graduate Game Studies Group website :
<http://www.english.ufl.edu/gsg/>

2003 - present.

Designed "2006 British Women Writers Conference" website:
<http://www.clas.ufl.edu/bwwc/>

2005.

Designed and maintained "Playing the Past" conference website:
<http://www.academic-gamers.org/gsg/index.shtml>

2005.

Designed 2004 Comics Conference website :
<http://www.english.ufl.edu/comics/2004>

2004

Graphic Design

2005 UF Game Studies Conference

Poster and Program Design

2004 UF Comics Conference

Poster and Program Design

Technical Skills

Proficient or skilled in a variety of Web technologies including (X)HTML, SSI, CSS, JavaScript, Perl, CGI, PHP, ActionScript and MySQL.

Familiar with popular Web and multi-media software applications such as the Macromedia Studio (Dreamweaver, Fireworks, Flash, Freehand) and Adobe Products (Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign).

Familiar with open source products and projects such as GIMP (photo editing), Drupal (content management for websites), Open Office (word processing), and Open Conference Systems (content management for conferences).

Honors

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)

Presidential Scholarship, 1998 - 2002 (Carson-Newman College)

Professional Affiliations

Electronic Literature Organization

Society for Cinema and Media Studies

International Association for Word and Image Studies

Modern Language Association

Graduate Assistants United

References

Dr. Donald Ault
English Department, University of Florida
Box 117310
Gainesville, FL 32611-7310
donault at english dot ufl dot edu

Dr. Terry Harpold
English Department, University of Florida
Box 117310
Gainesville, FL 32611-7310
tharpold at english dot ufl dot edu

Dr. Jane Yellowlees Douglas
College of Business, University of Florida
Box 117150
Gainesville, FL 32611-7150
jdouglas at cba dot ufl dot edu

Dr. Gregory Ulmer
English Department, University of Florida
Box 117310
Gainesville, FL 32611-7310
gulmer at nwe dot ufl dot edu

Dr. Laurie N. Taylor
Digital Library Center
Smathers Libraries, University of Florida
P.O. Box 117007
Gainesville, FL 32611-7007
laurientaylor at gmail dot com