Research
My research is award-winning and innovative. Informed by my background in anthropology and communication studies, my research interests include food in games, using game design to de-bias players, gender performativity in games, using games for intercultural communication and exchange, and finally the ancient history of games. I am currently exploring how to take an explicitly de-colonial approach to the study and analysis of games, informed by Decolonizing Methodologies, and applying what I learn to my current research project on the representation of animal agriculture in games.
♦ Paper Presentations & Lectures
♦ The City as Ideology: The Spatial Politics of Urban Planning in Frostpunk 2 and Terra Nil. Paper presentation at CEEGS 2025.
♦ Grilled Space Hamster & Other Suspicious Meats: An Analysis of Food in Baldur’s Gate 3. Paper presentation at SWPACA 2025.
♦ The Prince’s Past and Present: The Evolving Story of Middle Eastern Representation in Video Games. Paper presentation at Ludocrítica 2025.
♦ Indie Development for Game Students. Guest lecture at Chichester University, 2024 and 2021.
♦ How to Teach Representation Responsibly: A Seven Point Guide. Presentation at Game Developer’s Conference 2024. Watch here with a GDC Vault subscription. With no subscription, video is available upon request.
♦ An Ancient History of Games, MOLLI, 2021.
♦ Game Design and UX Research. Guest lecture at Brunel University London, 2019.
♦ Theoretical Approaches to Food in Digital Games. Paper presentation at Food and Communication Conference, 2018. Won best paper.
♦ Research Fellowships & Grants
♦ I successfully applied for and received the Valentine-Cosman Research Fellowship from The Strong Museum, a funded research project to be completed in April 2025. Taking an innovative, new approach to the “girl game” video game genre, I explored how women and girls were represented in 20th century board games, and explore game mechanics used in 20th century board games marketed to girls. This project provided important historical context around the “girl game” video game genre today by observing connections to the modern “girl game” movement. Read about the project here on The Strong’s blog; I am currently working on a paper about this project too.
♦ Publications
♦ My book proposal “Serious Level Design: Crafting Spaces for Simulation, Training, and Education” was accepted by CRC Press, a Taylor & Francis Group. CRC Press is a top-rated publisher for game studies. Expected publication: July 2027. Peer-reviewed.
♦ Playing the White Knight: Constructing Masculinity Through Violence in Assassin’s Creed II. Studies in the Fantastic, University of Tampa Press. https://doi.org/10.1353/sif.2025.a970185
♦ I am writing five encyclopedia entries on serious games in the online encyclopedia, Games for Higher Education, with the physical copy of the book to be published February 2026 in collaboration with the Center for Management Simulation, Stuttgart, Germany. Peer-reviewed.
♦ How Audio Functions as Feedback in Year Walk. The Sound Architect, April 2018.
Awards & Features
International Choice Awards Network (GDC) – Member
I am a voting member of the ICAN. Membership is invite-only. Members like myself can nominate people and games for the Game Developer’s Choice Awards (GDCA) at GDC, as well as cast votes in the GDCA.
Suellen & Glenda Adams Award
Awarded to emerging game studies scholars presenting at the SWPACA conference, 2025.
Featured in local paper
I was interviewed by our local paper, the Missoulian, for an article about UM’s rapidly growing game design program in 2025. Read it here.
Game featured in Wireframe magazine
A game I worked on, Yokai Moon, was featured in Wireframe magazine in 2019. Read about it here, pages 10-11.
Best Paper Presentation
Awarded for the paper, “Theoretical Approaches to Food in Digital Games” at the Food and Communication Conference, 2018.
Dean’s Prize for Innovation and Impact in Master’s Dissertation.
Awarded for my Master’s dissertation at Brunel University London.
Ashley Rezvani 