[Commlist] Call for Papers, DiGRA 2026: Maynooth

*The Call for Papers for the 2026 Digital Games Research Association is 
now live. The conference will take place in Maynooth, Ireland. *

https://www.digraconference2026.com/ <https://www.digraconference2026.com/>

The 2026 DiGRA conference theme is Intersectional Pleasures. The theme 
invites a critical and celebratory exploration of how digital games 
enable, mediate, or restrict pleasure across lines of identity, genre, 
platforms, politics and more. We welcome interdisciplinary submissions 
across multiple fields.

Just outside of Dublin, Maynooth is Ireland’s only university town, 
balancing historic charm with accessibility. Historic and cultural 
attractions in the township include the Russell Library: a celebrated 
19th‑century library constructed by Augustus Pugin, with medieval 
manuscripts and curated summer exhibitions and St Patrick’s College’s 
chapels. The town is full of historic houses and medieval castle ruins.

The conference is supported by the Maynooth University Arts & Humanities 
Institute (AHI) and the departments of Computer Science (CS) and Media 
Studies (MS). The local organizing team consists of Yeka Kalantar (TUD & 
MU), Dr. Jeneen Naji (MU), Prof Anna Hickey Moody (MU), Dr. Cathy Ennis 
(MU), Dr. Natalie Culligan (MU), Dr. Maria M O’Brien (UG), Robert 
Emerson (IMIRT), John Healy (TUD).

Intersectional pleasures invite the DiGRA community to reflect and 
reframe the ways in which games are pleasurable. We picked this theme 
because it highlights the pleasure inherent in game play and creation 
and foregrounds contemporary intersectional complexities of our ludic 
landscapes. Intersectionality highlights the many ways in which race, 
class, gender and other formative factors can shape our life experiences 
and nowhere is this more visible than in game play. In light of 
contemporary understandings of identities and social justice DiGRA 2026 
seeks to ask what strengths and pleasures digital intersectional 
dynamics can offer the field of game design from analysis to creation, 
to play and to market. These themes emphasize pleasure not as frivolous 
or escapist, but as a radical and complex affective terrain in digital play.

PhD students are encouraged to apply as there will is a dedicated 
emerging stars PhD consortium on Day 1 which will provide opportunities 
for further development of research skills that will be of help to 
emerging scholars in achieving their academic goals.

Potential full paper, abstract, and workshop topics include:

  *
    Explorations of algorithmic systems in games


  *
    Identity Politics in games


  *
    Accessibility in game design and play


  *
    Diasporic and indigenous game narratives


  *
    Examining how bodies and senses experience pleasure and restriction
    in physical/digital play


  *
    Feminist Games


  *
    AI in Games


  *
    Climate change factors, eco computing and green games


  *
    Intersectional Games


  *
    Exploring innovative, participatory, and intersectional research
    approaches for studying pleasure in games and gaming


  *
    Community games as tools for learning and expression and inclusive
    engagements


  *
    Queer Gaming


  *
    Virtual Utopias


  *
    Sonic and Haptic Pleasures in Game Design


  *
    Homonationalism, capitalism and games markets


  *
    Cross Platform Chaos and Synergy


  *
    Software, tools and production processes and how software shapes how
    pleasure is encoded


  *
    Pleasurable Aesthetics for Games


  *
    Aural Pleasures for Games


  *
    Making Pleasurable Experiences – games creation.


  *
    Gambling Games and Troubling Pleasures


  *
    Games Processes, Policies and Structures for Pleasure


  *
    PhD doctoral candidates work in development


The organizers also accept thematic workshop proposals (see submission 
guidelines via link).

In light of global events, DiGRA 2026 is departing from business as 
usual. This year we encourage attendees to register as independent 
scholars to distance themselves from governments and institutions which 
support war and genocide. This year, we are introducing a human rights 
evaluation framework that considers breaches of international law. 
Conference registration will still provide the opportunity to register 
with a university affiliation for those who must have a university 
affiliation as a condition to receive funding, or who wish to represent 
their university or institution for other reasons. For those who are 
able, and who wish to protest global injustice, registering as an 
independent scholar is a means of doing so. Any individuals lacking 
legal permission to enter the country of Ireland will be denied 
registration to the DiGRA conference.


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