[Commlist] Call for Papers "Volatile Memory: Game Preservation Policy and Practice in Canada"

CFP: Volatile Memory: Game Preservation Policy and Practice in Canada
EDITED BY: Dr Michael Iantorno, Dr Jean Ketterling, Dany Guay-Bélanger
ABSTRACTS DUE: November 15 2026
LINK: https://gamepreservation.ca/volatile-memory/ 
<https://gamepreservation.ca/volatile-memory/>

Videogames are a multi-billion-dollar industry and occupy a pivotal role 
in the history of new media technologies, from home consoles to arcade 
cabinets. Despite growing institutional concern for game preservation 
across Canada, legal structures and gaps in institutional practice make 
it difficult for players, scholars, and hobbyists to return to, revisit, 
or replay the majority of games released over the last half century.

Stringent intellectual property laws prevent the sharing of digital 
games outside of formal venues and media companies are reluctant to 
steward their back catalogs save for a handful of official re-releases, 
effectively erasing swaths of media history due to neglect. The 
risk-adverse nature of preservation institutions can mean that family- 
and funder-friendly collections are prioritized (Butler et al. 2025), 
while anything that might be flagged as ‘controversial,’ political,’ or 
‘risqué’ is filtered out. The Video Game History Foundation (VGHF) has 
demonstrated that “nearly 90 percent of the game industry’s historical 
output is inaccessible without acquiring vintage games and hardware from 
the expensive second-hand market, visiting library collections in person 
due to restrictions imposed by Digital Millennium Copyright Act, or 
resorting to piracy” (Salvador 2023, 3). With videogame access stymied 
by material costs and institutional barriers, new perspectives and 
solutions are needed to make videogame history accessible.

The central focus of "Volatile Memory: Game Preservation Policy and 
Practice in Canada" is to bring together the perspectives of scholars, 
institutional actors, and citizen archivists to assess and address the 
growing problem of videogame preservation in Canada. While this edited 
collection will focus on the Canadian context, we are also attuned to 
the value of comparative approaches to game preservation policy and 
practice.

We are particularly interested in essays, material studies, and 
interviews that focus on game preservation *policy* and *practice*/. 
/Topics may include (but are not limited to):

POLICY

• Challenges associated with preserving videogames and maintaining 
archives in the face of intellectual property laws and censorship 
policies, as established nationally and through international treatises 
and corporate mandates. What policy solutions to these challenges might 
exist? How can Canadian game preservationists learn from other 
jurisdictions: are there exemplary models or cautionary tales we should 
consider in constructing intersectoral and interdisciplinary heritage 
policy for game preservation?

• Intellectual property law reform and the adoption/reliance on informal 
methods and archives. What role do citizen archivists play in filling 
the gaps left by formal institutions of memory?

• Institutional and interpersonal dynamics that shape what materials get 
preserved and by whom. What sociotechnical forces create vulnerable 
archives that are controversial or difficult to maintain and activate? 
How does gender, sexuality, and violence appear, or not, in 
institutional archives? What is deemed worthy of remembering and replaying?

• Power and preservation:  Which histories of play are overlooked or 
forcibly suppressed? How do conceptualizations of propriety shape 
archival practice? How do colonial, racialized, and gendered frameworks 
shape archives and preservation? How does language and language politics 
shape preservation practices?

PRACTICE

• Reflections on the process of building archives in various contexts: 
institutions of memory, domestic spaces, online wikis and websites, and 
more.

• Reflections on current expertise and techniques that keep videogame 
history alive, from material procedures, to console repair, to oral 
histories.

• Analyses of corporate efforts to revive software libraries, 
institutional archives and collections that maintain software and 
hardware, and informal actors who fill legally-tenuous gaps in videogame 
history.

• Re-imagining game and play archives: how does game preservation 
productively disorient archival practices? What does it mean to have a 
playable archive?

• The ethics of preservation: How do preservationists navigate legal 
constraints? What role does consent play in archive-building?

As a collection that aims to create a dialogue between scholars, 
preservation professionals and citizen archivists, /Volatile Memory 
/will welcome three contribution types:

[4,000 to 6,000 word scholarly chapters]*
*These essays should focus on concerns facing videogame history and 
preservation. We will emphasize the Canadian context, although 
comparative chapters will also be welcomed, especially considering the 
entwinement of IP policy and preservation concerns with the United 
States and other relevant jurisdictions.

[3,500 to 5,000 word material studies] *
*Short essays on projects or acquisitions managed by either formal or 
informal institutions of memory. This section is open to experimental or 
less traditional forms, and must emphasize actionable preservation 
techniques over high-level theoretical considerations. Additionally, 
this chapter format is ideal for it is an ideal place for approachable 
public writing, especially by non-academics.

[4,000 to 6,000 interviews] *
*Transcribed and edited interviews with important figures in videogame 
preservation. Importantly, the emphasis of these interviews will /not/ 
be targeting important figures in videogame history but, rather, on 
preservation policy and practice, including speaking with folks who work 
to maintain and preserve game history in various ways. Curators, 
historians, and citizen archivists are some possible targets for these 
interviews.

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

Please submit a 500 word abstract (reference list not included) and 200 
word bio to the editors by November 15, 2026. Submissions should be sent 
to (jean.ketterling /at/ usask.ca) <mailto:(jean.ketterling /at/ usask.ca)>. Your 
abstract should clearly outline which type of contribution you are 
making (i.e., scholarly chapter, material study or interview). We do not 
accept previously-published work. We do not accept writing that employs 
artificial intelligence (AI) in the process of writing, research, or 
data analysis. Unfortunately, we are only able to accept submissions in 
English.

TIMELINE

*• *November 15 2026: Abstracts and contributor bios due. Please submit 
to** (jean.ketterling /at/ usask.ca) <mailto:(jean.ketterling /at/ usask.ca)>
* • *January 15 2027: Invitation to submit full contribution sent to 
selected contributors.*
• *May 31 2027: Full contribution drafts due to editors.*
• *August 31 2027: Feedback returned to authors.*
* • November 15 2027: Revised chapters due to editors.

The editors will be organizing a game preservation symposium on March 
16, 2027 as a SCMS pre-conference. Accepted contributors are encouraged 
though not expected to attend.

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