Alex Chalk | Department of Arts, Culture and Media

Biography

Alex Chalk is an Associate Professor focusing on relationships between play, culture, technology, and work. He holds a PhD from the joint program in Communication and Culture at York and Toronto Metropolitan University. His dissertation research examined the working lives of gaming video and podcast producers in "Actual Play". He has presented on this work at the Society of Cinema and Media Studies, the Canadian Association for Work and Labour Studies, the Canadian Communications Association, and the Canadian Communication Association. His work has been published in Convergence and Analog Game Studies. Chalk's broader academic interests include cultural and materialist approaches to games, social media, and the relationship between labor and leisure.

Education

2017-2022 Ph.D. Communication & Culture (Technology & Practice), York & TMU
2015-2017 M.A. Communication & Culture (Media & Culture), York & TMU
2012-2015 B.F.A. Painting & Drawing, Concordia University

Teaching Interests

Game studies; Technology and culture; Cultural production; Labour and social justice; Media industries

Research Interests

Digital platforms and culture; Political economy of communication; Cultural production; Analog gaming; Streaming and eSports culture

Awards and Grants

Susan Mann Dissertation Scholarship (YorkU, 2021-22)
SSHRC Doctoral Fellowship (2019-2022)
SSHRC Masters Scholarship (2016-2017)

Publications

Chalk, Alex. “Mapping an Online Production Network: The Field of ‘Actual Play’ Media.” Convergence, vol. 29, no. 2, 2023, pp. 449–66. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/13548565221103987.

Chalk, Alex. “A Chronology of Dungeons & Dragons in Popular Media.” Analog Game Studies, vol. 5, no. 2, June 2018, http://analoggamestudies.org/2018/06/telling-stories-of-dungeons-dragons-a-chronology-of-representations-of-dd-play/.