DEPARTMENT OF BLACK STUDIES

Biography

Jalin Jackson (he/him) is a PhD candidate in Black Studies at Northwestern University. He studies how race and its intersections (with gender, sexuality, and so on) are produced within and through digital technologies, especially, for example, in the context of videogames. He examines how constructs like race are (re)produced within the created worlds of videogames and reproduced through videogames for audiences. He is currently working on publishing work that highlights the convergences between Black Studies and Videogame Studies, as well as between Afro-Latin American Studies and Videogame Studies, and conducts research in English and Spanish. His undergraduate training was in the history of the Caribbean, specifically the histories of Panama and Cuba, and textual analysis (English/Spanish) and archival methodologies. In addition, he earned a Master's of Science in Education (University of Pennsylvania) in 2021 rooted in reflective practice, course design, the context of schooling in the U.S., and structuring learning and pedagogical experiences.

Research Interests:

Blackness/whiteness and digital culture, videogames and race, history and politics of videogames as a medium, videogames and Afro-Latin America, play and ludology, simulation of racial subjectivity and abjection, Black popular "hood" culture/media