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John Wills

@drjohnwills.bsky.social

160 followers 100 following 27 posts

Prof in Film&Media, University of Kent. Recent Books: Gamer Nation, Disney Culture.

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John Wills @drjohnwills.bsky.social · Nov 16

My most recent book, on Red Dead, coedited with the brilliant Esther Wright!

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Reposted by John Wills

New Voices in Postcolonial Literature Network @nvpoco.bsky.social · Jun 14

Introducing the "American Dream/American Nightmare" conference speakers!

Our second roundtable is on "Perspectives within "New" and "Emerging" Media" and will feature Prof John Wills (@drjohnwills.bsky.social ), Dr Stephen Morgan (@drsmorgan.com ), and Dr Sara Polak (@sarapolak.bsky.social )...

John Wills is a Professor in Film and Media at the University of Kent, UK and a co-editor of the European Journal of American Culture (Intellect). His research interests include atomic film and culture, environmental protest and environmental disaster, and US game studies. John is the author of seven books, including, most recently, Gamer Nation: Video Games and American Culture (Johns Hopkins UP, 2019) and with Esther Wright, Red Dead Redemption: History, Myth and Violence in the Video Game West (Oklahoma UP, 2023). He is currently completing a new book, on Doom Town and atomic culture, with the University Press of Kansas
Social Media: @drjonw (X); @drjohnwills.bsky.social (BlueSky)
John is pictured wearing glasses.

Dr. Stephen Morgan (he/him) is Lecturer in Film Studies at King’s College London. His research focuses on the cinemas of settler nations, as well as the Indigenous cinemas of Australia, Canada, and Aotearoa / New Zealand. Broader efforts to reconceptualise settler national cinema in these spaces includes his upcoming monograph, Ealing Abroad: Post-War British Cinema, Settler Colonialism and Ealing Studios in Australia, which will be published by BFI/Bloomsbury in 2026.
Bluesky: @drsmorgan.com
Stephen is pictured in black and white smiling

Sara Polak (she/her) is university lecturer in American Studies at Leiden University Centre for the Arts in Society, research fellow on the NWO project Playing Politics: Media Platforms Making Worlds, and PI of the ERC project Worlding America: How Play Shaped the United States from New Media to Politics, 1503-2028. She has published a monograph FDR in American Memory (John Hopkins UP, 2021) and is working on a book about How Trump Plays.
@sarapolak.bsky.social
Sara is pictured smiling.

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John Wills @drjohnwills.bsky.social · Jun 1

www.loc.gov/static/progr...

www.loc.gov

John Wills @drjohnwills.bsky.social · May 30

Hey Ayesha, yeah a classic. I wrote about it for Film Registry at Library/Congress, can always send you link. I was in touch with creators a while back, not sure, may be able to find them…

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John Wills @drjohnwills.bsky.social · May 30

Had the pleasure of recently guesting on @everyscififilm.bsky.social podcast alongside the brilliant Tom Docherty, talking about On the Beach (1959).

John Wills @drjohnwills.bsky.social · May 20

Great to present on horror videogames at #BDigra in Birmingham today. Thanks to @poppywilde.bsky.social @doktornick.bsky.social & team for a great conference day. #BritishDiGRA #DiGRA

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Reposted by John Wills

Poppy Wilde @poppywilde.bsky.social · May 20

Day one of #BDiGRA25 and we've already had excellent provocations to start - lightning talks on rougelikes, queer game studies, transgender emergence in games, ecogaming, and historical affects in our first session. Now on to panels exploring Game making and Culture, getting to more in depth papers.

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John Wills @drjohnwills.bsky.social · Jan 20

Happy Martin Luther King Jnr Day.

John Wills @drjohnwills.bsky.social · Jan 17

A worrying situation at Paw Patrol HQ. Please do not ‘Yelp for Help’ and expect a speedy response!

John Wills @drjohnwills.bsky.social · Jan 16

Legend lost. RIP David Lynch.

John Wills @drjohnwills.bsky.social · Jan 10

Let me know how it goes. I think I had that set once!

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Reposted by John Wills

Christian Tieber ⧖ @tieber.bsky.social · Jan 8

"A reminder that frequent megafires in California are a relatively recent phenomenon"

via @zacklabe.com -> @calfire.bsky.social
(and not even including 2024 Park fire...)

Chart: Top 20 largest California wildfires (1932 - 2021)

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John Wills @drjohnwills.bsky.social · Jan 8

My heart goes out to everyone affected by the current fires in Los Angeles County. Southern California, and especially LA, has been like a second home to me. Hoping it gets better soon.

Reposted by John Wills

Poppy Wilde @poppywilde.bsky.social · Dec 26

Control is free on @epicgamesoffical.bsky.social for another 20mins, then another game free after that! Control is ace, and I wrote a chapter on it: "Who’s in Control?: Negotiating Hierarchies, Neoliberal Subjectivation, and Feminist Resistance in the World of Work" link.springer.com/chapter/10.1...

Who’s in Control?: Negotiating Hierarchies, Neoliberal Subjectivation, and Feminist Resistance in the World of Work

In Control (Remedy Entertainment, 2019), the player-protagonist Jesse Faden starts a journey looking for her missing brother and ends up as Director of a secret agency—the Federal Bureau of Cont...

link.springer.com

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Reposted by John Wills

Elsa Devienne @elsadevienne.bsky.social · Dec 19

A few GREEN BAAS announcements for 2025:

- Our 1st event of the new year is a collaborative, online writing session on Zoom Thur 16 Jan 2025 at 2-4pm (GMT). Connect, set an intention, write!
Register for "let's writing together" here: us02web.zoom.us/meeting/regi...

@officialbaas.bsky.social

List of 2024-25 GREEN BAAS roundtables more info at this address: https://baas.ac.uk/community/green-baas/2024-2025-green-baas-roundtable-series/

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Reposted by John Wills

Historical Games Network @historygamesnet.bsky.social · Dec 12

We are excited to announce our new quarterly theme: Medievalism! Guest-chaired/convened by @robehoughton.bsky.social, the theme will accept contributions from right now until March 2025. More details here: www.historicalgames.net/call-for-con...

#historicalgames #gamestudies #gtp

Call for Contributions - Medievalism | Historical Games Network

Guest Chair/Convenor: Robert Houghton The Middle Ages are almost everywhere in games. From the painstaking reconstructions of medieval buildings and cityscapes in Assassin’s Creed (2007-) and Kingdom...

www.historicalgames.net

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John Wills @drjohnwills.bsky.social · Dec 6

My favorite albums of 2024.
GNX Kendrick Lamar
From Zero Linkin Park
The Great American Bar Scene Zach Bryan
Brat and Its Completely Different But Also Still Brat Charlie XCX
The Death of Slim Shady Eminem
+ Apple informed me that I listened to the Westworld soundtrack 1,772 minutes this year!

John Wills @drjohnwills.bsky.social · Dec 2

Last week I gave an invited lecture on Doom Town and Las Vegas for the Atoms & Archives Research Group, Andrew Hook Centre for American Studies & Scottish Centre for War Studies at the University of Glasgow, research kindly sponsored by @leverhulme.bsky.social, thanks to @drtimpeacock.bsky.social

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John Wills @drjohnwills.bsky.social · Dec 1

New here moots! #promosky

Game Studies
Film Studies
Horror
Writing
Paranormal TV (current fav: Project Fear)
Old Audi TTs and old BMWs
Sega Dreamcast collector, Nintendo lover
Rock, Alt, Nu-Metal, Grime
Yoga & Tai Chi
Running
Buddhism
Nicolas Cage
Coffee
Americana, Los Angeles, Las Vegas