Poppy Wilde
Senior Lecturer in Media and Communication, Enterprise and CPD Coordinator for the College of English and Media
- Email:
- poppy.wilde@bcu.ac.uk
- Phone:
- 0121 331 5676
Dr Poppy Wilde is a Senior Lecturer in Media and Communication and Enterprise and CPD Coordinator for the College of English and Media. She is the author of Posthuman Gaming: Avatars, Gamers, and Entangled Subjectivities (Routledge, 2023) and has published extensively on critical posthumanism and game studies.
Her research explores how posthuman subjectivities are enabled and embodied in a variety of contexts, particularly through gaming, zombie studies, and affective and autoethnographic methodologies. She is also co-editor of Working Women on Screen: Paid Labour and Fourth Wave Feminism (Palgrave Macmillan, 2024).
She teaches media, communication, and cultural theory, often focusing on new / digital / social media communities, contexts and practices. Her research interests are critical posthumanism, postanthropocentic and digital cultures, embodiment, affect, performance in online contexts and the lived experience in research methods.
Areas of Expertise
- Critical posthumanism
- Digital cultures
- Game studies
- Cultural theory
- Embodiment
- Affect
- Autoethnography
- Postapocalypse
- Postanthropocentrism
- Social media
Qualifications
- Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (2021)
- Postgraduate Certificate in Academic Practice in Higher Education: Distinction, Coventry University (2018)
- Doctor of Philosophy, Coventry University (2017)
- BA Joint Honours Performance Studies and Drama: First Class, Aberystwyth University (2012)
SEDA Accreditations:
- Embedding Sustainability in the Curriculum (2021)
- Community of Practice (CoP) around Research Supervision (2020)
- Supporting Technology Enhanced Learning (2019)
Memberships
-
Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy
-
Member of MeCCSA 鈥� Media, Communication and Cultural Studies Association
-
Women in Games (WIGJ) Ambassador, March 2022 鈥� present.
Teaching
Poppy is Senior Lecturer in Media and Communication contributing to BA and MA teaching.
Module leadership has included:
- Collaborative Project (BA 1st year module)
- The New Media Industry (BA 2nd year module)
- Digital Storytelling (BA 2nd year module)
- Creativity in the Media (BA 3rd year module)
- Understanding Social Media (BA 3rd year module)
- Digital Futures (BA 3rd year module)
- Social Media as Culture and Practice (MA module)
- Research in Practice (MA Module)
Module contributions and workshop leadership has included:
- Researching the Media and Communications (BA 1st year module)
- Media and Influencer Engagement (BA 1st year module)
- Understanding Media Texts, Industries and Audiences (BA 1st year module)
- Professional and Academic Development (BA 2nd year module and BA 3rd year module)
- Media Activism (BA 3rd year module)
Poppy聽also supervises a range of undergraduate and postgraduate dissertation projects in all areas of media. She is a personal tutor to students across all three years of undergraduate study as well as postgraduate study.
Research
Dr Wilde鈥檚 work focuses on what it means and how feels to be posthuman, by exploring how posthuman subjectivities are emergent and embodied. She has conducted autoethnographic projects exploring the lived experience of gaming with particular focus on the avatar-gamer as an embodiment of posthuman subjectivity. In her games work she has explored posthuman conceptions of acting, empathy, boredom, motivation, death, species hybridity, moralism, tomboyism, and agentic cutscenes.
She has also published on zombies, considering them as a posthuman fascination and a rejection of neoliberal and capitalist expectations; on storytelling, and the posthuman 鈥淚鈥�; on music artists and posthuman performance; and on new materialism in make-over shows.
Postgraduate Supervision
- Andrew Bell, PhD project 鈥淢aking Monsters: Exploring the Potential of Queer Game Design Methodologies in the Creation of Non-Human Avatars鈥�, based in the Faculty of Art, Design and Media.
- Kieron Oakland, PhD project 鈥淭oxicity within competitive versus non-competitive online gaming environments鈥�, based in the Faculty of Business, Law and Social Sciences. [Advisor]
Publications
Books
- Wilde, P. (2023) . London: Routledge.
Edited books/special issues
- May, L. and Wilde, P. (eds.) (2024) Playing the posts: post-Anthropocene, posthuman, post-apocalypse. Special issue 鈥� Journal of Games Criticism, 6:础.听 [Open Access]
- Wilde, P. Sylvia IV, J. J. (eds.) (2024) Posthumanism and Media Studies. Special Issue 鈥� Journal of Posthumanism, 4:3.聽https://journals.tplondon.com/jp/issue/view/227 [Open Access]
- Tomsett, E., Weidhase, N., and Wilde, P. (eds.) (2024) . Cham: Palgrave Macmillan.
Journal articles/book chapters
- Wilde, P. (2024) 鈥楶osthumanist, post-apocalyptic, and post-anthropocentric possibilities: Kantian morals and posthuman ethics in My Friend is a Raven鈥�. Journal of Games Criticism, 6:A, pp. 1-19. Available at:聽 [Open Access]
- Wilde, P. (2024) 'Who鈥檚 in Control?: Negotiating Hierarchies, Neoliberal Subjectivation, and Feminist Resistance in the World of Work' in , ed by. Ellie Tomsett, Nathalie Weidhase, and Poppy Wilde. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 169-191.
- Wilde, P. (2023) 鈥楳oral Ambiguity and the Zombie Scapegoat in Red Dead Redemption: Undead Nightmare鈥� in , ed. by Esther Wright and John Mills. Oklahoma: University of Oklahoma Press, pp. 164-182.
- Wilde, P. (2023) 鈥楶osthumanism in play: Entangled subjects, agentic cutscenes, vibrant matter, and species hybridity鈥�, in 聽ed. by Christine Daigle and Matthew Hayler. London, Bloomsbury Academic: pp. 133-146.
- Wilde, P. (2022) 鈥楧iffractively Watching Queer Eye: difficult knowledge through critical posthumanism and neoliberalism鈥�. Interconnections: Journal of Posthumanism, 1:2, pp. 24-38. Available at:聽 [Open Access]
- Wilde, P. (2022) 鈥�Beyond Good and Evil鈥� and gender and humanism? Exploring Jade as a Posthuman Protagonist鈥� in , ed. by Erica Joan Dymond, Jen Harrison, Holly Wells. Lanham, Maryland, Lexington Books: pp. 187-208.
- Wilde, P. (2022) 鈥榋ombies, Deviance and the Right to Posthuman Life鈥�, in , ed. by Scott Eric Hamilton and Conor Heffernan. Cardiff, University of Wales Press (Horror Series): pp. 19-36.
- Wilde, P. (2022) 鈥楽torytelling the Multiple Self: Posthuman Autoethnography as Critical Praxis鈥�, in ed. by Carmen Blyth and Teresa K. Aslanian. Singapore, Springer Press: pp. 1-16.
- Wilde, P. (2015) 鈥楾he Empathic Gamer鈥�, in Encountering Empathy: Interrogating the Past, Envisioning the Future [ebook] ed. by Wain, V. and Pimomo, P. Oxford: Inter-Disciplinary Press, 139-149.
Invited talks
- 鈥楯esse-Player-Polaris 鈥� posthuman subjectivities and postdualism in Control鈥�, invited speaker for Digital Humanities Students Association at Shiraz University, Iran, June 2024, online.
- 鈥楶laying like a (posthuman) girl: Gender, empathy, and issues of representation and performance鈥�, Keynote Speaker, , May 2024, Jesus College Oxford, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.
- 鈥楶ost-apocalyptic negotiations of Stray: Imagining human extinction through the eyes of a cat鈥�, invited speaker for , April 2024, CETAPS - Centre for English, Translation, and Anglo-Portuguese Studies, University of Porto, online.
- 鈥楶osthumanism and play: Embodying avatar-gamer entanglements鈥� invited speaker for the , March 2024, online.
- 鈥楾he Posthumanism of Imagination in videogames and/as popular fiction鈥� invited speaker for , April 2023, Popular and Genre Fiction Research Network and the Centre for Digital Cultures at University of 探花直播, 探花直播, UK.
- 鈥榋ombies, Necro-Power, and Fear in the Time of a Pandemic鈥�, invited speaker (with Dr Scott Eric Hamilton) for the Midlands Network of Popular Culture Halloween Event, October 2021, online.
- 鈥楾he Uberfication of Pest Control: Keeping up without cashing out鈥�, invited speaker for the BPCA (British Pest Control Association) annual conference, March 2021, PestExtra.
- 鈥楾heoretical Thinking in Tech鈥�, invited speaker for VRARA (Virtual Reality Augmented Reality Association) 探花直播 Chapter, August 2020, virtual seminar series.
- 鈥楢vatar gamer zombie hybrids: the posthuman in apocalyptic play鈥�, invited speaker for Digital Culture Research and Learning Group at University of Kent, August 2020, virtual seminar series.
Conference papers
- 鈥楶alatable vs. Poisonous Others: Aliens, AI, and mutants, oh my!鈥� . September 2024, 探花直播, UK.
- 鈥楢 Stray Autoethnography: Becoming-animal, or Anthropomorphic Humanism?鈥�, . July 2024, University of Guadalajara, Mexico.
- 鈥楶laygrounds of Authority: Space, Power, and Agency in Dying Light鈥�, co-authored with Will McKeown, . July 2024, University of Guadalajara, Mexico.
- 鈥楶ostanthropocentic, posthumanist, postapocalyptic play鈥�, workshop, co-convened with Lawrence May and Will McKeown . July 2024, University of Guadalajara, Mexico.
- 鈥楲ifecycle of an Avatar: Shared Histories of Affective Experience鈥�, . May 2024, 探花直播, 探花直播 UK.
- 鈥楾he Posthumanism of Imagination in Videogaming鈥�, : IN-BETWEENNESS OF PLAY. April 2024. Staffordshire University London Digital Institute, London, UK.
- 鈥楻elatable Zombies: Entrepreneurial survival through gamification in Dying Light 鈥� Be the Zombie鈥� (single-authored) and 鈥楻emnants and Prospects: place, play, and plague in the Dying Light videogame series鈥� (co-authored with Dr Will McKeown), . October 2023, Ulster University, UK (hybrid conference).
- 鈥楶osthumanist postapocalyptic postanthropocentrism: Morals and Multiplicities in My Friend is a Raven鈥�, . June 2023, University of Seville, Spain.
- 鈥楤eam me up Softboi 鈥� collective subjectivities and emotional masculinities in online spaces鈥�, Emerging femininities and masculinities in 21st c. media and popular culture, September 2022, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece.
- 鈥楢vatar-gamer entanglements: Posthuman subjectivity at play鈥�, Games, Culture, and Identity: The Multiplay Conference 2022. January 2022, University of Sunderland (online conference).
- 鈥楤ad taste humour as cultural critique of the British monarchy鈥�, co-authored with , Mixed Bill: Comedy in Crisis. January 2022, 探花直播, 探花直播 (online conference).
- 鈥楶olitical control and perpetual quarantine: zombie Bio-Power in the Newsflesh series鈥� and beyond鈥�, Theorizing Zombiism 2: Undead Again. July 2021, Gothenburg University, Gothenburg (hybrid conference).
- 鈥楻ed, Dead, Undead: the zombie other as (post)human threat鈥�, Dark Economies: Anxious Futures, Fearful Pasts. July 2021, Falmouth University, Falmouth (hybrid conference).
- 鈥楩ear, Death, and Exploitative Bio-Power in Mira Grant鈥檚 狈别飞蝉蹿濒别蝉丑鈥�, co-authored with Dr Scott Hamilton, Crisis in Contemporary Writing, British Association for Contemporary Literary Studies, June 2020, virtual conference.
- 鈥榋ombies, Deviance and the Right to Posthuman Life鈥�, Theorizing Zombiism, July 2019, University College Dublin, Dublin.
- 鈥楧iffractively reading clothing in Queer Eye鈥�, Culture Costume Dress, June 2019, 探花直播, 探花直播.
- 鈥淎rt鈥檚 in Pop Culture in Me鈥�: Breaking Boundaries with Lady Gaga鈥�, co-authored with Dr Nathalie Weidhase, New Reflections in Fashioning Identities, June 2019, University of Roehampton, London.
- 鈥楪ame Over: death and resurrection in online gaming鈥�, CEDAR Day of Death Education, November 2018, University Centre Shrewsbury, Shrewsbury.
- 鈥楨motional Digital Labour: Connecting, Sharing and Becoming鈥�, co-authored with Francien Broekhuizen Work and Play: An Interdisciplinary Conference, July 2016, Futureworks Media School, Manchester.
- 鈥�I, Posthuman (a deliberately provocative 迟颈迟濒别)鈥� [Poster presentation] Coventry Faculty of Arts and Humanities Postgraduate Research Symposium, April 2016, Coventry University, Coventry.
- 鈥楾he Mundane Posthuman鈥�, Reconfiguring Human and Non-Human: Texts, Images and Beyond, October 2015, University of Jyv盲skyl盲, Finland.
- 鈥楶osthuman Empathy: the lived experience of gaming鈥�, 2nd Annual Conference in Games and Literary Theory, November 2014, English Department University of Amsterdam and Netherlands Research School for Literary Studies (OSL), Amsterdam.
- 鈥楾he Empathic Gamer鈥�, 1st Global Conference on Empathy, November 2014, Inter-Disciplinary.net, Prague.
- 鈥楢utophenomenography, a media methodology?鈥�, Creating Cultures, June 2014, King鈥檚 College London, London.
Work With Industry
Dr Wilde has been a STEAMhouse Academic Coordinator for the Digital Technologies Enabling Innovation project (April 2020 鈥� March 2023). Leading workshops on immersive media, social media (practices and theories) and assisting SMEs with innovation and research generation.
Dr Wilde is also Enterprise and CPD coordinator for the College of English and Media, facilitating connections between industry and the College through KTPs, CPD, and consultancy.