Amanda Cote
Associate Professor and Director of the Serious Games Certificate | Michigan State University
East Lansing, MI, UNITED STATES
Amanda Cote researches the industry and culture of games, with an emphasis on areas such as gender, identity, and representation.
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Biography
Amanda Cote is an Associate Professor and Director of the Serious Games Certificate in the Department of Media & Information. She researches the industry and culture of games, with an emphasis on areas such as gender, identity, and representation; game development and labor; and collegiate esports. In recent publications, for instance, she has explored how crunch (extensive, often unpaid overtime) persists in the video game industry, how collegiate esports programs responded to the COVID-19 pandemic, and how race and gender stereotypes permeate game-related media and communities. She addresses these questions through methods such as in-depth interviews and discourse analysis.
Cote completed her Ph.D. in Communication Studies at the University of Michigan in 2016, then worked at the University of Oregon School of Journalism and Communication. Her first book, Gaming Sexism, was published in 2020 by New York University Press, and she has published articles in venues including Journal of Communication, New Media & Society, Convergence, Games and Culture, and Feminist Media Studies.
Industry Expertise (3)
Toys / Games
Education/Learning
Research
Areas of Expertise (3)
Media Studies
Collegiate E-sports
Game Development
Accomplishments (3)
ICA Game Studies, Top Paper Award (professional)
2019
McDonald Award for Best Communication Studies Graduate Student Instructor (professional)
2011-2012
Incubating Interdisciplinary Initiatives (I3) Award (professional)
2021-2023
Education (2)
University of Michigan: Ph.D., Communication Studies 2016
University of Virginia: B.A., Media Studies, Foreign Affairs 2010
Affiliations (6)
- International Communications Association : Member
- Society for Cinema & Media Studies : Member
- Digital Games Research Association : Member
- Association for Internet Research : Member
- Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association : Member
- Esports Research Network : Founding Member
Links (2)
News (3)
Unfair game: Women say harassment is common when gaming online
The Eyeopener online
2022-03-25
Amanda Cote, an assistant professor of media studies and game studies at the University of Oregon, says women gamers often face harassment when gaming because they’re seen “breaking conventions” when they play. This is because gaming has been heavily associated as an activity for young men and so, they are seen as the “expected audience.”
Activision Blizzard employees form first of its kind Game Workers Alliance Union
The Guardian online
2022-01-21
Those same problems make organizing more difficult, said Amanda Cote, professor at University of Oregon and author of Gaming Sexism: Gender and Identity in the Era of Casual Video Games.
Microsoft purchase of Activision Blizzard won’t clean up gamer culture overnight: 5 essential reads about sexual harassment and discrimination in gaming and tech
The Conversation online
2022-01-18
More than a third of female gamers have experienced harassment, and female players have developed coping strategies like hiding their gender, playing only with friends and shutting down harassers by outplaying them, according to University of Oregon professor Amanda Cote. These strategies take time and energy, and they avoid rather than challenge the harassment. Challenging harassment is also fraught, because it typically sparks a backlash and puts the burden on the victim.
Event Appearances (3)
Bringing Worlds Together… Sometimes: North American Game Journalists and their Relationship with the Public.
Digital Game Research Association Conference Krakow, Poland
2022-07-11
Studying and Speaking to Industries: A Game Studies Roundtable
Console-ing Passions 2022 Orlando, FL
2022-06-24
The virtual front porch: An analysis of the impact of collegiate esports on university identification
North American Society for Sport Management Conference Atlanta, GA
2022-06-03
Research Grants (2)
Dean’s Grant
The Institutionalization of Collegiate Esports $5000
2020-2021
Petrone Grant
University of Oregon School of Journalism and Communication $5000
2019-2020
Journal Articles (5)
Taking Care of Toxicity: Challenges and Strategies for Inclusion in U.S. Collegiate Esports Programs
Journal of Electronic Gaming and Esports2023 As esports, or structured competitive video game play, continues to make significant inroads into college campuses, it is important for programs and universities to consider how this expansion is occurring; as collegiate programs formalize, the policies and practices developed now will set the stage for the future.
Philanthropic, prosocial players: How game-related charity events motivate unlikely donors
New Media & Society2022 Although we have long known that many different types of individuals play video games, the stereotypical “gamer” is often portrayed as a young male. Furthermore, research into questions such as violence and aggression, addiction or problematic play, and toxic gaming communities tends to frame gamers and gaming as anti-social.
“Starting from scratch to looking really clean and professional”: how students’ productive labor legitimizes collegiate esports
Critical Studies in Media Communication2022 This article analyzes the relationship between student productive labor, or the creation of media content like podcasts or graphic designs, and the institutionalization of collegiate esports. Through 19 semi-structured interviews with students and professionals involved in different areas around collegiate esports, we found that students’ productive labor was a key force in the institutionalization of collegiate esports that generated value for university institutions, the collegiate esports program, and themselves.
The cruel optimism of “good crunch”: How game industry discourses perpetuate unsustainable labor practices
New Media & Society2021 The video game industry’s labor practices have become an increasingly common topic of discussion throughout game studies and the gaming community, especially when it comes to “crunch” or periods of intense, extended overtime. Despite this attention, crunch persists, and the industry’s tendency to distinguish externally mandated or excessive crunch from self-directed or scheduled crunch continues to be problematic.
Who Gets to Be in The Guild? Race, Gender and Intersecting Stereotypes in Gaming Cultures
Loading2021 While media studies have frequently assessed the importance of representation, research in this area has often been siloed by institutional and methodological norms that define academics as “gender”, “race”, or “class” scholars, rather than inclusive scholars of all these and more.
