Dr. Stephen Mandiberg conducts research on industry practices of translation and adaptation and how they intersect with media texts as they are made, sold, and used around the world.

He has two current research projects. The first is about the upgrade logic in video game history. This project looks at how the idea of upgrading has overwhelmed our understanding of video games historically, but also how this pervasive understanding has experienced points of rupture in various forms and at various times. Some are the rise of casual and indie, demakes, and contemporary supply shortages.

The second research project is about the practices and politics of video game localization between Japan and the United States. Using workplace ethnography, interviews with leading game industry workers, and textual analysis, he examines how individual game translators work to mediate between cultures and communities as responsible translators, not simply black boxes that spit out translated text and/or mere cogs in an industrial system.

Dr. Mandiberg has published work on video games, media translation, repetition and history, industry practices, fan/industry interaction, and global cultural flow. His work is published in the Journal of Visual Culture, the Journal of Internationalization and Localization, Kinephanos, Loading…, and several edited volumes.

Degrees:

• Ph.D. in Communication, 2015 - University of California, San Diego
• M.A. in Media, Culture and Communication, 2008 - New York University
• B.A. in Art History, 2003 - Carleton College

Courses taught at UNT:

• Perspectives on Video Games
• Video Game Histories
• Video Game Authors
• Gender & Gaming
• Genre: The Adventure Game
• History and Theory of Film Remakes