07/02/2024

15:30 ▸ 17:30

Hybrid event (presential / zoom)

Playing Doomsday: Video Games and the Politics of Nuclear Weapons

Venue : Room S1, second floor, 28 rue des Saints-Pères - 75007 Paris

Organised as part of the seminar Nuclear Knowledges

Speaker:
Carolina Panico, University of Auckland

Discussants:
Benoît Pelopidas and Jana Wattenberg

Abstract :
Carolina Panico examines how nuclear weapons are depicted in popular first-person shooter video games such as Call of Duty, which have so far not been thoroughly explored in the literature. Drawing on feminist poststructuralist theory and situating video games as a site of knowledge production, she examines how gameplay narratives contribute to normalising dominant forms of “knowing” nuclear weapons. Rather than simply fictional or trivial, she argues that representations of nuclear weapons in video games contribute to legitimising the ongoing possession and modernisation of nuclear weapons.

She discusses how game dynamics produce nuclear weapons as a win-condition, thus a symbol of power, supremacy, and success that reinforces dominant understandings of their military value while masking the horror of killing. Moreover, she shows how nuclear weapons are programmed to be an exclusive item that only the most skilled players can obtain, reinforcing the exclusionary power dynamics sustaining the nuclear status quo. Deconstructing the playing dimension of video games, she situates the ludic aspect as a meaning-making system, working synergically with gameplay stories to reinforce dominant knowledge about nuclear weapons.

La présentation sera donnée en anglais, cependant les questions en français seront également les bienvenues.

For more information visit sciencespo.fr/nk or follow us on Twitter @NKnowledges /
If you would like to be added to the mailing list for the Nuclear Knowledges seminar, please contact sterre.vanbuuren@sciencespo.fr

Scientifics Coordinators : Benoît Pelopidas, Sciences Po-CERI and Sterre van Buuren, Sciences Po-CERI

The seminar will be held in person and also online via the Zoom platform.

You will receive a confirmation email with login information after you register.

Organisé par : CERI

Lieu :

Salle Pierre Hassner (S1) - 28 rue des Saints-Pères - 75007 Paris