Research can be focused on more than math and science. Popular culture, video games and table-top roleplaying games are the focus for two Murray State students.
The Popular Culture and American Culture Association in the South (PCAS/ACAS) are hosting a conference where students and professionals can present research on a variety of topics including movies and other forms of media. PCAS has been hosting yearly conferences since 1971, and ACAS joined them to create a yearly joint conference in 1977. The conference publishes two journals, Studies in Popular Culture and Studies in American Culture.
Samantha Sextonson, a senior creative writing major, is attending this year to present on the novel “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?” by Philip Dick, the inspiration behind the movie “Blade Runner.” Her presentation also explores ethical connections to The Sims, a video game franchise that started in 2000.
“The idea sort of emerged when we were talking about morality in gaming and whether or not these simulated lives deserve the respect that we put on human lives. Just because they can’t feel emotion doesn’t mean they aren’t trying to,” Sextonson said.
Saralyn Clark, a senior English literature major, is presenting about how women are portrayed and represented in canon, or officially licensed, Dungeons and Dragons games.
“It’s focused on how women can participate in these games that have mostly centered the male experience instead of an equal experience,” Clark said. “For example, how they are sexualized, and how they are represented as demonic or evil, like succubi or hags.”
Sextonson’s and Clark’s ideas both emerged from their Literature in Video Games class: Sextonson’s when she read “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?” in class, and Clark’s when doing an analysis of Dragon Magazine issues from 1980, one of the official D&D magazines at the time. Andrew Black, an English professor, taught the class and suggested Sextonson and Clark participate in the conference.
“It’s really interesting to see them thinking about these things where you might think, ‘Oh, these are just games,’ but they’re thinking about them in a really scholarly and serious way,” Black said. “We didn’t really even talk about either of these topics in class. I’ve learned almost everything about these topics from these students, which has been really fun.”
Black said Sextonson and Clark are presenting their projects with the goal of being published in a journal for humanities or English. Sextonson and Clark said these projects, expanded on outside of class, related to their respective majors.
“It’s more of a fun thing,” Sextonson said. “I want to work in creative writing, so studying this novel — specifically a sci-fi novel — was really helpful to see how characters that aren’t perceived as equal are portrayed when this was written versus now as a writer.”
Clark said some of the literary critiques she’s learned about through her major have been useful within her presentation.
“My project focuses really heavily on the narrative and how the audience perceives the narrative,” Clark said. “I use a lot of literary criticism in my analysis. Even though it’s not a book, there’s still a lot of literary techniques to it.”
Sextonson and Clark will be joined by Black and Emma Franklin, a graduate student pursuing a master’s degree in English pedagogy, who will be presenting a work of her own at the conference.
The 2025 PCAS/ACAS Conference is on Oct. 9-11, in Huntsville, Alabama. More information about the conference can be found at pcasacasconference.org.
