We are thrilled to announce our Postdoctoral Researcher Joleen Blom being awarded an Academy Research Fellowship for 2026–2030 by the Research Council of Finland! Here is a short description of the project:
GenGam: Gendered Gam(bl)ing
European governments are increasingly concerned with safer gaming and gambling online. The GenGam project (2026-2030) will create new knowledge about women’s gamblified leisure through the consumption of East Asian pop culture. The project is situated across game studies, media-, and cultural studies, East Asia studies, and borrows knowledge from women- and gender studies, and gambling studies. GenGam uses qualitative data, relying on case studies, international fieldwork in Japan and Hong Kong, and auxiliary textual sources. It will use close critical readings as the method for data analysis. The research will be carried out at Tampere University. GenGam’s result addresses the current scientific and governmental biases on stereotypical videogaming and masculine gambling by including a focus on women’s gamblified leisure. The results will impact the early-stage policy-making processes that are specifically geared towards online safety in videogaming and gambling on a European level.