Bio

Kishonna L. Gray is founding Director of the Critical Gaming Lab at Eastern Kentucky University, where she is also a member of the faculty in the School of Justice Studies, African/African-American Studies, & Women & Gender Studies.  Her work broadly intersects identity and new media although she has a particular focus on gaming.

Gray earned an M.S. in Justice Studies in 2007 from the School of Justice at Eastern Kentucky University. Her Master's project used critical discourse analysis to examine the racialized constructions of Black victims post-hurricane Katrina. In 2011, she earned a Ph.D. in Justice Studies, with a concentration in Media, Technology, & Culture, from the School of Social Transformation at Arizona State University. Her dissertation was titled "Deviant Bodies Resisting Online: Examining the Intersecting Realities of Women of Color in Xbox Live".

Gray's most recent book, Race, Gender, & Deviance in Xbox Live (Routledge, 2014), provides a much-needed theoretical framework for examining deviant behavior and deviant bodies within that virtual gaming community.  Her work has been featured in public outlets such as the Journal of Comparative Research in Anthropology and Sociology, Ada: A Journal of Gender, New Media, and Technology, Bulletin of Science, Technology, & Society, New Review of Hypermedia and Multimedia, Information, Communication, & Society, among others.  Her work has also been featured in the LA Times, Paste Magazine, Engadget, The Guardian, BET, and Blavity.

Gray is a featured blogger and podcaster with “Not Your Mama’s Gamer” (https://www.nymgamer.com/).

She also actively blogs on her own websites at www.kishonnagray.com and at https://lachezbippy.kinja.com/.

Follow her on Twitter @DrGrayThaPhx and the Critical Gaming Lab @CriticalGameLab.

The Department of Women's and Gender Studies, as well as the MIT Comparative Media Studies/Writing Program, will host Gray as a 2016-2017 MIT MLK Visiting Assistant Professor.

Video

Publications

BOOKS

Race, Gender, & Deviance in Xbox Live: Theoretical Perspectives from the Virtual Margins. Foreword by David J. Leonard. Routledge, 2014.

BOOK EDITIONS 

Video Games, Culture, & Justice. With David J. Leonard & Andre Brock. Prospectus in Development for University of Minnesota Press (forthcoming).

Gender & Games Trilogy: Women’s Studies Volume. With Gerald Voorhees & Emma Vossen. Palgrave (forthcoming 2016).

Perspectives on Justice (2nd ed.). With Doris Marie Provine, Reshawna Chapple, Michael Walker, & Ophir Sefiha. Kendall Hunt, 2011.

REFEREED JOURNAL ARTICLES                

Gray, K. L., & Huang, W. (2015). More than addiction: Examining the role of anonymity, endless narrative, and socialization in prolonged gaming and instant messaging practices. Journal of Comparative Research in Anthropology and Sociology, 6(1): 133-147. https://compaso.eu/wpd/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Compaso2015-61-Gray-and-Huang.pdf

Gray, K.L. (2013) Collective organizing, individual resistance, or asshole griefers? An ethnographic analysis of women of color in Xbox Live. Ada: A Journal of Gender, New Media, and Technology, No.2.

Gray, K.L. (2013) Diffusion of innovation theory and Xbox Live: Examining minority gamers responses and rate of adoption to changes in Xbox Live. Bulletin of Science, Technology, & Society, 32(6): 463-470.

Gray, K.L. & Raza, A.E. (2012). Racism in the colorblind era: Examining the mediated responses to Arizona SB1070. Border-Lines: Journal of the Latino Research Center, Volume VI: 7-27.

*Gray, K.L. (2012) Deviant bodies, stigmatized identities, and racist acts: Examining the experiences of African-American gamers in Xbox Live. Special Issue: Cultures in Virtual Worlds, New Review of Hypermedia and Multimedia, 18(4): 261-276.
*Most Read Article https://bit.ly/1MGyGMm

Gray, K.L. (2012). Intersecting oppressions and online communities: Examining the experiences of women of color in Xbox Live. Information, Communication, & Society, 15(3): 411-428.

Cheong, P.H. & Gray, K.L. (2011) Mediated intercultural dialectics: Identity perceptions and performances in virtual worlds. Journal of International and Intercultural Communication, 4(4): 265-271.

Cavender, G., Gray, K., & Miller, K. (2010). Enron’s perp walk: Status degradation ceremonies as narrative. Crime, Media, Culture, 6(3): 1-16

CHAPTERS 

Gray, K.L. “Race, gender, & virtual inequality: Exploring the liberatory ‘potential of Black cyberfeminist theory”. In Lind, R. (Ed). Produsing Theory 2.0: The Intersection of Audiences and Production in a Digital World (Volume 2). New York: Peter Lang. 2015.

Gray, K.L. “Cultural production and digital resilience: Examining female gamers’ use of social media to participate in video game culture.” In A. Trier-Bieniek (Ed), Fan Girls and the Media: Creating Characters, Consuming Culture. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, pp. 85-100. 2015.

Gray, K.L. “Discriminatory attitudes against Latin@s.” In The Encyclopedia of Diversity and Social Justice. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield. 2014.

IN PROGRESS 

Gray, K.L. & Mazurek, J. (forthcoming) “Visualizing blackness – racializing gaming: Social inequalities in virtual gaming communities.” In Brown, M & Carrabine, E. (Eds). The Routledge International Handbook of Visual Criminology. Taylor & Francis.

Gray, K.L. (forthcoming) “‘They’re just too urban’: Cultural production, colorblindness, and racialized discourse surrounding Black gamers streaming on Twitch.” In Daniels, J., Gregory, K., & Cottom, T.M. (Eds). Digital Sociologies, University of Bristol: Policy Press.

Gray, K.L. (forthcoming) “Gendered alliances, racialized discords: Examining the contentious relationship among women in Xbox Live.” In Kafai, Y., Tynes, B. & Richard, G. (eds). Diversifying Barbie and Mortal Kombat: New Perspectives on Race and Gender in Gaming.

Gray, K.L. “Race and the internet”. (forthcoming) In Campbell, C (Ed). The Routledge Companion to Race and Media. New York, NY: Routledge.

Richard, G.T. & Gray, K.L. (under review). Gendered play, racialized reality: Black cyberfeminism, inclusive communities of practice and the intersections of learning in gaming.” Frontiers: Journal of Women’s Studies Special Issue, Women Digitizing Revolution: Race, Gender and the Technological Turn, Guest Editors Anna Everett and Lisa Nakamura.

Gray, K.L. & Nelson, B.C. (Submitted) One Body – One Tweet: Examining the death of Mike Brown as contemporary lynching in the digital era. Special Issue on Ferguson. Berkeley Journal of Sociology.

At MIT