Michael DeAnda

Michael Anthony DeAnda is a professional lecturer in the College of Computing and Digital Media at DePaul University. He holds a PhD in Technology and Humanities from Illinois Institute of Technology conferred in 2019. In his research, DeAnda studies the communication of queer lived experiences and modes of knowledge production through games. His dissertation focused on games marketed to gay men, observing how gender and sexuality are coded into games. Through this project, he ponders how games may be used to challenge normalized understandings of gender and sexuality. DeAnda has published articles in The Journal of Popular Culture, Technical Communications Quarterly, and the Video Game Art Reader. He also has forthcoming articles in Queer Studies in Media & Popular Culture and WiderScreen. DeAnda uses game design as research praxis. He designs games that comment on structures of gender and sexuality, envisioning possible interventions to the social injustices uncovered through his research. He utilizes design research as a method to engage the modes of knowledge production of LGBTQ people and allow these lived experiences and situated perspectives to shape his approach to designing experimental games.