ABOUT

Nansong Zhou is a Ph.D. student in Communication and Media at the Institute of Communications Research, University of Illinois Urbana–Champaign. His research examines the global game industry, player–game relationships, and the cultural and social influence of games. He is  the Student and Early Career Representative of the International Communication Association (ICA) Game Studies Division. Nansong has received Top Paper and Top Student Paper awards from the National Communication Association (NCA) and the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC). His work on parasocial interaction, digital labor, and the stigmatization of video games has been published in Game Studies, Critical Studies in Media Communication, and Media International Australia. He has presented at more than ten international conferences, including ICA, NCA, AEJMC, IAMCR, DiGRA, 4S, and ISAGA. He serves as a reviewer for several leading journals, such as Games and Culture, New Media & Society, Media International Australia, and the Journal of Chinese Film Studies.