David Murphy

Senior Lecturer

Digital, Tech, Innovation & Business

David is a Senior Lecturer in Game Development and an active researcher in the fields of communication and culture studies, game studies, digital heritage, and community management. His main area of interest is digital platforms and their relationships with economies, infrastructures, and cultures.

I’m a Senior lecturer in Game Development with a PhD in Communication and Cultural Studies and a background in cinema and media studies. My research, which applies communication and cultural studies theories and methods to gaming technologies and cultures, consists of three interrelated streams: game studies, platform and infrastructure studies, and creative computing history and culture. Currently, I am working on manuscript charting the history of the PlayStation Portable homebrew software production scene and its relationship with informal media economies and discourses of professionalization in game production.

Academic qualifications

  • PhD, Communication and Culture, York University and Toronto Metropolitan University, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, November, 2016.
  • MA, Cinema and Media Studies, York University, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, June, 2008.

Publications

Murphy, D. (2021). Location and locality in the PlayStation Portable homebrew software production scene. In M. Swalwell (Ed.), Game history and the local. Palgrave Macmillan.

Murphy, D. (2017). Remediating, remodelling, and reframing the machines of modern war. In N. Garret (Ed.), Critical essays on Call of Duty: Responding to the game franchise. Jefferson: McFarland & Company, Inc.

Deeming, S., & Murphy, D. (2017). Pirates, platforms, and players: Theorizing post-consumer fan histories through the Sega Dreamcast. In M. Swalwell, A. Ndalianis, & H. Stuckey (Eds.), Fans and videogames: Histories, fandom, archives. New York: Routledge.

Murphy, D. (2016). Hybrid moments: Using ludonarrative dissonance for political critique. Loading… 10 (15), 1-12.

Murphy, D. (2014). Battle on the metric front: Dispatches from Call of Duty’s update war. Game Studies: The International Journal of Computer Game Research 14 (2).

Murphy, D. (2013). Hacking public memory: Understanding the multiple arcade machine emulator. Games and Culture 8 (1), 43-53.

External profiles

in the UK for Quality Education

Sustainable Development Goal 4, Times Higher Education Impact Rankings 2024

for Career Prospects

Whatuni Student Choice Awards 2023

for Facilities

Whatuni Student Choice Awards 2023

for Social Inclusion

The Times and The Sunday Times Good University Guide 2023

of Research Impact is ‘Outstanding’ or ‘Very Considerable’

Research Excellence Framework 2021

of Research is “Internationally Excellent” or “World Leading”

Research Excellence Framework 2021

Four Star Rating

QS Star Ratings 2021