Prof. Dr. Astrid Ensslin, FRSA, FHEA

Academic positions:

Educational background (selection):

Select list:

• “Project StoryMachine: Exploring Implications of Recommender Based Spatial Hypertext Systems for Folklore and the Humanities”, DFG/AHRC bilateral grant, 2025-2028 (German PI; with Profs. Jane Winters [UK PI] and Christopher Ohge, University of London; Claus Atzenbeck, Hof University of Applied Sciences; Sarah Diefenbach, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München; Ceri Houlbrook, University of Hertfordshire; and Sam Brooker, University of the Arts London: EUR 1,7m.
• Member of the DFG Network, "Das Wissen der digitalen Literatur" (Knowledges of Digital-born Literature), (2024-28)
• “Videogames as Folk Worlds: Nationalism – Democracy – Sustainability” (international symposium), Universitätsstiftung Hans Vielberth, 2024 (PI): EUR 11,980.
• “Center for Digital Narrative”, NFR (Norsk forskningsråd) SFF (Center for Excellence in Research), 2023-2033, (PI, Directors: Profs. Scott Rettberg and Jill Walker Rettberg, University of Bergen, NO): NOK 155m.
• “The Intimate Technology Shaping Millions of Lives: Exploring the Possibilities of Menstruation and Perimenopause Tracking Apps for People with Diverse Embodied Experiences”, Marsden Fund New Zealand 2022-2024, (Associate Investigator; PI: Prof Sarah Riley): NZ$  870,000
• “Critical and Inclusive Digital Narratives: Theory and Praxis”, Meltzer Høyskolefond 2022 (PI): NOK 47,500
• “Audio Games and Music Composition,” SSHRC Insight Grant, 2022-2026 (Co-PI; PI: Prof Scott Smallwood): CDN$ 268,400.
• “Enabling Equipment for Research Excellence in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI)”: UiBergen Infrastructure Grant, 2022 (Co-PI; PI: Prof Morten Fjeld): NOK 4,783,000
• “Studying the Language of VR: Understanding Affective Empathy”: UiBergen Smådrift, 2021-2022, PI: NOK 40,120
• “Understanding the digitalized world structuring women’s embodied experiences”: UMassey MURF Grant (CI; PI: Prof Sarah Riley), 2021: NZ$ 6,000
• “Writing New Bodies: Critical Co-Design for 21st Century Digital-born Bibliotherapy”: SSHRC (Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada), 2018-21, PI: CDN$ 217,165
•  “Speech Accents in Games:” 
  • SSHRC  / ReFiG sub-project, 2017-18, PI: $18,530
  • match-funded by KIAS Cluster grant, “Deep Learning for Sound Recognition” (PI: Prof Michael Frishkopf), 2017, CI: $55,000
• “Digital Narratives around the World:” KIAS (Kule Institute of Advanced Study) Dialogue Grant, 2016-17, PI: $1,770.
• “Reading Digital Fiction,” UK Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), Research Grant (with Dr Alice Bell, Sheffield Hallam, UK), 2014-17, CI: £243,000.
• “Computer Gaming Across Cultures,” British Council’s UK-US-India Education and Research Initiative (with University of West Virginia and Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi), 2013-15, Co-PI: £49,500.
•  “Transformative thinking: Using digital fiction as a tool for improving body image,” Welsh Crucible seed grant (with Dr Sarah Riley, Aberystwyth and Dr Joan Haran, Cardiff University), 2013-14, CI: £8,838.
• “What’s Hard in German:” (specialized corpus of advanced British L2 learners of German); AHRC and the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, , (with Prof. Anke Lüdeling, Humboldt University, Berlin), 2009-12, PI: £247,000.
• “Digital Fiction International Network:” Leverhulme Trust (with Dr Alice Bell, Sheffield Hallam, UK), 2009-2011, CI: £15,500.

Monographs and Editions:

1. Bell, Alice and Astrid Ensslin (2024) Reading Digital Fiction: Narrative, Cognition, Mediality. New York: Routledge.

2. Ensslin, Astrid, Julia Round and Bronwen Thomas (eds) (2023) The Routledge Companion to Literary Media. New York: Routledge.

3. Ensslin, Astrid (2022) Pre-Web Digital Publishing and the Lore of Electronic Literature, Cambridge: C.U.P.

4. Ensslin, Astrid & Alice Bell (2021) Digital Fiction and the Unnatural: Transmedial Narrative Theory, Method, and Analysis. Columbus, OH: Ohio State University Press.

5. Ensslin, Astrid & Isabel Balteiro (eds) (2019) Approaches to Videogame Discourse: Lexis, Interaction, Textuality. New York: Bloomsbury.

6. Ensslin, Astrid, Pawel Frelik and Lisa Swanstrom (eds) (2017), Small Screen Fictions, Special Issue of Paradoxa, vol. 29. 334 pp.

7. Ensslin, Astrid (2014) Literary Gaming. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

8. Bell, Alice, Astrid Ensslin & Hans Rustad (eds) (2014) Analysing Digital Fiction. New York: Routledge.

9. Ensslin, Astrid (2011) The Language of Gaming. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

10. Ensslin Astrid & Eben Muse (eds) (2011) Creating Second Lives: Community, Identity and Spatiality as Constructions of the Virtual. New York: Routledge.

11. Ensslin, Astrid (2007) Canonizing Hypertext: Explorations and Constructions. London: Continuum.

12. Johnson, Sally & Astrid Ensslin (eds) (2007) Language in the Media: Representations, Identities, Ideologies. London: Continuum.

Recent articles and peer-reviewed chapters:

1. Ensslin, Astrid and Samya Brata Roy (2023) “Electronic LiteratureS as Postcomparative Media”, CompLit: Journal of European Literature, Arts and Society, 1(5) New Critical and Theoretical Approaches in Comparative Literature. Open Access.
2. Ensslin, Astrid (2022) “Video Games as Complex Narratives and Embodied Metalepsis”, in Paul Dawson and Maria Mäkelä (ed) The Routledge Companion to Narrative Theory. New York: Routledge.
3. Perram, Megan and Astrid Ensslin (2022) “The Possibilities of Illness Narratives in Virtual Reality for Bodies at the Margins,” Digital Creativity, online first, 22/05/2022.
4. Wilks, C., A. Ensslin, C. Rice, S. Riley, M. Perram, K. A. Bailey, L. Munro and H. Fowlie (2022) “Developing a Choice-Based Digital Fiction for Body Image Bibliotherapy,” Frontiers in Communication, 6, 10.3389/fcomm.2021.786465
5. Ensslin, Astrid (2022) “Transmedial Unnatural Spatiality and Postdigital Dystopicalization in The Pickle Index,” in Dan Punday (ed) Digital Narrative Spaces: An Interdisciplinary Examination. New York: Routledge.
6. Villanueva, Emily and Astrid Ensslin (2021) “Divine intervention: Multimodal pragmatics and unconventional opposition in performed character speech in Dragon Age: Inquisition“, in Gaëlle Planchenault and Livia Poljak (ed) Pragmatics of Accents. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, pp. 205–228.
7. Ensslin, Astrid, Carla Rice, Sarah Riley, Christine Wilks, Megan Perram, Hannah Fowlie, Lauren Munro, and Aly Bailey (2021), “Bodies in E-lit,” in J. O’Sullivan and D. Grigar (eds) Electronic Literature as Digital Humanities. New York: Bloomsbury, pp. 91-102.
8. Van der Bom, Isabelle, Lyle Skains, Alice Bell, and Astrid Ensslin (2021), “Reading Hyperlinks in Digital Fiction: an Empirical Approach,” in Alice Bell, Sam Browse, Alison Gibbons, and Dave Peplow (eds) Style and Reader Response: Minds, Media, Methods. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

See here for a full and up-to-date list of research outputs.

Awards and Honours:

• University of Alberta GSA Graduate Student Supervisor Award 2023
• Great Supervisor Award, Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research, University of Alberta, 2020
• N. Katherine Hayles Award for Criticism of Electronic Literature, 2019, second prize, for Small Screen Fictions
• Associate Researcher of the Electronic Literature Lab at Washington State University Vancouver, 2019-2020
• Research Excellence Award (Full Professor), University of Alberta, Faculty of Arts (2019)
• Fellow of the Royal Society of the Arts (since 2009)
• Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (since 2005)
• MeCCSA (Media, Communication and Cultural Studies Association, UK) Poster Prize (2009)
• First Prize, Teaching Excellence Awards, Faculty of Arts and Humanities, University of Leeds (UK) (2004)

Externally funded projects (selection):

• “Center for Digital Narrative”, NFR (Norsk forskningsråd) SFF (Center for Excellence in Research), 2023-2033, (PI, Directors: Profs. Scott Rettberg and Jill Walker Rettberg, University of Bergen, NO): NOK 155m.
• “The Intimate Technology Shaping Millions of Lives: Exploring the Possibilities of Menstruation and Perimenopause Tracking Apps for People with Diverse Embodied Experiences”, Marsden Fund New Zealand 2022-2024, (Associate Investigator; PI: Prof Sarah Riley): NZ$  870,000
• “Critical and Inclusive Digital Narratives: Theory and Praxis”, Meltzer Høyskolefond 2022 (PI): NOK 47,500
• “Writing New Bodies: Critical Co-Design for 21st Century Digital-born Bibliotherapy”: SSHRC (Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada), 2018-21, PI: CDN$ 217,165
• “Speech Accents in Games:” SSHRC  / ReFiG sub-project, 2017-18, PI: $18,530
  match-funded by KIAS Cluster grant, “Deep Learning for Sound Recognition” (PI: Prof Michael Frishkopf), 2017, CI: $55,000)
• “Reading Digital Fiction,” UK Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), Research Grant (with Dr Alice Bell, Sheffield Hallam, UK), 2014-17, CI: £243,000.
• “Computer Gaming Across Cultures,” British Council’s UK-US-India Education and Research Initiative (with University of West Virginia and Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi), 2013-15, Co-PI: £49,500.
•  “Transformative thinking: Using digital fiction as a tool for improving body image,” Welsh Crucible seed grant (with Dr Sarah Riley, Aberystwyth and Dr Joan Haran, Cardiff University), 2013-14, CI: £8,838.
• “What’s Hard in German:” (specialized corpus of advanced British L2 learners of German); AHRC and the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, , (with Prof. Anke Lüdeling, Humboldt University, Berlin), 2009-12, PI: £247,000.
• “Digital Fiction International Network:” Leverhulme Trust (with Dr Alice Bell, Sheffield Hallam, UK), 2009-2011, CI: £15,500.

Keynotes:

• "Historicizing E-literature Research: a Ludic Approach", VAL-Symposium 2023: Digitale literatuur, AI en literatuurwetenschap, University of Antwerp, 17 Nov 2023
• "'I Was the Person Who Wasn't There': Ambispatial Orientation and 'Empathy' in Readers of VR Fiction", Games and Literature Conference, Deutsches Literaturarchiv Marbach, 28-30 June 2023
• "Ambi-spatial Orientation and Narrative Empathy in Readers of VR Fiction", Games and Literary Theory 2023 Conference – Intent / Intentionality, University of Silesia, Katowice, Poland, 10-11 May 2023
• "Electronic Literature in Europe and India", Valedictory speech, "E-literature: Explorations in Literary Creativity" conference, Jamia Millia Islamia University, New Delhi, 16-17 Jan 2023.
• “Videogames, Digital Fiction, and the Unnatural,” 1st International Conference on Games and Narrative, University of Waterloo (CA), June 14th, 2021.
• (with Christine Wilks), “Posthuman Healing and Critical Digital Fiction Co-Design”, 15th SLSAeu Conference, “Literary and Aesthetic Posthumanism”, Bergen, March 4th, 2021.
• “‘These Waves …:” Writing New Bodies for Applied E-literature Studies.” Electronic Literature Organization conference, Cork, Ireland, July 17th, 2019.
• “VR Story-gaming: Between Immersion, Flow, and Engagement.” VR/AR in Education conference, Swansea University (UK), September 12th, 2018.
• “Embodiment in Digital Fictions: Towards Post-Digital Écriture Féminine,” 16th Annual St Jerome’s Day Conference, “Translation and the Body,” University of Alberta, Sept 30th, 2018.
• “Transmediating Bildung: Videogames as Life Formation Narratives,” Transmediating Culture(s) conference, Szczecin University (PL), Nov 17-19, 2016. 
• “Metaludicity in Jason Nelson’s Poetry Games,” Digital Poetry conference, University of Gothenburg (SE), Sept 20, 2016.
• “The Language of Gaming: Affective Discourse Patterns in Two Videogame Paratext Genres,” LEXESP 2016: Videogames and Language, May 5-6, 2016, University of Alicante (E). 
• “Videogames as Unnatural Narratives,” DiGRA 2015 (Digital Games Research Association) conference, 14-17 May 2015, Leuphana (Lüneburg, D).
• “Studying the Meanings of Digital Fiction: Ludostylistics and Psychonarratology,” IALS 2014 (International Association of Literary Semantics) conference, 4 July 2014, Kent (UK).
• (with Cedric Krummes), “Lernersprache zu DaF-Materialien: die Korpora WHiG und Falko,” DAAD Conference 2012, Cumberland Lodge, Windsor Great Park (UK), June 2012.
• “Literary Gaming: Between Ludic Digital Literature and Literary Computer Games,” CoDE 2012 conference, Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge (UK), 28 March 2012.
• “’Staging Illusion:’ Metalepsis as a Transmedia Phenomenon,” “Staging Illusion” conference, University of Sussex (UK), 8-9 December 2011.
• “New Media Writing: Towards Second Generation Criticism,” MeCCSA PGN Conference, Bangor, 9 July 2009. 

Leadership (recent):

• Director of the Electronic Literature Organization (since 2017)
• Graduate of UAlberta’s Gold College Academic Leadership program, 2019-2020
• Director of Media and Technology Studies at UAlberta (2020)
• Director of UAlberta, Faculty of Arts “Digital Synergies” signature area of research and creative collaboration (2019-2020)
• Deputy Dean (Research), College of Arts and Humanities, Bangor University (2013-2016)

Editorial roles:

• Principal Editor, Bloomsbury “Electronic Literature” book series
• Editorial Board member, Discourse, Context and Media (Elsevier)
• Editorial Board member, Digital Culture & Society (transcript / de Gruyter)
• Board of Reviewers, Game Studies 

Research consultancy (selection):

• Board member, Austrian Science Fund, PEEK (Program for Arts-Based Research)
• Member of the ESF (European Science Foundation) College of Expert Reviewers
• Advisor to Innovate UK and RCUK (Research Councils UK) on their Creative Content Industries Delivery Plan for 2015/16, Oct 2014
• Advisor to the European Science Foundation on its Forward Look on ‘Media Studies: new media and new literacies’, May 2012.
• Peer reviewer and/or adjudication committee member, e.g. for the European Commission’s Research Executive Agency on its Horizon 2020 program; Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft; Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes; Arts and Humanities Research Council UK; Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada; Leverhulme Trust (UK); Irish Research Council; Council for the Humanities of the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research; Austrian Science Fund; Fond National de la Recherche Luxembourg.
   

For more information, visit my personal homepage.

Teaching at UR:

• Kolloquium 80310 Digital Narratives and Cultures (jedes Semester)
• Hauptseminar 80350 Analyzing Videogame Discourses: Ludolinguistic Universals and Transformative Play
• Hauptseminar 36253 Digital Narrative Spaces
• Blockseminar 36255 Exploring World Games: Disco Elysium
• Blockseminar 80360 Weltengenerierung und Ecocriticism in No Man's Sky
• Vorlesung 36352a Introduction to Literary Media mit verpflichtender Übung, 
• Hauptseminar 36251 Videogames Across Cultures (einmal jährlich, SoSe)
• Blockseminar 36250 Digitale Literatur in/als digitale Geisteswissenschaften 

Courses taught at the University of Bergen (2021-2022):

• DIKULT 207 Digital Humanities in Practice (fall 2021 and 2022)
• DIKULT251 Critical Perspectives on Technology and Society with Bachelor Thesis: Participatory Culture (spring 2021 and 2022)
• DIKULT 301 Research Methods and Project Development in Digital Culture (spring 2022)
• DIKULT 303 Digital Media Aesthetics (fall 2021 and 2022)

Courses taught at the University of Alberta (2016-2020):

• MLCS 210 Language(s) of Culture (winter 2019 and 2020)
• MLCS 499 Advanced Critical Game Design and Theory (winter 2019)
• MLCS 345 / DH 530 Videogames Across Cultures (fall 2018 and 2020)
• C LIT 210 Cyberliterature (winter 2018)
• HUCO 617 Digital Fiction (fall 2016 and 2017; winter 2020)
• HUCO 530 Project Design and Management in Humanities Computing (winter 2017)
• MLCS 795 Grant Writing (fall 2017, 2018, 2020)

PhDs supervised to completion:

• Dr James Barrett, ‘Reading Freedom: Techniques for the Control of Reading in Four Works of Digital Literature’ (2015, University of Umeå)
• Dr Sonia Fizek, ‘A Methodological Toolkit for Player Character Research in Offline Role-Playing Games’ (2012, Bangor University)
• Dr Xavier Laurent, ‘Memory of Intelligent Virtual Agents in a 3D Environment: a Behavioural and Computational Approach’ (2014, Bangor University)
• Dr Megan Perram, 'Literary Hypertext as Illness Narrative for Women and Nonbinary Individuals with Hyperandrogenism' (2023, University of Alberta)
• Dr Lyle Skains, ‘Practice-led creative writing research into multimodal digital narratives’ (2013, Bangor University)

Current PhD students:

• Sebastian Richter (UR), "Death and Failure in Games: Existentialism and Social Action"
• Fiona Schönberg (UR), "The Hard Core of Games – Narratological and Persuasive Potential in Reading Formal Game Elements"
• Edip Sönmez (UR), "The Societal Implications of AI in the Cultural Industries"
• Jordan Ashworth (UAlberta), “On the Nature of Doing Glitches in Speedrunning: A Case Study of The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past” (candidacy passed, 2022)
• Max Dickeson (UAlberta), “Social Rolls: Narrative Play and Social Interaction in Tabletop Role-laying Games” (candidacy passed, 2021)
• Melanie Oberg (UAlberta), “Games Without Language: Reading the Story of Silence” (candidacy passed, 2022)

See here for further information about my past and present teaching and graduate supervision.