The Digital Humanities Research Group at the University of Malta tackles topics at the intersection of digital technologies and subjects in the humanities, such as philosophy and literature. This crossroads is the natural home of digital games, as they are – by their very nature – multidisciplinary, combining art, music, writing and design with cutting-edge digital technology, and engaging with philosophical, literary and aesthetic concepts in the language of computation. As such, game scholars often find themselves doing research at exactly the crossroads referred to as “digital humanities”.
Videogames are one of the key forms in today’s cultural landscape, taking their place alongside more established forms like theatre, film, TV, literature and performance art. Their impact is something we take seriously at the Institute of Digital Games. The Digital Humanities Research Group examines what games are, what they do, and how we experience them. Current research threads include tracking and mapping the differences in representation between traditional fiction and virtual reality, the player-avatar relationship in games, architecture and the built environment in game worlds, music and musicking practices in games, and the use of videogames as philosophical tools.
As part of this initiative, there is a monthly get-together for discussing any and all critical or academic texts with a special relevance to game studies and digital humanities, organised by Dr Daniel Vella.
The Digital Humanities Research Group currently consists of seven researchers, including Prof. Stefano Gualeni, Prof. Gordon Calleja, Dr. Daniel Vella, Dr. Costantino Oliva, Renata Ntelia, Melinda Sue Borg, Dr. Krista Bonello Rutter Giapponne.