International Center for Ethics in the Sciences and Humanities (IZEW)

Theresa Krampe

Research Groups: Co-Laborative Research and Innovation; Media Ethics, Philosophy of Technology & AI

Theresa Krampe is a media researcher specializing in game studies. As a research associate for the project “The Interactive Gaze,” she focusses on the study of surveillance imagery in digital games. Her research interests furthermore include transmedial narratology as well as gender and queer media studies. Her PhD thesis, which she defended at the University of Osnabrück in 2023, examines the forms and functions of metareference in videogames.

 

    

Areas of Expertise

  • Game studies
  • Transmedial narratology
  • Digital culture
  • Gender and queer (media) studies

Career

since 04/2023

Research associate

IZEW, University of Tübingen

2022–2023

Research associate

Media Studies and Media Didactics, University of Osnabrück

2021–2022

Junior Consultant
HEPP Unternehmensimpulse Münster

2018–2020

Examined research assistant

Department of English and American Literature and Culture, Giessen University
2017–2018

Research associate

Chair of English, Postcolonial and Media Studies, University of Münster

Education

2018 - 2023

PhD in Media Studies, University of Osnabrück

Grade: summa cum laude

Supervisors: Prof. Dr. Jan-Noël Thon; Prof. Dr. Benjamin Beil
2015 – 2017

Master of Arts

National and Transnational Studies, University of Münster
2012 – 2015

Bachelor of Arts

British and American Studies; minor: law, Bielefeld University

 

Publications

Monograph
  • Krampe, Theresa. Forthcoming/2025. Metareference in Videogames. London: Routledge.
Edited Collections
  • Krampe, Theresa and Jan-Noël Thon, eds. Forthcoming/2025. Videogames and Metareference: Mapping the Margins of an Interdisciplinary Field. London: Routledge.
  • Butt, Nadia, Robert Clarke, and Theresa Krampe, eds. 2022. “Rethinking Postcolonial Europe: Moving Identities, Changing Subjectivities.” Special issue of Postcolonial Interventions 7.1.
Book Chapter, Journal Articles, and Other Short Publications

2024

  • Krampe, Theresa. 2024. “In a Queer Time and Space: Neil Gaiman’s Sandman from Page to Screen.” American Studies 69.4: 383–401.
  • Krampe, Theresa. 2024. “Mosaikästhetik als Metareferenz im Computerspiel.”  Zeitschrift für archäologische Aufklärung 2: 139–151.

2023

  • Krampe, Theresa. 2023. “Rewriting Rules: Changing Worlds: Diegetic and Ludic Forms of Metareference in The Magic Circle.” Frontiers of Narrative Studies 9.1: 137-157.
  • Krampe, Theresa. 2023. “Hässlich, obszön, subversiv: Groteske Frauen in den Medien.” Blog BedenkZeiten, 15 Dezember. https://uni-tuebingen.de/de/258137.
  • Krampe, Theresa. 2023. “Empathiemaschine Computerspiel? Wie Computerspiele Empathie erzeugen—und warum das nicht immer gut ist.” Blog BedenkZeiten, 01 August. https://uni-tuebingen.de/de/252569.

2022

  • Hopfgarten, Amandus und Theresa Krampe. 2022. “Attention and Mind-Wandering in Contemporary German Children’s and Young Adult Metafiction.” In Narratives between Attention and Mind-Wandering, edited by Sibylle Baumbach and Karin Kukkonen. Special issue, DIEGESIS 11.2: 37–59.
  • Krampe, Theresa, Stephanie Lotzow and Jan-Noël Thon. 2022. “Playful Poetics: Metareferential Interfaces in Recent Indie Games.” Poetics Today 43.4: 729–771.
  • Krampe, Theresa. 2022. “Von Kontrollräumen und panoptischen Sichtverhältnissen: Das Panopticon als wiederkehrendes Motiv im zeitgenössischen Computerspiel.” In Kontrollmaschinen: Zur Dispositivtheorie der Computerspiele, edited by Christopher Lukman, 123–147. Münster: Lit Verlag.
  • Butt, Nadia, Robert Clarke und Theresa Krampe, eds. 2022. “Rethinking Postcolonial Europe: Moving Identities, Changing Subjectivities.” Special issue of Postcolonial Interventions.
  • Krampe, Theresa. 2021. “The World Machine: Self-Reflexive Worldbuilding in OneShot.” In Game | World | Architectonics: Transdisciplinary Approaches on Structures and Mechanics, Levels and Spaces, Aesthetics and Perception, edited by Marc Bonner, 187–200. Heidelberg: Heidelberg University Press.

2021

  • Krampe, Theresa. 2021. “Rewriting the Global Metropolis: The Construction of Place and Identity in Elaine Proctor’s Rhumba.“ Literature and Literary Studies in the Twenty-First Century: Cultural Concerns – Concepts – Case Studies, edited by Ansgar Nünning, Vera Nünning und Alexander Scherr. Trier: WVT, 401–414.
  • Krampe, Theresa. 2021. “Intersections of Race, Sexuality, and National Identity in BioWare’s Mass Effect.” Nationalism and the Postcolonial, edited by Sandra Dinter und Johanna Marquardt. Leiden: Brill, 149–165.

2018

 

 

Lectures and Talks (Selection)

  • “Implications of GenAI for NPCs in Videogames: An Ethical Examination” (with Jana Hecktor). Artificial Game: 3rd International Conference of Video Game Studies. University of Novi Sad, Serbia, 17–18 December 2024 (with Jana Hecktor).
  • “Versammeln im Dazwischen: Die Grenze als Raum medialer und kultureller Relationalität in Graphic Novels über Flucht und Migration” Conference of the German Society for Media Studies. University of Mainz, 25–29 September 2024.
  • “Spielerischer Perspektivwechsel? Emotion und Ethik in Videospielen” (with Melanie Kreitler). Leysin summer school of the German Academic Scholarship Foundation, 15 August 2024.
  • "Big Brother Meets Joystick: Ethical Perspectives on Surveillance Imagery in Digital Games" (with Dr. Martin Hennig und Dr. Markus Spöhrer). DiGRA 2024: Playgrounds. Universidad de Guadalajara, Mexiko, 1.–5. July 2024.
  • "It's Just a Game--Or Is It? Political Dimensions of Metareference in Videogames.” Recentring Form(s) in an of the Margins: The Politics of Self-Reflexivity. University of Brussels, 24.-26- April 2024.
  • "Playing with Games: Playfulness as a Hallmark of Metareferential Videogames.” Narrative 2024. Newcastle University, 17.–19. April 2024.
  • "Surveillance Images in Digital Games: Towards and Analytical Framework” (with Dr. Markus Spöhrer). The Interactive Gaze: Surveillance Images in Digital Games and Other Media. University of Tübingen, 7.–8. March 2024.
  • “No Longer Safe Before the Screen? Game-transcending Metareference in Indie Horror Games.” Metareference in Videogames. Universität Osnabrück, 12–13 October 2023.
  • “Von Stereoskop bis Daumenkino: Zur Remediatisierung früher Animationstechnologie In What Remains of Edith Finch.“ GfM 2023. Universität Bonn, 27–30 September 2023.
  • “Towards a Theory of Metareference in Videogames.” DiGRA 2022. Jagellonian University, Krakow, 7–11 July 2022
  • “Intermediality, Self-Reflexivity and Immersion in Indie Games: What Remains of Edith Finch.” Narrative Research Group, University of Wuppertal, 2 June 2022. Online.
  • “Metareference in Videogames: Theory, Typology, History.” Guest Lecture  in the seminar “Kulturen des Spiels” by Prof. Dr. Uwe Wirth. JLU Giessen, 14 December 2021. Online.
  • “Direction of Attention in Metareferential Videogames.” Reconfigurations: New Narrative Challenges of the Moving Image. VI Narrative, Media and Cognition. Lisbon Polytechnic Institute, 14–16 October 2021. Online.
  • “Queer Play und LGBTQIA* Repräsentation im RPG.” Spielzeichen IV. University of Passau, 19 March 2021. Online.
  • “Self-conscious Play: Towards a Theory of Metareference in Videogames.” Gesellschaften und ihre Wissenschaften – ein ungemütliches Verhältnis? PhD Forum of the German Academic Scholarship Foundation, 12–15 November 2020. Online.
  • “Modding the Imperial Code: Postcolonial Interventions on Steam Workshop.” Postcolonial Punctuation/s. Postgraduate Forum Postcolonial Narrations, WWU Münster, 3–5 October 2019.
  • “Stepping Through the Screen: Perspectives on Immersion and Illusion-Break in Videogame Narrative.” Summer School Neurohumanities: Promises and Threats. Lisbon Consortium, Universidade Católica Portuguesa, Lissabon, 1–6 July 2019.
  • “Towards a Typology of Metareference in Video Games.” The Society for the Study of Narrative Annual Conference. Universidad de Navarra, Pamplona, 30 May–1 June 2019.
  • “(Re)Playing London: Mapping Neo-Victorian Cityspaces in Recent Videogames.” Urban Play. Spring Seminar. Tampere University Game Research Lab, 14–15 April 2019.
  • “The World Machine: Self-Reflexive Worldmaking in Oneshot.” Architectonics of Gameworlds – On Aesthetics and Mechanics, Spaces and Places, Rhythms and Philosophies. University of Cologne, 18–19 March 2019.
  • “On the Political Aesthetics of Playing Queer in BioWare’s Mass Effect.” Nationalism and the Postcolonial. GAPS Annual Conference, University of Mainz, 10–12 May 2018.
  • “Rewriting the Global Metropolis: The Construction of Place and Migrant Identity in Elaine Proctor’s Rhumba.” Faces of Migration. University of Bielefeld, 1 December 2017.
  • “With the Idea of a Gun: Resistance, Identity, and the Power of Imagination in Sherman Alexie’s ‘The Trial of Thomas Builds-the-Fire’.” Self in the Making – Narrative and Performative Constructions of Identity. University of Münster, 13 June 2015.

Teaching

  • "AI, Cyborgs, and Big Data: Feminist Perspectives on AI and Diversity." University of Osnabrück, Summer 2024.
  • “Queer In/Visibilities in Films, Comics, and Videogames.” University of Osnabrück, Winter 2023/2024
  • "Diversity in Film and TV—Intersectional Perspectives.” University of Osnabrück, Summer 2023.
  • “Queer(ing) Media Studies.“ University of Osnabrück, Winter 2022/2023.
  • “Metareference in the Media.“ Film and TV—Intersectional Perspectives.” University of Osnabrück, Summer 2022.
  • “Introduction to Video Game Studies.” Workshop of the International PhD Programme Literary and Cultural Studies, Winter 2019.
  • “Virtual Realities in Fiction – Fiction as Virtual Reality: An Introduction to Theories of Immersion.” Department of English, JLU Gießen. Summer 2019. Co-teaching with Dr. Alexander Scherr.
  • “Communicating Texts and Theories.” Department of English, WWU Münster, Winter 2017/2018.