Steven Dashiell PhD

The AI Companion Who Cares “If situations are defined as real, then they are real in their consequence.”

When I fell into a particular AI company, I was fascinated. I did an extended ethnography ("lurk") in one group of users, thinking I'd turn the observations into a journal article. A substacker asked me to write about it, and here it is. default.blog/p/the-ai-com...

The AI Companion Who Cares “If situations are defined as real, then they are real in their consequence.”

shameless self promotion, but a piece I was asked to write about this subject of AI bots and connection, given the extended ethnography I did. default.blog/p/the-ai-com...

From an analysis I trust as a researcher studying online spaces, the average "content creator" is around.....29...so, yeah, if these individuals would likely fall into the "older than average" category.

(and frankly, it depends on the 'content' you wanna talk about...)

Salt and Sass Games: Episode LXXIV In Episode LXXIV has Mandi and Suzanne chat about Gamefound acquiring Indiegogo and review Wizards and Co, Ofrenda, Digsaw, and Courtisans. Dr. Steven Dashiell joins for a You're The Expert segment be...

I was featured on the @saltandsass.bsky.social podcast as an 'Ask the Expert' to talk about my slant of research! My bit is near the 48-minute mark, but listen to the whole thing and subscribe!!! sites.libsyn.com/436716/episo...

I think...three publications (maybe four) should all manifest into the world over the fall semester - all games related, I think, so...you've been warned!!!

It's very (sigh) performative, as many things are done for seeing and (eclestically) consuming them, and all very rote - a system that once you get it, you feel "in".

And the Holy See reinforces whose "in" and who is "out", like barring non Caths from communion. It reinforced feeling "special"

Catholicism felt...old. Connected to a long, long history. It's like, in Magic, there were Traditions older than the Order of Hermes (in the practical sense), but the OoH felt like they put some structure and got their shit together.

And like the OOH, Catholicism is very ritualistic.

there's a great piece I've cited for one of my articles that points out the NFL draft is nothing but the male gaze gone wild. And you're right - these are stylized images of what women want, they are stylized images of what men are supposed ot crave to be...

a man in a suit and tie is standing next to another man in a yellow shirt and tie . ALT: a man in a suit and tie is standing next to another man in a yellow shirt and tie .

When the summer course you kinda didn't want but volunteered to take anyway gets a high number of students, so it will be good pay, but...grade soooo many things in the summer

Essentially this is a "field commission", which the article points out (not by name) have been around forever. While this isn't unheard of, 4 at the same time is a bit...whatever.

Speaking as a vet, I can tell you light colonels (what we call them) generally know crap about mil procedure anyways.

I was taught LOOOOONG ago "speaking in absolutes is dangerous". I won't be giving that up anytime soon...

I *shred* this every time I read it as a reviewer. Just like when I read "nothing has been written about..." - y'all don't get some reviewers take that as a challenge, & 99.2% of the time you're *dead* wrong, & I'll recommend a rejection (bc it's clear you don't "do" due diligence).

I've been at this academic thing for about 4 years post-PhD, so it's pretty humbling to say in 4 years people have seen value in citing my research 100 times. I'm blown away.

every time. When I got my postdoc, before I even told my family I told and thanked my letter writers. Same with my faculty appointment- I messaged them within 24 hours to let them know. They deserve those flowers.

I'd have to trust the IRB actually looked at the justification (any call of deception requires a full IRB review). I recognize one of the main reasons for IRBs is to stop sociopathic work like Zimbardo or Humpries which were thought of as "valid" in their day. So winds might change.

I can't say that- I didn't see the app. Before getting my PhD and being at an HBCU, I worked at Johns Hopkins and their CITI has (or had) a special module about deception in research. I don't like deception as a mechanism, but I understand sometimes it's justified,

It's kind of untrue to say "no proper IRB review would have approved this", because there are exceptions for deception if (and only if) there's a valid argument about value. And while I don't like it (at all), a researcher *could* claim that, and a decent IRB would accept it.

@pcaaca.bsky.social is coming up, and I'm presenting, repping AU because the initial research was started there (in the last days of my postdoc).

I'm up in Game Studies - first day, first panel - talking 'bout some reflections on hardcore gamers who play #Diablo.

Coming to a Role Play in Games conference near you on Wednesday!! (The conference is hybrid - so partially virtual - and free, so attend) #trpg #ttrpg #gamestudies

I already have been asked to be on a panel for a 2026 conference (a BIG one) and the panel has already been accepted.....WTF???? #academicsky

Woo hoo! I was one of the ACLS grantees this year!!!!

I said a few weeks ago that - in 1995- if someone *implied* a member of Congress was doing what Matt Gaetz actually did... they'd have resigned within days of the accusation. No "ethics committee investigation" - the member would have left a cartoon cloud of smoke they'd leave so quickly....

OKOK....this year is running so fast.
Productivity is up. Academically this year will provide:

- 4 book chapters (1 is under review, 2 are in press already)
- 4 (nongame) academic articles
- 4 gaming academic articles
- 4 academic conferences

Not at "postdoc" speed, but..something

#AcademicSky resolution for 2025-
8 manuscripts submitted to journals
- 5 related to SDOH and third spaces
-3 directly related to games and gaming

Bluntly, I did it the last year of my postdoc (2022-2023) so I can do it again.

No, that does make sense, given the tendency of people to stack postdocs (go from one postdoc to another). They're bluntly saying that if you're in the middle of a 12- or 16- month postdoc, you're ineligible to apply for this.

The importance of tenure-track. I came onto the market "not caring" about tenure vs non-tenure track and thinking so long as I got to teach and research, who cares. It took about 1/2 a semester as a postdoc to show me that navigating longterm academia on a nontenure track is a fools' errand.

So bothersome that I had to borrow and post the spirit of this on my Facebook wall.

Still considered an "early career researcher", so breaking 80 citations is a pretty damn big deal. #academicSky

TMW in a rejection (for an edited collection) you get the criticism of "we would like to see this tied to digital games" when...the abstract had absolutely nothing to do with digital games. Just analog games.

Analyzing gamification as capital in social media posts regarding military recruitment Military recruitment techniques traditionally focus on warriorship and patriotism, but with waning participation other techniques are being used (e.g. targeting parents Christensen, W. M. 2016a. Th...

🚨 NEW PUBLICATION ALERT 🚨 "Analyzing gamification as capital in social media posts regarding military recruitment" in Crritical Studies in Media Communication! I used military cultural capital to examine how ppl hated the Army's gaming-themed recruiting campaign. www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....