{"id":170,"date":"2015-03-31T14:45:17","date_gmt":"2015-03-31T14:45:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hb-themes.com\/themes\/highend\/minimal\/?page_id=170"},"modified":"2025-01-16T21:08:02","modified_gmt":"2025-01-16T21:08:02","slug":"welcome","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/mikepiero.org\/","title":{"rendered":"Home"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Recent News:<\/strong><\/em><\/h1>\n[\/vc_column_text]
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Book Chapter<\/a>, Publication - Fiction<\/a>, Speaking Engagement<\/a><\/div>

Reading of “The Pearl” at Trash Cat Lit’s What Comes to Light Event<\/a><\/h3><\/div>

Screenshot I thoroughly enjoyed reading “The Pearl” and especially hearing all the other contributors’ share their brilliant stories in their…<\/p><\/div><\/div>

August 30, 2026<\/span>Read More<\/i><\/span><\/a><\/span><\/div><\/div><\/div>
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Awards<\/a><\/div>

Mike Piero Honored with Ralph M. Besse Excellence in Teaching Award<\/a><\/h3><\/div>

On August 18, 2026, Dr. Mike Piero was awarded one of three Ralph M. Besse Excellence in Teaching awards given…<\/p><\/div><\/div>

August 22, 2026<\/span>Read More<\/i><\/span><\/a><\/span><\/div><\/div><\/div>
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Game Design<\/a>, Game Studies<\/a>, Teaching<\/a><\/div>

Scroll of Peace: An MLA TTRPG Game Released<\/a><\/h3><\/div>

Mike Piero is thrilled to announce the release of his first game, SCROLL OF PEACE: An MLA TTRPG, created in…<\/p><\/div><\/div>

August 10, 2026<\/span>Read More<\/i><\/span><\/a><\/span><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>
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Cultural Studies<\/a>, Publication - Book Review<\/a><\/div>

Book Review of St\u00e5lenhag’s Sunset at Zero Point Appears in Rain Taxi Review of Books’ Summer Print Issue<\/a><\/h3><\/div>

Dr. Piero’s book review of Simon St\u00e5lenhag’s most recent book,\u00a0Sunset at Zero Point, appeared in Rain Taxi Review of Books…<\/p><\/div><\/div>

June 20, 2026<\/span>Read More<\/i><\/span><\/a><\/span><\/div><\/div><\/div>
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Publication - Fiction<\/a><\/div>

Short Story “Rituals” Published in Vol. 48 of Soundings East<\/a><\/h3><\/div>

Pleased to see my short story, “Rituals,” appear in the Spring 2026 issue of Soundings East out of Salem State…<\/p><\/div><\/div>

June 10, 2026<\/span>Read More<\/i><\/span><\/a><\/span><\/div><\/div><\/div>
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Publication - Poetry<\/a><\/div>

Poetry Contest Finalist “Exclusion Zone” Published in Midway Journal<\/a><\/h3><\/div>

I’m grateful to Midway Journal for publishing my poem, “Exclusion Zone,” in their recent issue. The poem responds to Russia\u2019s war against…<\/p><\/div><\/div>

April 15, 2026<\/span>Read More<\/i><\/span><\/a><\/span><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>[\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text css=””]\n

Recent Books:<\/em><\/h1>\n[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row fullwidth=”yes” fw_columns=”yes” fw_same_height=”yes” top_margin=”0″ bottom_margin=”0″][vc_column width=”1\/2″ animation=”left-to-right” css=”.vc_custom_1427887775119{margin-top: 0px !important;margin-right: 0px !important;margin-bottom: 0px !important;margin-left: 0px !important;padding-right: 50px !important;padding-left: 50px !important;background-color: #fcfcfc !important;}”]
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Video Game Chronotopes and Social Justice: Playing on the Threshold, Palgrave Macmillan, Games in Context Series, 2022<\/h4><\/div>
<\/div><\/div>[vc_column_text]Available at:
\n<\/strong>Palgrave Macmillan<\/a>
\nAmazon<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Video Game Chronotopes and Social Justice\u00a0<\/i>examines how the chronotope, which literally means \u201ctimespace,\u201d is an effective interpretive lens through which to understand the cultural and ideological significance of video games. Using \u2018slow readings\u2019 attuned to deconstruction along the lines of post-structuralist theory, gender studies, queer studies, continental philosophy, and critical theory, Mike Piero exposes the often-overlooked misogyny, heteronormativity, racism, and patriarchal structures present in many Triple-A video games through their arrangement of timespace itself. Beyond understanding time and space as separate mechanics and dimensions, Piero reunites time and space through the analysis of six chronotopes\u2015of the bonfire, the abject, the archipelago, the fart as\u00a0pharmakon<\/i>, madness, and coupled love\u2015toward a poetic meaning making that is at the heart of play itself, all in affirmation of life, equity, and justice.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][vc_column width=”1\/2″ animation=”right-to-left” css=”.vc_custom_1427887785449{margin-top: 0px !important;margin-right: 0px !important;margin-bottom: 0px !important;margin-left: 0px !important;padding-top: 65px !important;padding-right: 0px !important;padding-bottom: 0px !important;padding-left: 0px !important;background-color: #f6f6f6 !important;}” animation_delay=”300″][vc_single_image image=”648″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center” onclick=”custom_link” img_link_target=”_blank” link=”https:\/\/link.springer.com\/book\/10.1007\/978-3-030-91944-3″][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row fullwidth=”yes” fw_columns=”yes” fw_same_height=”yes” top_margin=”0″ bottom_margin=”0″][vc_column width=”1\/2″ animation=”right-to-left” css=”.vc_custom_1427887785449{margin-top: 0px !important;margin-right: 0px !important;margin-bottom: 0px !important;margin-left: 0px !important;padding-top: 65px !important;padding-right: 0px !important;padding-bottom: 0px !important;padding-left: 0px !important;background-color: #f6f6f6 !important;}” animation_delay=”300″][vc_single_image image=”613″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center”][\/vc_column][vc_column width=”1\/2″ animation=”left-to-right” css=”.vc_custom_1427887775119{margin-top: 0px !important;margin-right: 0px !important;margin-bottom: 0px !important;margin-left: 0px !important;padding-right: 50px !important;padding-left: 50px !important;background-color: #fcfcfc !important;}”]

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Just Released: Being Dragonborn: Critical Essays on The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, McFarland, 2021, co-edited with Marc A. Ouellette.<\/h4><\/div>
<\/div><\/div>[vc_column_text]Available for purchase at:
\n<\/strong>McFarland & Company<\/a>
\nAmazon<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Being Dragonborn: Critical Essays on The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim <\/em>(forthcoming from McFarland Press)\u00a0takes the massive video game hit, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim<\/em>, as its site of multidisciplinary, scholarly interrogation. This epic fantasy role playing game hails its player as \u201cdragonborn,\u201d a calling that merges political, social, and religious narratives in the game toward the player\u2019s assumption of the dragonborn identity position: savior of Skyrim. Our collection identifies and explores these positions within the cultural ecology of the game. The outstanding authors featured in this collection unpack Skyrim<\/em> as a topological space that encodes and extends cultural ideologies in the game\u2019s design, gameplay experience, modding tradition, and online game forums. In other words, the dragonborn player is interpellated into a series of ideological roles that mirror the gendered, racially inscribed, neoliberal, and colonialist attitudes and subject positions proffered to players in their out-of-game-existence. For a game like Skyrim<\/em> that goes to great lengths to construct a fantasy world that is detailed and immersive, the hidden ideologies encoded into the game are important to understanding how a game this popular\u2014and by extension, the video game medium itself\u2014reinscribes the familiar in ostensibly unfamiliar ways.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text css=””] Recent News: [\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text css=””] Recent Books: [\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row fullwidth=”yes” fw_columns=”yes” fw_same_height=”yes” top_margin=”0″ bottom_margin=”0″][vc_column width=”1\/2″ animation=”left-to-right” css=”.vc_custom_1427887775119{margin-top: 0px !important;margin-right: 0px […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-170","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mikepiero.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/170","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mikepiero.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mikepiero.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mikepiero.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mikepiero.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=170"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/mikepiero.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/170\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1138,"href":"https:\/\/mikepiero.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/170\/revisions\/1138"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mikepiero.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=170"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}