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Reposted by John Wills

University Press of Kansas @univpressofkansas.bsky.social · 28/04/2026

💥🏠 NOW AVAILABLE: Doom Town, USA by @drjohnwills.bsky.social! Discover how government agencies and corporations staged destruction to shape public perception and bring the Cold War straight into the American living room: kansaspress.ku.edu/9780700641352 #UPKansas #ColdWarHistory

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John Wills @drjohnwills.bsky.social · 24/03/2026

My new book, and best book (!), Doom Town USA, out in April with the University Press of Kansas, available from Waterstones, Foyles, and most books stores, priced £22.99/$29.99. Special thanks to the @leverhulme.ac.uk & @britishlibrary.bsky.social for supporting this project.

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Reposted by John Wills

New Voices in Postcolonial Literature Network @nvpoco.bsky.social · 14/06/2025

Introducing the "American Dream/American Nightmare" conference speakers! Our second roundtable is on "Perspectives within "New" and "Emerging" Media" and will feature Prof John Wills (@drjohnwills.bsky.social ), Dr Stephen Morgan (@drsmorgan.com ), and Dr Sara Polak (@sarapolak.bsky.social )...

John Wills is a Professor in Film and Media at the University of Kent, UK and a co-editor of the European Journal of American Culture (Intellect). His research interests include atomic film and culture, environmental protest and environmental disaster, and US game studies. John is the author of seven books, including, most recently, Gamer Nation: Video Games and American Culture (Johns Hopkins UP, 2019) and with Esther Wright, Red Dead Redemption: History, Myth and Violence in the Video Game West (Oklahoma UP, 2023). He is currently completing a new book, on Doom Town and atomic culture, with the University Press of Kansas
Social Media: @drjonw (X); @drjohnwills.bsky.social (BlueSky)
John is pictured wearing glasses.

Dr. Stephen Morgan (he/him) is Lecturer in Film Studies at King’s College London. His research focuses on the cinemas of settler nations, as well as the Indigenous cinemas of Australia, Canada, and Aotearoa / New Zealand. Broader efforts to reconceptualise settler national cinema in these spaces includes his upcoming monograph, Ealing Abroad: Post-War British Cinema, Settler Colonialism and Ealing Studios in Australia, which will be published by BFI/Bloomsbury in 2026.
Bluesky: @drsmorgan.com
Stephen is pictured in black and white smiling

Sara Polak (she/her) is university lecturer in American Studies at Leiden University Centre for the Arts in Society, research fellow on the NWO project Playing Politics: Media Platforms Making Worlds, and PI of the ERC project Worlding America: How Play Shaped the United States from New Media to Politics, 1503-2028. She has published a monograph FDR in American Memory (John Hopkins UP, 2021) and is working on a book about How Trump Plays.
@sarapolak.bsky.social
Sara is pictured smiling.

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John Wills @drjohnwills.bsky.social · 30/05/2025

Had the pleasure of recently guesting on @everyscififilm.bsky.social podcast alongside the brilliant Tom Docherty, talking about On the Beach (1959).

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John Wills @drjohnwills.bsky.social · 20/05/2025

Great to present on horror videogames at #BDigra in Birmingham today. Thanks to @poppywilde.bsky.social @doktornick.bsky.social & team for a great conference day. #BritishDiGRA #DiGRA

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Reposted by John Wills

Poppy Wilde @poppywilde.bsky.social · 20/05/2025

Day one of #BDiGRA25 and we've already had excellent provocations to start - lightning talks on rougelikes, queer game studies, transgender emergence in games, ecogaming, and historical affects in our first session. Now on to panels exploring Game making and Culture, getting to more in depth papers.

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John Wills @drjohnwills.bsky.social · 20/01/2025

Happy Martin Luther King Jnr Day.

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John Wills @drjohnwills.bsky.social · 17/01/2025

A worrying situation at Paw Patrol HQ. Please do not ‘Yelp for Help’ and expect a speedy response!

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John Wills @drjohnwills.bsky.social · 16/01/2025

Legend lost. RIP David Lynch.

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Reposted by John Wills

Christian Tieber ⧖ @tieber.bsky.social · 08/01/2025

"A reminder that frequent megafires in California are a relatively recent phenomenon" via @zacklabe.com -> @calfire.bsky.social (and not even including 2024 Park fire...)

Chart: Top 20 largest California wildfires (1932 - 2021)

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John Wills @drjohnwills.bsky.social · 08/01/2025

My heart goes out to everyone affected by the current fires in Los Angeles County. Southern California, and especially LA, has been like a second home to me. Hoping it gets better soon.

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Reposted by John Wills

Poppy Wilde @poppywilde.bsky.social · 26/12/2024

Control is free on @epicgamesoffical.bsky.social for another 20mins, then another game free after that! Control is ace, and I wrote a chapter on it: "Who’s in Control?: Negotiating Hierarchies, Neoliberal Subjectivation, and Feminist Resistance in the World of Work" link.springer.com/chapter/10.1...

link.springer.com

Who’s in Control?: Negotiating Hierarchies, Neoliberal Subjectivation, and Feminist Resistance in the World of Work

In Control (Remedy Entertainment, 2019), the player-protagonist Jesse Faden starts a journey looking for her missing brother and ends up as Director of a secret agency—the Federal Bureau of Cont...

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Reposted by John Wills

Elsa Devienne @elsadevienne.bsky.social · 19/12/2024

A few GREEN BAAS announcements for 2025: - Our 1st event of the new year is a collaborative, online writing session on Zoom Thur 16 Jan 2025 at 2-4pm (GMT). Connect, set an intention, write! Register for "let's writing together" here: us02web.zoom.us/meeting/regi... @officialbaas.bsky.social

List of 2024-25 GREEN BAAS roundtables more info at this address: https://baas.ac.uk/community/green-baas/2024-2025-green-baas-roundtable-series/

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John Wills @drjohnwills.bsky.social · 06/12/2024

My favorite albums of 2024. GNX Kendrick Lamar From Zero Linkin Park The Great American Bar Scene Zach Bryan Brat and Its Completely Different But Also Still Brat Charlie XCX The Death of Slim Shady Eminem + Apple informed me that I listened to the Westworld soundtrack 1,772 minutes this year!

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John Wills @drjohnwills.bsky.social · 02/12/2024

Last week I gave an invited lecture on Doom Town and Las Vegas for the Atoms & Archives Research Group, Andrew Hook Centre for American Studies & Scottish Centre for War Studies at the University of Glasgow, research kindly sponsored by @leverhulme.bsky.social, thanks to @drtimpeacock.bsky.social

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John Wills @drjohnwills.bsky.social · 01/12/2024

New here moots! #promosky Game Studies Film Studies Horror Writing Paranormal TV (current fav: Project Fear) Old Audi TTs and old BMWs Sega Dreamcast collector, Nintendo lover Rock, Alt, Nu-Metal, Grime Yoga & Tai Chi Running Buddhism Nicolas Cage Coffee Americana, Los Angeles, Las Vegas

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John Wills @drjohnwills.bsky.social · 01/12/2024

Pleasure to provide a film talk on Gilda (1946) at the Gulbenkian arts centre in Kent yesterday. #universityofkent #hollywood

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John Wills @drjohnwills.bsky.social · 29/11/2024

Intense week so I am returning to my early 2000’s self with Linkin Park’s From Zero.

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John Wills @drjohnwills.bsky.social · 16/11/2024

Here’s my prior book on video games (Johns Hopkins UP)

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Historical Games Network @historygamesnet.bsky.social · 05/09/2024

Very happy to announce our call for contributions for HGN's new theme - Technology - taking a broad view of the intersection between tech, history and games. If you'd like to write/make something for the site, get in touch! #historicalgames #gamestudies www.historicalgames.net/call-for-con...

historicalgames.net

Call for Contributions - Technology | Historical Games Network

Our next theme is focused in and around ‘technology’ and historical games. We define historical games broadly, and we encourage contributions that consider technology in all its guises.

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John Wills @drjohnwills.bsky.social · 16/11/2024

I work in game studies, film studies, Disney studies. Stuff I’m researching at mo: Doom Town & Nevada Test Site; 3D 1950’s movies; Knott’s Berry Farm; US national parks & diversity; Los Disneys; GTA & satire; video game Westerns; video games & AI.

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John Wills @drjohnwills.bsky.social · 16/11/2024

I teach game studies. I also love games - some favourites: Animal Crossing Crush Roller Daytona USA Detroit: Become Human Fallout Fire Emblem Goldeneye 007 Grand Theft Auto Mystaria Panzer Dragoon Shenmue Until Dawn Wasteland 3 Xenogears

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John Wills @drjohnwills.bsky.social · 16/11/2024

My most recent book, on Red Dead, coedited with the brilliant Esther Wright!

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