Between Dream Jobs and Real Jobs

My dissertation takes an in-depth look into the lives and careers of professional competitive video gamers. This project draws on interviews with 75 esports professionals alongside digital ethnographic practices.

At the intersection of sport, technology, and entertainment, esports has created a market for professional gamers— those who make a living playing video games. Esports is a rapidly growing billion-dollar industry capturing a broad global audience. Technology has been essential to its growth, with high speed internet and digital platforms connecting players, developers, sponsors, and audiences.

As a new occupation and industry, esports acts a "cultural space" to make sense of an activity that suddenly becomes work. But professional gaming is more than a job; it is an immersive lifestyle that demands arduous work and personal sacrifices in exchange for fun. Despite the risks, some gamers are willing to take a chance on living out their dream.

Pro gamers, like many of us, are navigating the changing nature of work. We want to pursue a career we feel passionate about, and are willing to make financial, professional, and personal sacrifices. At the same time, our careers are increasingly precarious and uncertain. Professional gaming offers a unique take on how the blurred boundaries of leisure and labor are making it harder to untangle the meaning and value of our time, effort, skills, and selves.

Digital Ethnography

Today, digital and physical activities are not singular acts or moments; they are seamlessly embedded into our everyday life. Interactions are not only mediated by technology, they are structured by the tools themselves. Studying digital data and digital contexts forces us to re-examine fundamental assumptions and practices about traditional qualitative research methods that were premised on physical co-location and co-present interactions.

Modern ethnographic practice is at its best when digital and physical spaces are considered not in parallel, but as mutually constitutive. In unpacking digital ethnographic practices, we explore themes around the temporal and spatial boundaries of dynamic data; the possibilities and limits of interactivity with people and/or machines; the circumstances around production and consumption of digital data; and ethical concerns including accessibility and privacy. (Co-author: Felipe Massa)

Experts without Expertise: Professional Identity During the AIDS Epidemic

We build our professional identities around our "what we do"— the specific knowledge and skills that help us solve complex problems. But how do you define your professional identity when your expertise is suddenly useless?

The HIV/AIDS epidemic challenged deeply held assumptions about medicine and society. AIDS not only affected highly stigmatized and marginalized populations, it was practically untreatable for over fifteen years. Nevertheless, a small group of physicians, later known as AIDS Doctors, saw it as their moral duty to care for these patients. But they soon found themselves at a loss for how to treat and cure patients. Unable to use their expertise, AIDS Doctors questioned the "meaning of medicine"— the foundations of professional identity.

Drawing on in-depth oral histories of over 100 physicians, my co-authors and I explore how AIDS Doctors redefined their professional identity in the absence of expertise. Little did we know when we started this project that these questions would become painfully relevant as the COVID-19 pandemic stopped the world. (Co-authors: Stine Grodal and Mia Chang-Zunino)