![Esther Wright BA, MA, PhD, FHEA FRHistS](https://profiles-cardiff.imgix.net/attachments/2128?w=200&h=200&auto=format&crop=faces&fit=crop&q=90")
Dr Esther Wright
(she/her)
BA, MA, PhD, FHEA FRHistS
Senior Lecturer in Digital History
School of History, Archaeology and Religion
- WrightE11@cardiff.ac.uk
- +44 29208 74742
- John Percival Building, Room 4.57, Colum Drive, Cardiff, CF10 3EU
- Available for postgraduate supervision
Overview
My work is situated within the field of Historical Game Studies, and to me, Digital History fundamentally requires that we critically examine how digital representations of the past found in popular visual media have the potential to shape public understandings of history. My monograph, "Rockstar Games and American History: Promotional Materials and the Construction of Authenticity", was published by De Gruyter in 2022, as part of the Video Games and the Humanities series. Based on my PhD thesis (awarded by the University of Warwick in August 2019), the book is the first substantive study of Rockstar Games as a game developer with a long-established project of negotiating and representing U.S. History in their games – in particular, focussing on Red Dead Redemption (2010), Red Dead Redemption 2 (2018), and L.A. Noire (2011).
My work argues for the importance of studying promotional materials, developer branding strategies, and other kinds of paratextual materials associated with the development and release of historical digital games. These materials are important digital sites and spaces through which game developers, like Rockstar, perform the role of historian and manage expectations for "historical authenticity" among players and critics. I use promotional materials to offer more nuanced interpretations of the influence of dominant understandings of U.S. History on game development and marketing decisions. These hegemonies, established by and through the conventions of pre-existing cultural "genres" like the Western and film noir, and popular narratives long-centred on the white and male experience, lead to games that exclude and marginalise other people and identities, and promotional practices that reaffirm exclusionary stories about America’s “real” past.
I have also co-edited (with Professor John Wills, University of Kent) a collection of essays on the Red Dead franchise: Red Dead Redemption: History, Myth and Violence in the Video Game West. The collection was published by Oklahoma University Press in March 2023.
I am co-convenor (with Nick Webber and Iain Donald) of the Historical Games Network, a space for collaboration between academics, museum and heritage profesionals and game makers.
Publication
2024
- Wright, E. 2024. “Layers of history”: History as construction/constructing history in pentiment. ROMchip: A journal of game histories
2023
- Wright, E. 2023. Paratexts, “authenticity”, and the margins of digital (game) history. In: Seiwald, R. and Vollans, E. eds. (Not) In the Game: History, Paratexts and Games. Video Games and the Humanities Vol. 13. Berlin: De Gruyter, pp. 33-56., (10.1515/9783110732924-003)
- Donald, I., Webber, N. and Wright, E. 2023. Video games, historical representation and soft power. Journal of Gaming & Virtual Worlds 15, pp. 105-127. (10.1386/jgvw_00075_1)
- Wright, E. 2023. '“What’s famous” and “what’s true”: Women’s place from Revolver to Redemption. In: Wright, E. and Wills, J. eds. Red Dead Redemption: History, Myth, and Violence in the Video Game West. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, pp. 128-148.
- Wright, E. and Wills, J. 2023. Introduction. In: Wright, E. and Wills, J. eds. Red Dead Redemption: History, Myth and Violence in the Video Game West. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, pp. 1-25.
2022
- Wright, E. 2022. Still playing with the past: History, historians, and digital games. History & Theory 61(4), pp. 166-177. (10.1111/hith.12280)
- Wright, E. 2022. Rockstar Games and American history: Promotional materials and the construction of authenticity. Berlin: De Gruyter Oldenbourg. (10.1515/9783110716610)
2021
- Wright, E. 2021. Rockstar Games, Red Dead Redemption, and narratives of "progress". European Journal of American Studies 16, article number: 3. (10.4000/ejas.17300)
2018
- Wright, E. 2018. On the promotional context of historical video games. Rethinking History 22(4), pp. 598-608. (10.1080/13642529.2018.1507910)
2017
- Wright, E. 2017. Marketing authenticity: Rockstar Games and the use of cinema in video game promotion. Kinephanos: Journal of Media Studies and Popular Culture 7(1), pp. 131-164.
Articles
- Wright, E. 2024. “Layers of history”: History as construction/constructing history in pentiment. ROMchip: A journal of game histories
- Donald, I., Webber, N. and Wright, E. 2023. Video games, historical representation and soft power. Journal of Gaming & Virtual Worlds 15, pp. 105-127. (10.1386/jgvw_00075_1)
- Wright, E. 2022. Still playing with the past: History, historians, and digital games. History & Theory 61(4), pp. 166-177. (10.1111/hith.12280)
- Wright, E. 2021. Rockstar Games, Red Dead Redemption, and narratives of "progress". European Journal of American Studies 16, article number: 3. (10.4000/ejas.17300)
- Wright, E. 2018. On the promotional context of historical video games. Rethinking History 22(4), pp. 598-608. (10.1080/13642529.2018.1507910)
- Wright, E. 2017. Marketing authenticity: Rockstar Games and the use of cinema in video game promotion. Kinephanos: Journal of Media Studies and Popular Culture 7(1), pp. 131-164.
Book sections
- Wright, E. 2023. Paratexts, “authenticity”, and the margins of digital (game) history. In: Seiwald, R. and Vollans, E. eds. (Not) In the Game: History, Paratexts and Games. Video Games and the Humanities Vol. 13. Berlin: De Gruyter, pp. 33-56., (10.1515/9783110732924-003)
- Wright, E. 2023. '“What’s famous” and “what’s true”: Women’s place from Revolver to Redemption. In: Wright, E. and Wills, J. eds. Red Dead Redemption: History, Myth, and Violence in the Video Game West. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, pp. 128-148.
- Wright, E. and Wills, J. 2023. Introduction. In: Wright, E. and Wills, J. eds. Red Dead Redemption: History, Myth and Violence in the Video Game West. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, pp. 1-25.
Books
- Wright, E. 2022. Rockstar Games and American history: Promotional materials and the construction of authenticity. Berlin: De Gruyter Oldenbourg. (10.1515/9783110716610)
Research
Research Interests:
- Digital Historical Games
- Rockstar Games
- Digital game promotion & branding
- Digital sources & preservation
- U.S. History in popular media
- Gender History
Public Engagement:
- History Respawned Podcast, ' Episode 100: Esther Wright on Rockstar Games' (September 2022 ).
- 'Esther Wright, Rockstar Games and American History: Promotional Materials and the Construction of Authenticity', New Books Network, (13 September 2022)
- 'Keywords in Play Episode 18 - Esther Wright on Rockstar and History', Keywords in Play Podcast (11 March 2022).
- 'Like a Viking ' (review of Assassin's Creed: Valhalla), Public Books (July 2021).
- RSE Curious Tea and Talk, ' Video games and American history' , (With Dr. Iain Donald, Abertay - August 2021)
- History Respawned Podcast, ' Episode 82: Historical Games Network' (May 2021)
- History Respawned Podcast, ' Episode 71: Historians React to More Not E3 Game News' (August 2020)
- Beyond Bechdel Podcast, 'Red Fem Redemption?' (November 2019)
- 'Red Dead Redemption 2 and the Marketing of a More Inclusive West', Video Games and American Studies Series, U.S. Studies Online (June 2019)
- History Respawned Podcast, 'Episode 50: Red Dead Redemption 2' (December 2018)
- 'Women out of Date', Bullet Points (December 2018)
- 'Red Dead Redemption, L.A. Noire and Battlefield V: the real history behind 3 popular video games', History Extra (2018)
- ScreenBrum (Brum Radio), VIDEOGAMES! (July 2017)
Teaching
Module Convenor:
- HS6202 Making History: Historians, Evidence, Audiences
- HS6213: Accessible Pasts
- HS0002: Projecting the Past: Popular Media and Heritage
I also teach on the following History modules:
Undergraduate:
- HS1120: History in Practice Part 2: Sources, Evidence and Argument
- HS6202: Reading History
- HS6203: Debating History
- HS1801: Dissertation
Postgraduate Taught:
- HST081: Sources and Evidence: Advanced Historical Research Skills
- HST082: Space, Place and Historical Research: From Micro-Histories to the Global Turn
- HST083: Theories, Methods and Practices of History
- HST077: Gender, Power and Culture
Biography
October 2015- August 2019: Ph.D. Department of History, University of Warwick ("Rockstar Games and American History"). Funded by the Centre for Arts Doctoral Research Excellence (CADRE), University of Warwick.
October 2013-September 2014: MA History. Department of History, Swansea University. Funded by ESF Access to Masters Scholarship (in partnership with the National Botanic Garden of Wales).
2010-2013: BA History. Department of History, Swansea University.
Honours and awards
- Honourable Mention – British Association for Film, Television and Screen Studies (BAFTSS) 2019 award for "Best Doctoral Student Article or Chapter" (for "Marketing Authenticity: Rockstar Games and the Use of Cinema in Video Game Promotion")
Professional memberships
Fellow, Royal Historical Society (2022-)
Early Career Member, Royal Historical Society (2020-2022)
Fellow, Higher Education Academy (2022-)
Academic positions
August 2023 - Senior Lecturer in Digital History, School of History, Archaeology and Religion, Cardiff University
August 2020 - July 2023 Lecturer in Digital History, School of History, Archaeology and Religion, Cardiff University
January 2020 - July 2020 Visiting Lecturer, Department of Media Arts, Royal Holloway University of London
2019 - 2020 Early Career Fellow , Institute of Advanced Study, University of Warwick
2018 - 2019 Associate Tutor, Department of History, University of Warwick
Committees and reviewing
2020:
- Conference Organiser: The Present and Future of History and Games. 28 February 2020. University of Warwick. Funded by the Institute of Advanced Study, University of Warwick.
- Monograph proposal reviewer: Routledge (Media, Cultural and Communication Studies); Bloomsbury.
- Conference Abstract Reviewer: History and Games Conference 2020
- Advisory Board: Video Games and the Humanities series, De Gruyter.
2018:
- Conference Organisational Committee: Gaming the Gothic, 13th April 2018 at the University of Sheffield. Sponsored by the White Rose College of Arts and Humanities.
2017:
- Conference Organiser (With Hannah Graves, University of Warwick): Hardboiled History: A Noir Lens on America's Past, May 19th 2017. Sponsored by Warwick History, the Warwick Humanities Research Centre, and the British Association for American Studies (BAAS).
Supervisions
- Historical Game Studies
- Digital Humanities
Research themes
Specialisms
- digital humanities
- Digital history
- video games
- historical video games
