Sheldon Myers ʼ26 is a biochemistry major on the pre-med track from Downingtown who recently presented cross-disciplinary research discussing the intersectionality of video games, method acting and theater at the Mid-Atlantic Popular American Culture Association (MAPACA) Conference. The conference was held in November in Philadelphia.
Myers’ presentation represents a special interest of his, stemming from a class he took on drama in the United States with Hank Willenbrink, Ph.D., professor of English and theatre at The University of Scranton. Although Myers’ presentation at MAPACA in Philadelphia was not a complete research project, it gave him feedback and inspiration for future projects.
Myers is also involved in organic chemistry research and plays various intramural sports at Scranton.
He recently sat down with Royal News student correspondent Marcus Smith ’27 to discuss his research and the video game industry.
Q: The research you presented actually came from a final project for a drama class. What did you put together for that final project?
A: I had a final for Dr. Willenbrink’s class where there were two or three prompts you could choose from. I suggested this project where I looked at the intersections among video games, theatricality and method acting. Concisely, I’d say the project suggests that video games are a new kind of medium that, through their interactive aspect, are uniquely suited to convey a type of narrative empathy that all forms of media like literature and theater serve to communicate. Because of the interactive aspect of video games where the player ideally feels that they’re the ones making the decisions, or at least that they agree with the decisions that they’re kind of pushed to make by that agency, the narrative empathy that they experience is deepened.
Q: How did you end up bringing this class project to the MAPACA?
A: I finished it for the final, and I didn’t really feel like I was quite done with it. And particularly, I noticed that people had only really discussed this topic tangentially, which is exciting because I have the opportunity to break the ice on it. There’s some work discussing whether video games can be a form of art, especially in the 2010s when they were much newer, and discussing their place in society’s conception of art, but there really isn’t much looking into this aspect of them. So, with this interest, Dr. Willenbrink suggested I get some feedback at that conference, so I presented and heard people’s feedback about it.
Q: What was that experience like: Having a project that you’re working on get accepted to be presented at the conference, and then putting it out there in the world?
A: Despite the work I’ve done here with chemistry, I haven’t presented at a conference before. So, I wasn’t sure what to expect, especially because the only work that I presented previously was a poster presentation. This was a speech I gave to a group, so the format was certainly different and something that I had to prepare for, but it was interesting. I got a lot of good feedback from people much more knowledgeable in the field than I was, who could point me toward some good resources.
Q: Was there any particular feedback that stood out to you?
A: One person gave me a bunch of good resources to read for my own project, which was very helpful since he had a similar interest. I haven’t gotten through reading all of them, so I’m not sure I can pick out one particular piece. But their feedback was helpful to ground my ideas in the current climate of the field, and I enjoyed listening to all the other people’s presentations in that section.
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source news.scranton.edu ’
