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Just a Quarter and a Dream: The making of Black and Brown masculine identities through the Arcade based Fighting Game Community.

A Doctoral Dissertation Proposal:
To be Completed in Partial Fulfillment of the Ph.D. in Sociology

Rhys M. Hall
Department of Sociology, University of Connecticut

Thursday, August 5th, 2021; 11:00 A.M. EST

Committee Members:
Dr. David G. Embrick (Chair)
Dr. Andrew Deener
Dr. Kim Price-Glynn
Dr. Nancy Naples
Dr. Johnny E. Williams

Abstract

History books hold tragic, triumphant, and often mundane retellings of day-to-day life as defined by war, work, and familial structures. Adding to these archives of societal dynamics is a close inquiry on how collaborative & combative play motivates emergent generations, aligns with travel patterns, and creates new communities across cultural difference. Contemporary advances on race and education (Lewis-McCoy, 2014) point to resource accumulation and utilization as a pathway towards reaching desired outcomes – such as the formal gendered development of youth. In this study, I engage with the fighting game arcade as a medium that introduced informal learnings for its young Black and Brown masculine patrons and their understanding of city life. Drawing on in-depth interviews with 90’s arcade attendees and participant observation, I explore the relationship between competition and socialization in the Northeast American fighting game committee. Building on a theory of institutional mourning (Ewing, 2016), this work highlights the impact of arcade dissipation over the 2000’s era of technological advances and shopping mall/plaza collapses; I examine how resource utilization can hold a crumbling community together amid a modern viral pandemic. Specifically, my dissertation assesses the lessons, disciplines, and values garnered through leisure camaraderie among those who share traits in common. Successive case studies can build arguments for where competition is situated within global conversations of “productive” collective development.

Embracing the Non-Ideal: Buddhist Ethics for a Secular World

Participants will learn web-based data extraction method terms and concepts such as Application
Programming Interface (API), and Extract Transform Load (ETL) as well as, understand the various data
types that are found online. Students will explore the different methods by which data can be
downloaded from a variety of sources and the processes for cleaning or “scrubbing” data from the web.
Participants will also practice extracting and cleaning data from the web and review common
troubleshooting strategies
with Christopher Brechlin
Register at:https://secure.touchnet.com/C21646_ustores/web/store_cat.jsp?STOREID=60&CATID=375

Participants will learn web-based data extraction method terms and concepts such as Application
Programming Interface (API), and Extract Transform Load (ETL) as well as, understand the various data
types that are found online. Students will explore the different methods by which data can be
downloaded from a variety of sources and the processes for cleaning or “scrubbing” data from the web.
Participants will also practice extracting and cleaning data from the web and review common
troubleshooting strategies
with Christopher Brechlin
Register at:https://secure.touchnet.com/C21646_ustores/web/store_cat.jsp?STOREID=60&CATID=375

Live virtual event: Introductions, Presentations and Q & A. The Orientation will be recorded and posted to HuskyCT for those who cannot attend.

DPP New Student Orientation for MPA and MPP Students

DPP student orientation for MPA Fellows

Welcome and orientation of new doctoral students. In addition to offering important information on UCONN’s policies, there will be discussions drawing on faculty and students’ experiences of graduate study in the Philosophy Department and the resources on which to draw from across UCONN.