The Power of Play:
Representation of Arabs and Muslims in Video Games
A public lecture at Manhattan College
Vit Šisler
Fulbright Scholar
Buffett Center for International Studies,
Northwestern University
Monday, May 4 – 4 PM
William J. Scala Room, Leo Hall
Sponsored by the Department of Religious Studies, the International Studies Program, the Department of Modern Foreign Languages, and the Department of Communication
For more information, please contact Dr. Robert M Geraci, Department of Religious Studies, Manhattan College, 718-862-7402, robert.geraci@manhattan.edu
I'm so annoyed they casted Jack Gyllenhaal to play Prince of Persia! He may be a good actor, but geez, Hollywood. He's too WASP-y!!
ReplyDeleteKnow what's fucked up? I tried for like 40 minutes to find an image of an Arab video game character and I couldn't find anything except teeny little screen grabs of Arab "terrorists" from Call of Duty. Made me want to yak. So I (finally) went the easy route and grabbed an image off of Prince of Persia. (Although it is really interesting that in discussions all over the web gamers seem to think that this pre-Islamic, Iranian character "counts" as a positive representation of Arabs and/or Muslims.
ReplyDeleteOh and I think Gyllenhaal is Jewish.
You all might be interested in some of the images we collected in this project, called "Understanding Islam through Virtual Worlds": http://dancinginkproductions.com/?page_id=80
ReplyDeleteJoshua,
ReplyDeleteThanks for providing the link. Your works sounds fascinating. If you are interested in talking about it further here on the Pomegranate then please email me. I'd love to hear more about what you are doing.