Michael Anthony DeAnda

Michael Anthony DeAnda is a PhD candidate in Technology and Humanities at Illinois Institute of Technology. His research focuses on the ways queer people and communities engage in playing and developing games. His dissertation focuses on how games built for gay male audiences encode gender identity and sexuality.

As a game designer, he develops games that comment on sexuality and gender as a way of envisioning spaces for LGBTQ+ people to heal from heteronormative values and develop broader understandings of gender identity and sexuality. He developed TRANS-Gression as part of his masters project at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. Additionally, he is currently developing a web-based Alternate Reality Game, entitled Bulge Lab, as part of his dissertation. 

DeAnda is a former member of Different Games Collective, responsivle for revaming the Different Games Inclusivity Statement. He has also organized several symposia, conferences, and colloquia, including: The Chicago Colloquium for Digital Humanities and Computer Science 2017; Informed Experiences, Designing Consent; Screen Time; and Feeling Games.