Paper accepted @ DiGRA 2026

Title: Pleasure Not For Everyone: Epistemic Injustice Towards Ukrainian Game Studies

Conference: 17th Annual DiGRA Conference

Authors: Kseniia Harshina, Mark Maletska

Abstract: Calls for playfulness in research often emphasize joy and learning, yet play and games can also exclude and harm minoritized participants—including within academia. In game studies, debates on diversity and postcoloniality have grown, but they still tend to center Western/Western European perspectives, which can obscure other forms of marginalization inside “Europe,” including Eastern Europe. This extended abstract summarizes an in-progress collaborative autoethnography by Ukrainian game studies scholars. Using Fricker’s concept of epistemic injustice, we argue that Ukrainian scholars face a dual barrier to participation in game studies: (1) structural inaccessibility within Ukraine (e.g., disrupted institutions, limited resources and mobility) and (2) epistemic misrecognition within Western institutions (e.g., being treated as subjects of humanitarian concern rather than credible theory producers). Together, these barriers shape who can enter the field and which knowledge is considered legitimate.