DA Hall, PhD

Dissertation: “Touching Intent: Reference, Repetition, and the Rhythm of Video Game Narrative”

Committee: Shayne Legassie (chair), Courtney Rivard, Rick Warner, Michelle Robinson, Edmond Chang (external reader)

• Minored in Philosophy

• Rose Ruth Richardson Dissertation Fellowship, Department of English & Comparative Literature, UNC, 2024
• King’s College London Collaboration Grant, Institute for the Arts and Humanities, 2024
• Guest Instructor Award Department of American Studies, UNC, 2023
• Humanities Initiative Grant ($55,000), National Endowment for the Humanities, 2022
• Critical Game Studies Award, Department of English & Comparative Literature, UNC, 2021 
• Instructional Innovation Supplemental Grant ($15,000), UNC Center for Faculty Excellence/Lenovo, 2021 
• Instructional Innovation Grant ($30,000), UNC Center for Faculty Excellence/Lenovo, 2019 

• Hall, DA. “As of today, your name is Ahab”: Generic Critique as Reparative Praxis in Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain,” Game Studies, forthcoming.
• Hall, DA. “Another Castle: Nintendo, Babylon, and the Aesthetics of the Cold War,” Games and Culture, submitted for review.
• Rivard, C, Hall, DA, Stark, D, and Kinzinger, S. “A Room to Play: The Infrastructure of Game Pedagogy,” Computers and Composition, 2025.

• Hall, DA. “A Beginner’s Guide to Painted Worlds: The Haunted Mansion, Dark Souls III, and the Playground of Interpretation,” Proceedings of Digital Games Research Association, 2024.

• Hall, DA, “The Fallen Leaves Tell a Story: Elden Ring and the Emergence of the Soulslike Genre,” New Formations of Game Genres: Approaches to Digital Game Studies, Bloomsbury Publishing, forthcoming.
• Hall, DA, and Jones, N. “A War Without End: Industrial Warfare and the Negation of Individual Agency in Edward Berger’s Im Westen nichts Neues,” Screening War: Edward Berger’s All Quiet on the Western Front in Context, forthcoming.

Primary Instructor

• ENGL 118, Storytelling and Game Development
• ENGL 105i, Writing in the Digital Humanities
• ENGL 105, Gaming Across the Disciplines

Teaching Assistant

• ENGL 257, Video Games and Narrative Cinema
• ENGL 113, Introduction to Critical Game Studies

Graduate Research Consultant

• ENGL 257, Video Games and Narrative Cinema
• ENGL 118, Storytelling and Game Development

Primary Instructor

• INST 1550, Video Games and the Epic

Teaching Assistant

• CS 4730, Computer Game Design

• ENGL 762: The Literature of Hate, Dr. Danielle Christmas
• ENGL 610: Practicum in Health Humanities, Dr. Kym Weed
• ENGL 257: Video Games and Narrative Cinema, Dr. Guillermo Rodríguez-Romaguera
• ENGL 118: Storytelling and Game Development, Dr. Courtney Rivard
• ENGL 116: History of Writing: From Pen to Pixel, Dr. Jordynn Jack
• ENGL 113: Introduction to Critical Game Studies, Dr. Graham Culbertson
• ENGL 113: Introduction to Critical Game Studies, Dr. Courtney Rivard
• AMST 341: Digital Native America, Dr. Dan Cobb
• AMST 101: This Place We Call “America,” Dr. Michelle Robinson
• ASIA 89: The Samurai: Gender and Power in Japanese History and Culture, Dr. Morgan Pitelka

• “Spoiling This Wonderful Falsehood: Japanese Video Games and Critiques of Western Worlding,” Modern Language Association, 2025

• “The Bad Guy is Capitalism: Actual Play as Popular Punk Praxis.” Generation Analog, online, 2025.
• “The Lands Between: Communities of Difference and Algorithmic Resistance around FromSoftware’s Elden Ring.” Alt+F4: Rebooting Community after GamerGate, Southfield, MI, 2024.
• “Home Games: Actual Play and the Historical Development of the Tableside Aesthetic.” Generation Analog, online, 2024.
• “A Beginner’s Guide to Painted Worlds: The Haunted Mansion, Dark Souls III, and the Playground of Interpretation.” Digital Games Research Association, Guadalajara, Mexico, 2024.
• “A Room for Play: The Infrastructure of Game Pedagogy.” Leveling Up, Lexington, KY, 2024.
• “Sovereign Games and Critical Play.” Modern Language Association, Philadelphia, PA, 2024.
• “Is that what they call this place now?: FromSoftware’s Soulsborne series and the Case for Genealogical Analysis in Game Studies.” UNC-Duke Critical Game Symposium, Durham, NC, 2023.
• “Is this Ecstasy?! Reparative Formations of Rage, Cruelty, and Laughter in Kentaro Miura’s Berserk.” Society for Comparative Literature and the Arts, Philadelphia, PA, 2023.
• “The Nightmare Swirls and Churns Unending!: Antinatalism, Beasthood, and Cycles of Violence in FromSoftware’s Bloodborne.” Critical Misanthropy, Amsterdam, Netherlands, 2023.
• “Arise Now, Ye Tarnished: Navigating Embodied Collectivity and Queer Temporalities in Elden Ring.” Northeast Modern Language Association, Niagara Falls, NY, 2023.
• “A Thousand Year Journey: Trans Temporality in Elden Ring and the Soulsborne series.” Affecting Game Time Conference, online, 2022.
• “Locating the Author in Games.” Popular Culture Association, Washington, D.C., 2019.
• “Using Video Games to Teach The Faerie Queene.” International Spenser Conference, Dublin, 2016.

• Gameroom Design – Design hardware and furnishing to center student accessibility; Train instructors in use of equipment; Maintain equipment and software libraries to IT and internal specifications.
• Game Team Management – Manage team of 5 graduate students; Produce protocols for regular team functions; Mentor new team members; Propose and discuss new Critical Game Studies Program initiatives.
• Curriculum Development – Develop new game-focused syllabi for Critical Game Studies minor; Translate guest speaker talks into short-form modules; Collaborate with instructors to incorporate video game content.
• Pedagogy Consults – Provide resources and recommendations for specific course needs; Train instructors in use of game equipment and game-based pedagogy; Facilitate class sessions through close play practice.
• Research Consults – Consult on graduate and undergraduate research in game studies; Connect students to faculty and other students with similar research.
• Grant Writing – Identify and propose potential funding sources; Draft applications with Game Team.
• Speaker Series – Invite game studies scholars in coordination with partner campus organizations; Promote event across community; Introduce speakers and manage discussion.
• Workshop Series – Create and run instructor-focused workshop events for game-based teaching in the Gameroom; Follow up with instructors to incorporate workshop concepts into courses.
• Social Events – Support campus community by organizing social events in Gameroom.
• Undergraduate Events – Coordinate events with campus organizations centering undergraduate experience and learning.

• Reviewed Book Proposal for Routledge Taylor & Francis Group.

• “The Roots of Our World: A Cultural and Aesthetic History of The Soulsborne Video Games” at Durham County South Regional Library, 2024.
• “Dungeons and Devils: TTRPGs and the Satanic Panic of the 80’s and 90’s” at Durham County South Regional Library, 2025.

• D&D One-Shot, Tween Program at Durham County South Regional Library, 2024.

• English (Native Language)
• Latin (Advanced Reading and Writing)

• Python (advanced)
• Java (advanced)
• C# (advanced)
• C++ (advanced)
• R (intermediate)

• Unity (advanced)
• Twine (advanced)
• Unreal Engine (basic)

• Adobe Audition (intermediate)

• Adobe Premiere (basic)
• DaVinci Resolve (basic)

• GIMP (intermediate)
• Adobe Photoshop (basic)

• Open Broadcaster Software (intermediate)

• WordPress (intermediate)

• Google Suite (advanced)
• Confluence (intermediate)
• Notion (intermediate)
• Trello (intermediate)
• Slack (intermediate)

Project Credits:

• Moonrise (Unity, 2018) – Director and Design Team Lead
• Blink (Unity, 2017) – Director and Design Team Lead
• Protocol (Unity, 2016) – Director and Design Team Lead
• King Solomon’s Mines (Unity, 2015) – Writing Team Lead

Game Jams:

• Propagate (Global Game Jam, 2018)
• Protocol 2 (Global Game Jam, 2017)
• BY-3902 (Global Game Jam, 2016)

Plumbing Game Studies, Guest Host

• Manga Culture in the Development of the Video Game w/ Ben Whaley (scheduled)
• Playing the Part in Japanese Video Games w/ Rachael Hutchinson (in edits)
• The Emulation Game in Japanese History w/ Morgan Pitelka (2024)

Not a Novel Podcast, Co-Host

• 20 episodes (2018-2025)