Researcher · Educator
Dr Diğdem Sezen
London–Istanbul-based researcher and educator working across media, games, and storytelling.
Introduction
I’m a researcher and educator interested in how new technologies change the way we tell, experience, and understand stories. Over the past two decades, my work has explored storytelling across changing forms of media, from interactive narratives and games to AI, algorithms, and machine vision. More recently, I’ve been interested in how games and interactive storytelling can help us imagine and explore possible futures.
My research and teaching bring together media studies, game studies, and creative practice. At the heart of my work is a simple question: as media and technology change, how do our ways of telling stories change with them?
Research Focus
Four threads run through my work.
01
Games & Narrative
How play and interactivity reshape the way stories are made, shared, and experienced.
02
Algorithmic Storytelling
The role of algorithms and machines in shaping what we see and how meaning is made.
03
Speculative Futures
Asking what futures become imaginable as media itself keeps transforming.
04
Transmedia, Fan Cultures, Creative Industries
Work on how stories travel across media, how fan communities take them up, and how creative industries are shaped in the process.
Publications & Research
Selected writing
ALGORITHMIC STORYTELLING
2025 — “Emerging Practices of LLM-Integrated Game Writing” (with T. I. Sezen), The Baltic Screen Media Review, Vol. 13, Special Issue on Generative AI
2025 — “LLM integration in Game Writing: An investigation of visions and tools” (with T. I. Sezen), TIE 2025, Springer
2020 — “Machine Gaze on Women: How Machine Vision Technologies See Women in Films,” in Female Agencies and Subjectivities in Film and Television, eds. Sezen et al., Palgrave
GAMES AND NARRATIVE
2022 — “Longform Video Essays as Critical Retellings of Video Game Narratives” (with T. I. Sezen), in Games and Narrative: Theory and Practice, ed. B. Bostan, Springer
2019 — “Interactive narrative design for geographically dispersed points of interest” (with T. I. Sezen, I. Iurgel, N. Fischoeder), in Playing Cities Playable Cities, ed. A. Nijholt, Springer
2020 — “Video Games, (co-authored with T. I. Sezen), in “The Routledge Encyclopedia of Citizen Media”, Ed. Mona Baker, Bolette Blaagaard, Henry Jones, Luis Perez-Gonzalez, Routledge
2015 — Interactive Digital Narrative: History, Theory, and Practice (co-editors: H. Koenitz, M. Haahr, G. Ferri, T.I. Sezen), Routledge
SPECULATIVE FUTURES
2025 — “I Like Your New Eyes: Representations of Extended Reality Technologies in Tabletop Roleplaying Games” (with T. I. Sezen), in Extended Realities, Virtual Environments, and Interactive Experiences, eds. O. Cordan, G. Catak, D. Dincay, I. Berkman, ERC Press
2025 — “Normalized Cyborgization: Cybernetics in the Cyberpunk Franchise” (with T. I. Sezen), in The Cybernetic Imagination Revisited, eds. M. Fryers & M. Harmes, Peter Lang
2025 — “Neolithic experiences: Approaching a complex topic through IDNs using GenAI” (with H. Koenitz et al.), ICIDS 2025, Springer
TRANSMEDIA, FAN CULTURES, CREATIVE INDUSTRIES
2022 — “In Conversation with Professor Henry Jenkins, On Transmedia Storytelling, New Media Literacies and Fan Culture,” SineCine: Journal of Film Studies, 13(3), 123–143
2024 — “Exploring Women’s Role in Creative Industries Through Collaborative Action Research Using Tabletop Role-Playing Games” (with A. Akcali, T. I. Sezen, S. Perks, P. A. Stewart), TIE 2023, Springer
IN PROGRESS
A full bibliography and current projects are coming soon.
Selected talks
2026 — Invited Talk, “Speculative Games: Games Envisioning Possible Futures,” Department of Digital Humanities, King’s College London
2024 — Invited Speaker, “Written by AI: Who is shaping tomorrow’s creative media content?,” 4th International Media and Society Symposium, Istinye University, Istanbul
2023 — Invited Lecture, “Designing Feminist Research for Data-driven Visual Culture,” The New School, USA
2022 — Invited Discussant, Transmedia Storytelling talk with Prof. Henry Jenkins (USC Annenberg), Istinye University Faculty of Communication
2021 — Invited Keynote, “Me, Myself and Mechanical Eye: Co-creating Visual Culture with Machines,” Istanbul Bilgi University
Media & Public Engagement
2026 — Radio Talk, “Who controls the narrative?”, Homo Ludens, Apaçık Radio, Available on Spotify.
2025 — Radio Talk, “Trains and Railways in video games, screen narratives, and transmedia experiences,” Railway Chronicles (national ST Endustri Radyo, Türkiye), Available on Spotify.
2025 — Invited Podcast Talk, “AI and the Games Industry,” Media Industries Podcast Series, King’s College London, Available on Spotify.
2024 — Invited Speaker, “I Play Therefore I Am: Aesthetic and Rhetoric in Games,” Game Room Exhibition, AKBANK SANAT Art Centre, Istanbul
2021 — Invited Podcast Talk, “Poverty Simulators: What videogames say about the future of social justice”, moderated by Hazal Ozvaris, The podcast is supported by Civil Rights Defenders and the Consulate General of Germany in Istanbul – the Federal Foreign Office of Germany. Available on Spotify.
Selected Conferences
2026 — Intersectional Pleasures of Imagining non-Western Futures for Tabletop Role Playing Games (with T. I. Sezen), 17th Annual Digital Games Research Association (DiGRA) 2026 Conference, 14-18 June 2026, Ireland
2026 — Situated Experiences of Creative Writing with LLMs (with T. I. Sezen), The Digital Conference 2026 at King’s College London, DIGITAL HUMANITIES TODAY: CRITICAL INQUIRY WITH AND ABOUT THE DIGITAL, 23-26 June 2026, London, UK
2026 — Returning to the Hive: Repetition and Worldbuilding in Warhammer 40,000 (with T. I. Sezen), The 2026 CGSA/ACÉJ Canadian Games Studies Association Annual Conference, at Concordia University in Montreal, Quebec from June 11-14th, 2026.
2025 — Speculating on Istanbul: Playful Worldbuilding as Counter-Futurist Inquiry, (co-author T. I. Sezen), Games for Change Turkiye Conference & Festival, 6-7 December 2025
2025 — Gender Equality in Game Academia, Panel Talk, Gender Equality, Diversity and Community Building in Gaming Panel, Games for Change Turkiye Conference & Festival, 6-7 December 2025
2025 — Island Istanbul: TRPG Worldbuilding as Speculative Practice (with T. I. Sezen), Animex Symposium on Game Cultures and Net Zero, Teesside University, UK, 19 November 2025
2025 — Contested Futures: Speculative Technology Trees and Paradigms of Control in Strategy Games, (co-authored with T. I. Sezen), Electricdreams – Between Fiction and Society IV: Visions of Control – Power and Technology in Speculative Fiction, Milan, Italy, 15-17 October 2025
2025 — The Hive City: A Playable British Dystopian Urban Setting, (co-author T. I. Sezen) The UK Tabletop Role-Playing Game Scene – Histories, Cultures, and Legacies Symposium, Hosted by the Center of Excellence in Game Culture Studies at Tampere University, Finland, 16 September 2025
2025 — Speculative Games: Games Envisioning Possible Futures, (co-author T. I. Sezen) 2025 DIGRA Digital Games Research Association Conference, University of Malta, 30 June- 4 July 2025
2025 — Paradigm Shifts of the Future on Technology Trees in Speculative 4X Games, (co-author T. I. Sezen) 2025 Canadian Game Studies // L’Association canadienne d’études des jeux Annual Conference, Concordia University in Montreal, Quebec
2024 — Speculative Games: How games help us envision possible futures, (co-authored with T. I. Sezen), Games for Change Turkiye Conference, Istanbul Bahcesehir University, Istanbul, Turkey, 7-8 December 2024
2024 — Cyberpunk class conflict on a space station: “Hard Wired Island”, (co-authored with T. I. Sezen), Electricdreams – Between Fiction and Society III International Conference, Conflicts and Margins: Imagining Otherness, Ecocatastrophes, Perpetual War, Technological Imbalance, and Systemic Injustice Through Speculative Fiction, IULM University, Milan, Italy, 9-11 October 2024
2024 — Transformation of Game Writing in the Video Game Industry: A Comparative Study Of LLM-Integrated Game Authoring Tools, (co-authored with T. I. Sezen), Media Industries Conference, King’s College London, UK, 16-19 April 2024
2024 — Large Language Models as Creative Partners in Tabletop Role-Playing Game Writing, (co-authored with T. I. Sezen), 2024 Narrative Conference, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK, 17-19 April 2024
2024 — LLM-Integration in Game Writing: An investigation of tools and visions, (co-authored with T. I. Sezen), In-betweenness of Play Conference, Staffordshire University London Digital Institute, UK, April 11-13, 2024
2022 — Reading Data-Image through its Invisible Layers, 54th Annual Conference of the International Visual Literacy Association (IVLA), Jyväskylä, Finland, 10-12 August 2022
2021 — Using Digital Humanities Methodologies in Analysing Critical Game Retellings, III. Zip-Scene Conference on Immersive Storytelling, Budapest, Hungary, 30 September 2021
Appointments
2023 – Present — Senior Lecturer & Acting Programme Director (2024–2025) for Creative Technologies, University for the Creative Arts, School of Games and Creative Technology, Surrey, UK
2024 – Present, Executive Board Member, Games for Change Türkiye
2020 – 2023 — Senior Lecturer, Teesside University, MIMA School of Arts and Creative Industries, Middlesbrough, UK
• MA Digital Media Communications Programme Leader (2021–2023)
• MA Multimedia PR Programme Leader (2021–2023)
2017 – 2020 — Associate Professor, Radio, TV, Cinema Department, Faculty of Communication, Istanbul University, Turkey
2017 – 2019 — Visiting Research Fellow, Rhijnland.XPerience Project, Rhein-Waal University of Applied Sciences, Kamp-Lintfort, Germany
2014 – 2017 — Assistant Professor, Radio, TV, Cinema Department, Faculty of Communication, Istanbul University, Turkey
2014 – Present — Part-time Lecturer, Game Design Department, Bahçeşehir University, Istanbul, Turkey — I continue to teach postgraduate Game Studies courses and supervise MA theses here
2017 – 2018 — Part-time Lecturer, Brand Practice MA Programme, Sabancı University, Istanbul, Turkey
2014 – 2017 — Part-time Lecturer, Film, TV Department, Istanbul Bilgi University, Istanbul, Turkey
2011 – 2014 — Doctor Research Fellow, Faculty of Communications, Istanbul University, Turkey
2002 – 2011 — Postgraduate Research Assistant (MA [2002-2005], PhD Student [2005-2011], Faculty of Communications, Istanbul University, Turkey
External Examining
2026 — External PhD Examiner, Stellenbosch University & Coventry University Joint PhD, South Africa
2026 — External PhD Examiner, Keio University, Japan
2024 — 2025 External Examiner for MA by Research Programmes, Dún Laoghaire Institute of Art, Design and Technology, Dublin, Ireland
2024 — External Examiner, BSc Game Design Programme Validation, University of Surrey, UK
2016 — External PhD Examiner, Istanbul Bilgi University, Turkey
Connect
I welcome enquiries about PhD supervision, research collaboration, speaking engagements, and media requests.
