Intersectional pleasures invite the DiGRA community to reflect and reframe the ways in which games are pleasurable. We picked this theme because it highlights the pleasure inherent in game play and creation and foregrounds contemporary intersectional complexities of our ludic landscapes. Intersectionality highlights the many ways in which race, class, gender and other formative factors can shape our life experiences and nowhere is this more visible than in game play. In light of contemporary understandings of identities and social justice DiGRA 2026 seeks to ask what strengths and pleasures digital intersectional dynamics can offer the field of game design from analysis to creation, to play and to market. These themes emphasize pleasure not as frivolous or escapist, but as a radical and complex affective terrain in digital play. 

PhD students are encouraged to apply as there will is a dedicated emerging stars PhD consortium on Day 1 which will provide opportunities for further development of research skills that will be of help to emerging scholars in achieving their academic goals. 

Potential full paper, abstract, and workshop topics include: 

• Explorations of algorithmic systems in games  

• Identity Politics in games 

• Accessibility in game design and play  

• Diasporic and indigenous game narratives 

• Examining how bodies and senses experience pleasure and restriction in physical/digital play 

• Feminist Games 

• AI in Games 

• Climate change factors, eco computing and green games  

• Intersectional Games 

• Exploring innovative, participatory, and intersectional research approaches for studying pleasure in games and gaming 

• Community games as tools for learning and expression and inclusive engagements 

• Queer Gaming 

• Virtual Utopias 

• Sonic and Haptic Pleasures in Game Design 

• Homonationalism, capitalism and games markets  

• Cross Platform Chaos and Synergy 

• Software, tools and production processes and how software shapes how pleasure is encoded 

• Pleasurable Aesthetics for Games 

• Aural Pleasures for Games 

• Making Pleasurable Experiences – games creation. 

• Gambling Games and Troubling Pleasures

• Games Processes, Policies and Structures for Pleasure 

• PhD doctoral candidates work in development 

The organizers also accept thematic workshop proposals (see submission guidelines below). 

In light of global events, DiGRA 2026 is departing from business as usual. This year we encourage attendees to register as independent scholars to distance themselves from governments and institutions which support war and genocide. This year, we are introducing a human rights evaluation framework that considers breaches of international law. Conference registration will still provide the opportunity to register with a university affiliation for those who must have a university affiliation as a condition to receive funding, or who wish to represent their university or institution for other reasons. For those who are able, and who wish to protest global injustice, registering as an independent scholar is a means of doing so. Any individuals lacking legal permission to enter the country of Ireland will be denied registration to the DiGRA conference.