• Degree: Began PhD program in 2020
• Concentration: Film and Screen Studies (Game Studies)
• Advisor: Chris Hanson

Sam currently studies visual rhetoric and performance in video games, with a particular focus upon how interactive experiences of cyberpunk science fiction provide avenues to reevaluate and reimagine conceptions of consciousness and personhood. He often studies texts prominent within gaming popular culture, and aims to form a critical understanding of digital play as a transformative experience wherein diegetic and nondiegetic identities converge. Other interests include Early Modern literature and theater, adaptation studies, media studies, and film studies.

Sam has taught courses on game studies, fiction, and science fiction. His courses aim to impart media literacy skills that translate across disciplines.

• B.A. English, Penn State Abington
• Minors in writing and Asian studies, Penn State Abington
• Website: http://thedeeptree.com/