Short bio available here.
Jermaine Anthony Richards is a communication researcher, theorist, and philosopher; award-winning video game producer; multimedia relational artist, critic, and curator; and Ph.D. candidate at the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School for Communication, where he is a Paul and Daisy Soros Fellow. Jermaine’s work centers on the aesthetics and ethics of serious games, gamification, and game development. Richards’ dissertation examines the function and form of redress games, particularly racial justice games’ functional capacity to carry out social redress missions under aesthetic regimes that overdetermine their charge.
As a PhD candidate at the University of Southern California's Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, Richards works with Robeson Taj Frazier*, Zakiyyah Iman Jackson (Duke - Literature and Critical Theory), and Cristina Mejia Visperas. He is also pursuing a graduate certificate in Science and Technology Studies through the Center on Science, Technology, and Public Life, specializing in computational and mathematical aspects of symbolic systems’ associative constructions.
Jermaine earned his BS in Studio Art and Communications Technology at York College, CUNY, where he studied media art (video games, simulations, and extended reality experiences) as engineered systems and curated artistic experiences. He juxtaposed his studies with a focus on 20th-century Black/African Diasporic Art under the late Jamaican-born artist, curator, and art historian Margaret Rose Vendryes. This foundation shaped his integrative thinking about symbolic art and technological systems as communicative instruments. He also holds degrees from USC's Annenberg School (MAs in Global Communication and Communication: Philosophy, Theory, and Practice) and the London School of Economics and Political Science (MSc in Global Media), where he gained critical global, political economy, and philosophical perspectives for his work.
Richards is an award-winning producer and curator specializing in video art, game art, and extended reality experiences. He is responsible for producing Momo Pixel’s Hair Nah. Hair Nah has been exhibited globally at London's Tate Modern and Victoria & Albert to the Smithsonian Museums, amongst others. The game has also appeared in Vogue and The New York Times. It is regularly taught at MIT, Harvard, the University of Chicago, and Oxbridge. The International ANDY Awards, The One Show, the Brooklyn Arts Council, and the WEBBY Awards have recognized the game for its impact and execution.
Jermaine’s academic work has been supported by the Advertising Club of New York (AdClub) Innovation, Industry, and Media Scholarship, the AdClub Presidential Fellowship, and the LSE/USC Global Media and Global Communication Research scholarship. His creative work has been recognized by the American Association for Advertising Agencies (4As), the American Advertising Federation (AAF), the ADCOLOR® Conference, New America’s Digital Impact and Governance Initiative (DIGI), the Responsible Asset Allocator (RAA), the Paul and Daisy Soros Fellowships, and The OpEd Project, amongst others.
He is completing his dissertation and developing a cross-sectoral advocacy innovation and production studio. When not doing that, he’s either playing his drums or bass guitar, working on his debut novel, or writing publically about media industries, human communication, or gaming dispositions.
Read more about Jermaine's journey here.
CV and references are available upon request.