The LA&PS Research Office is pleased to introduce one of the LA&PS Postdoctoral Fellows, Mai Ibrahim. Mai Ibrahim holds a PhD in Communication, Rhetoric, and Digital Media from North Carolina State University and is a recipient of the LA&PS Postdoctoral Fellowship (2024-2025). She will be working with Professor Kelly Bergstrom, an Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication and Media Studies.
Ibrahim’s research seeks to contribute to the understanding of toxicity in video games, a concept that remains undefined. Her project, titled A Genre-Based Approach to Toxicity in Online Gaming, will conduct an online survey and interviews with players representing different game genres. The goal is to draw out categories and terms that elucidate how self-identified toxic gamers explain their toxic behaviors and how these behaviors link with game mechanics, objectives, and other genre-specific features. Overall, Ibrahim aims to identify the approaches that self-identified toxic players believe could deter their toxic behavior and to propose genre-specific definitions of toxicity. Ultimately, she hopes this research will guide game developers and shed light on how genre and non-representational features might inadvertently foster specific toxic tendencies.