Episode 13

full
Published on:

13th Nov 2025

Playing the Part in Japanese Video Games -- Rachael Hutchinson

This episode is co-hosted by David Hall, PhD Candidate in ECL at UNC.

David and I are joined by Rachael Hutchinson, Professor in Japanese Studies and Game Studies at the University of Delaware, to discuss what it means to play and research Japanese video games from a non-Japanese perspective. Navigating topics such as the deployment of aesthetic forms and grammars, regionally and linguistically specific jokes, and references to Japanese history and art within video games, we consider the importance of recognizing how these games play with their cultural context and the challenges that face researchers outside that context in identifying when they do so.

Listen for free

Show artwork for Plumbing Game Studies

About the Podcast

Plumbing Game Studies
A Games and Philosophy Podcast
Philosophy is like plumbing for ideas - it makes connections and keeps everything flowing. In this podcast, Graham and his guests are doing some philosophical plumbing for game studies. We'll be asking questions like:

Why are philosophers always talking about games? Is philosophy itself a game? How can we use games to understand philosophy - and how can we use philosophy to understand games?

This podcast will use philosophy to study games and games to study philosophy. Anyone interested in philosophy, games, and how they interact should enjoy it!

Remember: the unexamined game is not worth playing

About your host

Profile picture for Graham Culbertson

Graham Culbertson

Graham Culbertson is a Teaching Assistant Professor in the Games Studies Initiative of the Department of English and Comparative Literature at UNC, Chapel Hill.

You may know him from such podcasts as Everyday Anarchism and Left on the Table.

You can reach him at graham.culbertson@unc.edu.