{"id":2182,"date":"2026-08-24T09:12:36","date_gmt":"2026-08-24T07:12:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/flare.academicesports.net\/?p=2182"},"modified":"2026-08-24T09:57:11","modified_gmt":"2026-08-24T07:57:11","slug":"abstracts-for-the-2027-uia-academic-esports-seminar-now-open","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/flare.academicesports.net\/?p=2182","title":{"rendered":"Abstracts for the 2027 UiA Academic Esports Seminar Now Open"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t<div data-elementor-type=\"wp-post\" data-elementor-id=\"2182\" class=\"elementor elementor-2182\" data-elementor-post-type=\"post\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-cbc209e e-flex e-con-boxed e-con e-parent\" data-id=\"cbc209e\" data-element_type=\"container\" data-e-type=\"container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"e-con-inner\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-699782e elementor-align-left elementor-widget elementor-widget-button\" data-id=\"699782e\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"button.default\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a class=\"elementor-button elementor-button-link elementor-size-sm\" href=\"http:\/\/flare.academicesports.net\/\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"elementor-button-content-wrapper\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"elementor-button-text\">\u25c2 Previous Page<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-1bf785f elementor-widget elementor-widget-theme-post-title elementor-page-title elementor-widget-heading\" data-id=\"1bf785f\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"theme-post-title.default\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<h1 class=\"elementor-heading-title elementor-size-default\">Abstracts for the 2027 UiA Academic Esports Seminar Now Open<\/h1>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-e0cd6b2 elementor-widget elementor-widget-post-info\" data-id=\"e0cd6b2\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"post-info.default\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<ul class=\"elementor-inline-items elementor-icon-list-items elementor-post-info\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<li class=\"elementor-icon-list-item elementor-repeater-item-af076b3 elementor-inline-item\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"elementor-icon-list-icon\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<svg aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"e-font-icon-svg e-fas-pen-nib\" viewBox=\"0 0 512 512\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\"><path d=\"M136.6 138.79a64.003 64.003 0 0 0-43.31 41.35L0 460l14.69 14.69L164.8 324.58c-2.99-6.26-4.8-13.18-4.8-20.58 0-26.51 21.49-48 48-48s48 21.49 48 48-21.49 48-48 48c-7.4 0-14.32-1.81-20.58-4.8L37.31 497.31 52 512l279.86-93.29a64.003 64.003 0 0 0 41.35-43.31L416 224 288 96l-151.4 42.79zm361.34-64.62l-60.11-60.11c-18.75-18.75-49.16-18.75-67.91 0l-56.55 56.55 128.02 128.02 56.55-56.55c18.75-18.75 18.75-49.15 0-67.91z\"><\/path><\/svg>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"elementor-icon-list-text elementor-post-info__item elementor-post-info__item--type-custom\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tWritten by: Hugo Vettore\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/li>\n\t\t\t\t<li class=\"elementor-icon-list-item elementor-repeater-item-c8bbee9 elementor-inline-item\" itemprop=\"datePublished\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/flare.academicesports.net\/?m=20260824\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"elementor-icon-list-icon\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<svg aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"e-font-icon-svg e-fas-calendar\" viewBox=\"0 0 448 512\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\"><path d=\"M12 192h424c6.6 0 12 5.4 12 12v260c0 26.5-21.5 48-48 48H48c-26.5 0-48-21.5-48-48V204c0-6.6 5.4-12 12-12zm436-44v-36c0-26.5-21.5-48-48-48h-48V12c0-6.6-5.4-12-12-12h-40c-6.6 0-12 5.4-12 12v52H160V12c0-6.6-5.4-12-12-12h-40c-6.6 0-12 5.4-12 12v52H48C21.5 64 0 85.5 0 112v36c0 6.6 5.4 12 12 12h424c6.6 0 12-5.4 12-12z\"><\/path><\/svg>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"elementor-icon-list-text elementor-post-info__item elementor-post-info__item--type-date\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<time>August 24, 2026<\/time>\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t<\/li>\n\t\t\t\t<\/ul>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-db2e404 elementor-widget elementor-widget-theme-post-featured-image elementor-widget-image\" data-id=\"db2e404\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"theme-post-featured-image.default\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<figure class=\"wp-caption\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"800\" height=\"534\" src=\"https:\/\/flare.academicesports.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/seminar-graphic-2-1024x683.png\" class=\"attachment-large size-large wp-image-2190\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/flare.academicesports.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/seminar-graphic-2-1024x683.png 1024w, https:\/\/flare.academicesports.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/seminar-graphic-2-300x200.png 300w, https:\/\/flare.academicesports.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/seminar-graphic-2-768x512.png 768w, https:\/\/flare.academicesports.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/seminar-graphic-2.png 1200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<figcaption class=\"widget-image-caption wp-caption-text\">Thank you for attending the 2026 Academic Esports seminar graphic<\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-367f901 elementor-widget elementor-widget-heading\" data-id=\"367f901\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"heading.default\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<h1 class=\"elementor-heading-title elementor-size-default\">Introduction<\/h1>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-9ce75ee elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"9ce75ee\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">Esports has been called an industry, a sport, a culture, and a bubble. After a decade of spectacular growth and an equally spectacular contraction, the more useful question is no longer how big esports is, but what it actually changes. Who gets reached, what they learn, which institutions adapt, and what remains once the tournament lights go out. The 4th UiA Academic Esports Sem-inar takes that question as its theme: Esports 4 Change.<\/span><\/p><p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">In FLARE, the Future Lab for Academic Research in Esports, we treat esports as a people-cen-tered arena rather than a technology product. Competitive play is where individuals learn to col-laborate, communicate, negotiate identity, and navigate digital complexity, and where those ca-pabilities become visible in ways formal systems rarely capture. Change, in this reading, is not something esports produces automatically through scale or spectacle. It happens where play is deliberately organised: in classrooms, clubs, community centres, workplaces, and public pro-grammes that give participation a structure and a direction.<\/span><\/p><p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">There is now a growing body of practice to learn from. Esports-based programmes have re-en-gaged young people outside education, employment, and training, and in several cases have carried them into higher education and into work. Universities have built academic esports into study programmes and research centres. Clubs and federations have turned informal play into organised pathways. Employers have begun to recognise competencies formed in competitive digital environments. These are concrete claims about change, and they deserve concrete evi-dence.<\/span><\/p><p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">They also deserve scrutiny. Not every esports initiative delivers what it promises, and impact is frequently asserted rather than measured. Access remains uneven, toxicity and exclusion persist, wellbeing is easily traded against performance, and funding logics can pull grassroots work to-ward visibility rather than effect. A seminar about change has to make room for the initiatives that did not work, the effects that faded, and the measurements that failed to confirm the story. Critical, negative, and null findings are as welcome here as success cases.<\/span><\/p><p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">Universities, researchers, educators, and practitioners are uniquely positioned in this. Academic esports, understood as the intentional and structured use of competitive game environments for learning, research, and social inclusion, is where change can be designed, tested, documented, and scaled responsibly. The 2027 seminar invites contributions that examine how esports\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">changes people, institutions, and societies, how that change can be evidenced, and what condi-tions make it last.<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-5b04baf elementor-widget elementor-widget-heading\" data-id=\"5b04baf\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"heading.default\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<h1 class=\"elementor-heading-title elementor-size-default\">Seminar Themes<\/h1>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-a3fe36e elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"a3fe36e\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\"><b>Themes include, but are not limited to, the following core areas:<\/b><\/span><\/p><p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">1. Esports for Re-engagement, Second Chances &amp; Educational Pathways<\/span><\/p><p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">Examining how esports-based programmes reach young people outside education, employment, and training, and how participation converts into qualifications, careers, and long-term educational trajectories. Contributions on programme design, retention, transition rates, and the institutional conditions that make such pathways durable are particularly encouraged.<\/span><\/p><p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">2. Learning, Competence Development &amp; Academic Esports Practice<\/span><\/p><p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">Exploring how structured competitive game environments build digital, social, and self-regulatory competence, how these competencies can be assessed and made visible, and how academic esports reshapes curricula, teaching practice, and study programmes.<\/span><\/p><p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">3. Inclusion, Belonging &amp; Community Change<\/span><\/p><p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">Investigating who is reached and who is not, how grassroots communities create belonging and agency, and how esports environments can be built to widen participation across gender, back-ground, ability, and geography rather than reproduce existing divides.<\/span><\/p><p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">4. Health, Wellbeing &amp; Safer Digital Environments<\/span><\/p><p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">Addressing the human dimension of change: physical and mental health, toxicity and harassment, sustainable participation, and the design and governance of environments in which people can compete and belong without harm.<\/span><\/p><p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">5. Work, Organisations &amp; the Changing Nature of Competence<\/span><\/p><p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">Understanding how esports-informed practices of collaboration, coordination, feedback, and adaptability travel into workplaces and organisations, and how competencies formed in competi-tive play are recognised, translated, or overlooked in the labour market.<\/span><\/p><p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">6. Governance, Policy &amp; Sustainable Infrastructures<\/span><\/p><p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">Analysing how public institutions, federations, funders, and educational systems build the infra-structures that make change possible, and how economic, environmental, and organisational sus-tainability shape what survives beyond a project cycle.<\/span><\/p><p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">7. Evidencing Change: Methods, Measurement &amp; Critical Perspectives<\/span><\/p><p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u00a0<\/p><p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">Questioning how impact is claimed, measured, and contested. Contributions on evaluation de-sign, longitudinal and mixed-method approaches, replication, and critical accounts of overstated or unrealised change are explicitly invited.<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-97a803b elementor-widget elementor-widget-heading\" data-id=\"97a803b\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"heading.default\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<h1 class=\"elementor-heading-title elementor-size-default\">Important Info<\/h1>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-f17cdd5 elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"f17cdd5\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\"><b>Submission Guidelines:<\/b><\/span><\/p><p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b style=\"font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">\u2022 Research Abstracts: <\/b>350 words<\/p><p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b style=\"font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">\u2022 Author biography: <\/b>100 words per author<\/p><p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\"><b>\u00a0<\/b><\/span><\/p><p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b style=\"font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">Important Dates:<\/b><\/p><p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b style=\"font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">\u2022 Abstract Submission: <\/b>31st January 2027<\/p><p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b style=\"font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">\u2022 Acceptance Notification: <\/b>20th February 2027<\/p><p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b style=\"font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">\u2022 Event Dates:<\/b> 12th\u201314th May 2027<\/p><p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\"><b>\u00a0<\/b><\/span><\/p><p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b style=\"font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">Submission:<\/b><\/p><p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b style=\"font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">Submit to: <\/b>tobias.scholz@uia.no<\/p><p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b style=\"font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">Website: <\/b>www.academicesports.net<\/p><p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The Academic Esports Seminar is part of a larger esports initiative at the University of Agder, contributing to the development of the Agder region as a hub for esports innovation and excel-lence.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u25c2 Previous Page Introduction Esports has been called an industry, a sport, a culture, and a bubble. After a decade of spectacular growth and an equally spectacular contraction, the more useful question is no longer how big esports is, but what it actually changes. Who gets reached, what they learn, which institutions adapt, and what [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2190,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[20],"class_list":["post-2182","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latest-news","tag-latest-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/flare.academicesports.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2182","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/flare.academicesports.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/flare.academicesports.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flare.academicesports.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flare.academicesports.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2182"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/flare.academicesports.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2182\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2189,"href":"https:\/\/flare.academicesports.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2182\/revisions\/2189"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flare.academicesports.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2190"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/flare.academicesports.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2182"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flare.academicesports.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2182"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flare.academicesports.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2182"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}