Sara Grimes

Biography

Sara M. Grimes is Associate Professor in the Faculty of Information and Visiting Professor in Book and Media Studies at the University of St. Michael’s College at the University of Toronto. Her work is centered in the areas of children’s digital media culture(s) and play studies and critical theories of technology with a special focus on digital games. Her published work explores the commercialization of children’s virtual worlds and online communities, the articulation of a critical theory of digital game play, discussions of intellectual property and fair dealing in digital game environments, as well as the legal and ethical dimensions of marketing to children online. Her work has appeared in journals such as New Media & Society, The Information Society, Science Technology & Human Values, and Cultural Studies as well as in chapters in edited volumes and in various magazines and blogs. She has presented her research at a number of national and international conferences, workshops and festivals. Professor Grimes teaches courses on children’s cultural texts and artifacts, remix culture, research methods, and the social and cultural dimensions of social media technologies.Sara M. Grimes is Associate Professor in the Faculty of Information and Visiting Professor in Book and Media Studies at the University of St. Michael’s College at the University of Toronto. Her work is centered in the areas of children’s digital media culture(s) and play studies and critical theories of technology with a special focus on digital games. Her published work explores the commercialization of children’s virtual worlds and online communities, the articulation of a critical theory of digital game play, discussions of intellectual property and fair dealing in digital game environments, as well as the legal and ethical dimensions of marketing to children online. Her work has appeared in journals such as New Media & Society, The Information Society, Science Technology & Human Values, and Cultural Studies as well as in chapters in edited volumes and in various magazines and blogs. She has presented her research at a number of national and international conferences, workshops and festivals. Professor Grimes teaches courses on children’s cultural texts and artifacts, remix culture, research methods, and the social and cultural dimensions of social media technologies.

Research Interest

Professor Grimes is Principal Investigator of the Kids DIY Media Partnership (2013-present), a SSHRC-funded, cross-sector, transnational research collaboration. The overall goal of the project is to build a better understanding of the technologies, users and stakeholder interests involved in children’s online Do-It-Yourself (DIY) and user-generated content (UGC) media phenomena, and to produce an inclusive, ethics-based, empirically and theoretically grounded set of best practices and policy recommendations. She is also Principal Investigator of the Children Making Games Study (2016-2017), a Connaught-funded investigation of children’s experiences with user-generated content (UGC) games, which is focused on better understanding how children use such platforms for creative expression and negotiate their designs and structural features. Professor Grimes was also Principal Investigator of the recently completed SSHRC-funded Playing at Making Project (2013-2016), which explored both the opportunities and challenges associated with children’s game-making and game-related user-generated content, with a focus on examining how available tools can afford inclusion of marginalized children. It also addressed a gap in commercial and legal structures that have yet to adapt to the notion of children as direct participants in digital content creation.