Back in the Day…
Welcome to THE NOSTAGAIN NETWORK: the first student-led research collective in North America focused on the generative potentials of nostalgia.
We are a passionate group of interdisciplinary students at Concordia University, Montreal. In 2022, we formed our collective at the Technoculture, Arts and Games (TAG) Research Centre of the Milieux Institute. As artists, writers, designers, and researchers, we approach one simple question:
How can we use
nostalgia for the future?
We realized that this question was the keystone bridging our conceptual, artistic, and methodological foundations. As such, we created a forum in which our colleagues at the Milieux Institute can share how they approach a nostalgia for the future. Eventually, we found that many others (and abroad) were equally interested – thus, the NOSTAGAIN NETWORK began.
Nostalgic for the Future…?
Nostalgia does not have to be buried under technical jargon and methodological complexities. It is culturally prevalent, personal, and inherently social: everything can be affected by it. Rather than study nostalgia as a historical object, we believe that it can be actively shared and used to critique social issues in everyday life.
The NOSTAGAIN NETWORK welcomes the situated knowledge which participants and their material works and art bring to each event. Their background, history, and object-human relationship are all integral to answering what — and how — we can be nostalgic for the future. That future may be greener, kinder, fairer.
Although founded by student researchers, the NOSTAGAIN NETWORK does not emphasize the conventional academic approach of developing methods to study nostalgia as a phenomenon. Given our interdisciplinary backgrounds, we gravitate to symbolic, material, and sentimental reflections around nostalgia that can also provide insight into what and where nostalgia is. Research creation artists therefore compose a large part of our network membership.
Our Partners and Collaborators
The Nostagain Network
Working Team 2024-2025
Richy Srirachanikorn is a PhD student in Social & Cultural Analysis at Concordia University. He studies how people utilize nostalgia for hope and resistance to social narratives of time.
Rowena Chodkowski is a writer, new media artist, and Humanities PhD student at Concordia University. She explores the social and cultural impact of internet aesthetics.
Derek Pasborg is pursuing their MA Sociology at Concordia University, researching how games, narrative, and affect interact. Derek is interviewing players of the game Project Zomboid.
Annie Harrisson is a PhD candidate in Communications at Concordia University. She studies the construction of the “gamer” via retrogaming, Let’s Plays, and promotional practices.
Elizabeth Erana is a MA student in English at Concordia University. Her research work focuses on magic, roleplaying, and reality-building in video games.
Constantina Vossos is a third year undergraduate in Communications at Concordia. She enjoys community participation, event organization, and public outreach.
Shahrom Ali is an applied computer scientist especially interested in digital translations. He studied interaction design as part of his master’s degree in educational technology, developing the concept of digital-first artifacts: translations that enhance themselves with the affordances of digital media.
Interested in joining our team?
Write to nostagain@gmail.com
Love & Loss Symposium
Organizing Committee
(2024-2025)
Richy Srirachanikorn
(PhD Social and Cultural Analysis)
Rowena Chodkowski
(PhD Humanities)
Derek Pasborg
(MA Sociology)
Annie Harrisson
(PhD Communications)
Shahrom Ali
(MA Education Technology)
JUNIOR ORGANIZERS
Miruna Popovici
(BA Psychology)
Miruna Popovici is a Bachelor’s student specializing in Psychology. She is drawn to nostalgia’s capacity for social bonding, creating a sense of shared history, community, and belonging. She is also interested in examining nostalgia from a scientific and psychological perspective.
Ryu Pinveha
(BComm Marketing)
Akarawin (Ryu) Pinveha is a Bachelor’s student majoring in Marketing at Concordia University. Ryu is interested in learning how promotional messages and campaigns can be constructed to activate people’s nostalgic instincts. As a member of Gen Z, his experiences from childhood enable him to connect and resonate deeply with the undergraduate student community.
Time in a Bottle Symposium
Organizing Committee
(2023-2024)
Annie Harrisson is a PhD candidate in Communication Studies at Concordia University with a background in illustration and graphic design. Her work focuses on the historical construction of the gamer imaginary through retrogaming, Let’s Plays, and promotional practices.
Richy Srirachanikorn is a PhD student in Social and Cultural Analysis with a background in Social Psychology. He is intrigued by the generative potential of nostalgia in providing a sense of relief, belonging, and (symbolic) connections for individuals with social pain, such as those in extreme social withdrawal.
Derek Pasborg is a Concordia University Masters student studying Sociology. Their research interests lie in how individuals’ personal narratives shape the affective discourse of video games, and the implications of this for individual’s social lives in gaming communities.
Rowena Chodkowski is a PhD student in the Humanities (HUMA) program who studies subcultures and media; video games. Research creation is Rowena’s jam — just like jazz loon. Her nostalgic interests span from weirdcore to non-historical nostalgic AI generated images.
Shahrom Ali is computer scientist at heart, software developer by day, and a pragmatic (and nostalgic) philosopher by night. His Masters research in the Education Technology program at Concordia University looks at how games can trouble the way that post-secondary education classes are run and taught. More than just ‘gamifying’ learning, Shahrom dives into the question of “if and how” games can motivate a self-directed engagement with knowledge through games (heutagogy), rather than be implemented to make a passive style of learning artificially engaging simply because it is now “more fun” (pedagogy).
Network Founding Members and the
LOSTAGAIN Symposium Organizing Committee
(2022-2023)
Richy Srirachanikorn
(MA Sociology)
Rowena Chodkowski
(PhD HUMA)
Derek Pasborg
(MA Sociology)
Leo Morales
(BA Computation Arts)
Annie Harrisson
(PhD Communication)
Poki Chan
(PhD INDI)
Shahrom Ali
(GrDip. Instructional Technology)
To learn about becoming a member of the NOSTAGAIN NETWORK, click here.
THENOSTAGAINNETWORK
Released: March 7th, 2023
Last Updated: March 25th, 2025