Welcome to THE NOSTAGAIN NETWORK — the first student-led interdisciplinary research collective in North America critically honed in on the generative potential and uses of nostalgia.
Collectively, we are growing an active network of artists, emerging to established scholars, and enthusiasts of nostalgia within North America and internationally.
Since 2022, the NOSTAGAIN Network ran two public-facing events combining academic research, creative practices, and research creation related to nostalgia. Our first event was a day-long symposium and workshop feature, collaborating with individuals from 8 universities of 3 countries. The second event was a public research creation feature, hosted by a McGill and Concordia neuroscientist-artist.
We are a passionate group of interdisciplinary students at Concordia University, Montreal. We formed as a collective from the Technoculture, Arts and Games (TAG) Research Centre. As students, researchers and artists, we are based in different disciplines. Bringing together our diverse set of carefully cultivated skills and tools allows for us to apply them both widely and deeply in our collective project. Ultimately, as citizens of the digital age, we want to understand, explore, and responsibly further the potentials of technology, culture, and memory.
Mission Statement
Our approach to nostalgia is not one of passive study and speculation, but an active use of it within our annually hosted academic forums, public-facing research creation showcases, and ultimately, for social change.
Working with – not just for – the public involvement of knowledge is our primary goal. Academic research, whilst critical, should not contain its objects of study to just scholars and students.
With a topic such as nostalgia – which is as personal as it is a public phenomenon – we are hoping to highlight that beyond developing methods to study meaningful things such as nostalgia, just by public participation in the university, we ourselves are a form of a “meaningful method,” too.
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.