Diamond
Diamond was able to turn her love for Japanese and video games into a research project of her own creation. Diamond said, “All I’ve done is like, I like these games, I like Japanese and that’s led me…to having fun with this…I would have to thank my advisors the most, who have helped guide me in my interests.”
Diamond described her journey as “complete coincidences and accidents, nothing was planned, which I love.” These “complete coincidences” have turned into a multi-year project for Diamond, where she has had the chance to analyze different archetypes that appear in indie games, how these games were received by Western audiences and why they were important to those communities. In wanting to intertwine her previous research while also being inspired by classes she was taking on girlhood and shojo, the period in between childhood and adulthood, Diamond’s present thesis topic is pushing back on thinking of girlhood as this ephemeral space where there is a lack of agency and autonomy, instead wanting to highlight it’s discomfort through the use of video games and their storylines of having young girl characters work through anxieties and navigate their discomfort. Through her research, Diamond has said going through this process has given her a different sense of self as well as being able to navigate creating balance in her research, school work, and other areas of her life. It gave her the tools of self-advocacy and having check-ins with herself along with managing resources and managing her time.