Lecturer in Digital Media (Interactive)
Communications, Media and Culture Pathfoot Building, University of Stirling, Stirling, FK9 4LA
I am a philosopher working at the intersection of philosophy of pop culture, metaphysics, linguistics, and game studies, with a particular interest in video games, as well as gender, accessibility, time travel, and tropes. I co-led a multi-disciplinary, cross-institutional team to develop the Video Game Dialogue Corpus, the first large-scale, openly accessible, consistently coded corpus of video game dialogue. My recent research concerns gender representation, construction and bias in video games and aims to give game makers the tools and knowledge to make informed choices about gender in their game design.
I am a Lecturer in Digital Media (Interactive Media) in Communications, Media and Culture here at the University of Stirling. I have previously held posts at the University of Glasgow and Cardiff University, and completed my PhD jointly between Glasgow and Macquarie University.
My research interests span various areas of philosophy (including metaphysics, philosophy of tech, intersectional feminist philosophy and philosophy of pop culture), linguistics, gender studies and game studies, and include: tropes in the narrative and mechanics of video games and other media, player experience (including immersion, optionality and autonomy), gender, disability and accessibility, video game dialogue, interaction design, representation and construction of gender and other facets of identity in games and other media, time travel, free will, and foreknowledge.
I am happy to supervise projects relating to the above; if you're unsure, feel free to get in touch at steph.rennick@stir.ac.uk. For more information on my research, see https://www.stephrennick.com.
Book Chapter
Rennick S (2026) Feminist Philosophy of Time. In: Emery N (ed.) The Routledge Companion to Philosophy of Time. London: Routledge. https://www.routledge.com/The-Routledge-Companion-to-Philosophy-of-Time/Emery/p/book/9781032801315?srsltid=AfmBOoqX0IPfA7_dKHTcd6FKwOdyhrDz-zcLlppSERyqAn02rjX1WeOc
Article
Not gamers, just women who play video games: A survey of women’s attitudes to mobile games in the UK
Rennick S & Roberts SG (2025) Not gamers, just women who play video games: A survey of women’s attitudes to mobile games in the UK. Sex Roles. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-025-01612-3
Article
Improving optionality in video game dialogue with Trope-Informed Design
Rennick S & Roberts SG (2025) Improving optionality in video game dialogue with Trope-Informed Design. Game Studies : the international journal of computer game research, 25 (2). https://gamestudies.org/2502/articles/rennick_roberts_improving_optionality
Article
Newey CA & Rennick S (2025) Epistemic Deprivation. Hypatia. https://doi.org/10.1017/hyp.2024.96
Article
Rennick S & McDonnell N (2025) Backwards Counterfactuals. Philosophical Quarterly, Art. No.: pqae149. https://doi.org/10.1093/pq/pqae149
Article
Fixity and the Future: A Forward-Looking Account
Rennick S & Leuenberger S (2024) Fixity and the Future: A Forward-Looking Account. Journal of Philosophy.
Video
How tropes about women in video games go beyond the game
Rennick S (2024) How tropes about women in video games go beyond the game. [TEDx Talk, Youtube Video] 21.05.2024. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UrQig3XVfoE
Article
The Video Game Dialogue Corpus
Rennick S & Roberts S (2024) The Video Game Dialogue Corpus. Corpora, 19 (1). https://doi.org/10.3366/cor.2024.0299
Book Chapter
Rennick S (2023) Foreknowledge. In: Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/obo/9780195396577-0332
Article
Hey, You! The importance of pragmatics in localisations of Mass Effect in French and Spanish
Stainton A, Roberts SG & Rennick S (2023) Hey, You! The importance of pragmatics in localisations of Mass Effect in French and Spanish. Games and Culture. https://doi.org/10.1177/15554120231218046
Newspaper Article
Male video game characters speak twice as much as females, largest study of its kind reveals
Rennick S & Roberts S (2023) Male video game characters speak twice as much as females, largest study of its kind reveals. The Conversation. 24.05.2023.
Article
Gender bias in video game dialogue
Rennick S, Clinton M, Ioannidou E, Oh L, Clooney C, T E, Healy E & Roberts SG (2023) Gender bias in video game dialogue. Royal Society Open Science, 10 (5). https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.221095
Website Content
The Use and Usefulness of Peer Feedback
Newey C & Rennick S (2022) The Use and Usefulness of Peer Feedback. T&L Exchange, University of Reading [Briefing] 06.12.2022. https://sites.reading.ac.uk/t-and-l-exchange/2022/12/06/the-use-and-usefulness-of-peer-feedback/
Article
Trope analysis and folk intuitions
Rennick S (2021) Trope analysis and folk intuitions. Synthese, 199 (1-2), pp. 5025-5043. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11229-020-03013-3
Article
Rennick S (2021) Self-Fulfilling Prophecies. Philosophies, 6 (3), p. 78. https://doi.org/10.3390/philosophies6030078
Article
Improving video game conversations with trope-informed design
Rennick S & Roberts S (2021) Improving video game conversations with trope-informed design. Game Studies: the international journal of computer game research, 21 (3). https://gamestudies.org/2103/articles/rennick_roberts
Book Review
The Routledge Companion to Free Will, edited by Kevin Timpe, Meghan Griffith, and Neil Levy
Rennick S (2018) The Routledge Companion to Free Will, edited by Kevin Timpe, Meghan Griffith, and Neil Levy. Review of: The Routledge Companion to Free Will, edited by Kevin Timpe, Meghan Griffith, and Neil Levy New York: Routledge, 2017, pp. xx + 707 (9781315758206). Australasian Journal of Philosophy, 96 (3), pp. 626-627. https://doi.org/10.1080/00048402.2017.1384847
Project Report
Improving Peer Review: A Pilot Study
Rennick S & Newey C (2017) Improving Peer Review: A Pilot Study. Cardiff University. Cardiff. https://www.cardiff.ac.uk/learning-hub/view/improving-peer-review-a-pilot-study
Book Review
Rennick S (2017) Purpose in the Universe: The Moral and Metaphysical Case for Ananthropocentric Purposivism, by Tim Mulgan: Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015, pp. viii + 435, £50 (hardback).. Review of: Purpose in the Universe: The Moral and Metaphysical Case for Ananthropocentric Purposivism, by Tim Mulgan Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015, pp. viii (9780198822776). Australasian Journal of Philosophy, 95 (3), pp. 615-617. https://doi.org/10.1080/00048402.2016.1231697
Book Chapter
Prophetic foreknowledge in Game of Thrones
Rennick S (2016) Prophetic foreknowledge in Game of Thrones. In: Silverman EJ & Arp R (eds.) The Ultimate Game of Thrones and Philosophy: You Think or Die. Popular Culture and Philosophy, 105. Chicago: Open Court, pp. 151-158. https://blackwells.co.uk/bookshop/product/The-Ultimate-Game-of-Thrones-and-Philosophy-by-Eric-J-Silverman-editor-Robert-Arp-editor-E-M-Dadlez-Christopher-C-Kirby-Matthew-McKeever-Jarno-Hietalahti-Kimberly-S-Engels-Danielle-Karim-Cox-Evan-Rosa-Paul-Giladi-Jason-Iuliano-Lauren-OConnell/9780812699500?currency=USD&destination=US&a_aid=usbook&data1=apz-comp&target=blank
Article
Things mere mortals can do, but philosophers can't
Rennick S (2015) Things mere mortals can do, but philosophers can't. Analysis, 75 (1), pp. 22-26. https://doi.org/10.1093/analys/anu097