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Curriculum Vitae

Education

  • Ph.D., Texts & Technology (2024), University of Central Florida (Orlando, FL). Dissertation: Crusading for Fun and Profit: An Examination of Ludohistorical Mode in the Crusader Kings Community
  • M.T.P.C., Master of Technical and Professional Communication (2014), Auburn University (Auburn, AL)
  • B.S.E.C.E., Electrical & Computer Engineering (2011), Baylor University (Waco, TX)

Scholarly Publications

Journal Articles

  • Lundblade, Kirk. 2021. “Watch Me Make History: Reenacting and Remaking the Past in Historical Game Live Streams.” Popular Culture Studies Journal 9: 69–87.
  • ———. 2019. “How the West (Was) Won: Unit Operations and Emergent Procedural Rhetorics of Colonialism in Europa Universalis IV.” Journal of Gaming & Virtual Worlds 11 (3): 251–70. https://doi.org/10.1386/jgvw.11.3.251_1.

Conference Proceedings Papers

  • Lundblade, Kirk. “Bending the Arc of (Ludo)History: Discursive Contestations Within the (Hi)Story-Design-Space of Crusader Kings III.” Paper presented at Foundations of Digital Games, Copenhagen, Denmark. Foundations of Digital Games 2026, August 2026.
  • ———. 2024. “Gods, Kings, and Historians: History and the Dual Diegesis of Crusader Kings in the Assemblage of Play.” In Proceedings of DiGRA 2024 Conference. Guadalajara, MX.
  • ———. 2023. “Sorting Things Out: Critically Assessing the Impact of Reddit’s Post Sorting Algorithms on Qualitative Analysis Methods.” In The 41st ACM International Conference on Design of Communication, 7. Orlando, FL: ACM. https://doi.org/10.1145/3615335.3623021.
  • ———. 2023. “If Your Empire Last More Than Two Centuries, You May Need to Speak to Your Doctor: The Effects of Historicizing Discourse in the Crusader Kings 3 Community.” In Foundations of Digital Games 2023, 7. Lisbon, Portugal: ACM. https://doi.org/10.1145/3582437.3582471.
  • ———. 2021. “Crowning Achievements: A Historioludic Analysis of the Achievement Metagame in Historical Simulation Games.” In Proceedings of the 16th International Conference on the Foundations of Digital Games, 11. Montreal, QC, Canada: ACM. https://doi.org/10.1145/3472538.3472563.
  • ———. 2020. “Civilizing Civilization (and beyond): A History of Historical Game Studies.” In Proceedings of the 16th International Conference on the Foundations of Digital Games, 11. Bugibba, Malta: ACM. https://doi.org/10.1145/3402942.3402977.

Book Chapters

  • Lundblade, Kirk. 2025. “What Video Games Have Taught Us: Two Decades of Gaming and Learning.” In Historiographies of Game Studies: What It Has Been, What It Could Be, edited by Alisha Karabinus, Carly A Kocurek, Cody Mejur, and Emma Vossen.

Conference Presentations

International

  • Lundblade, Kirk. 2020. “Oops We Did It Again: Problematizing Climate Change Representations in Games with Sid Meier’s Civilization VI.” Conference Presentation presented at ELO 2020, July 2. https://stars.library.ucf.edu/elo2020/asynchronous/talks/29/.

National

  • Lundblade, Kirk. 2024. “All My Homies Hate Landowners: Class Consciousness, Historicizing Discourse, and Victoria 3.” Conference presentation. PCA, Chicago, IL, April.
  • ———. 2019. “No Flag, No Country: The Procedural Rhetoric of Colonialism in Europa Universalis IV.” Conference presentation. Computers and Writing 2019.

Regional

  • Schwartz, Pamela, Connie Lester, and Kirk Lundblade. 2026. “Researching and Exhibiting The History of the Ocoee Massacre.” Conference panel. Florida Historical Society 2025 Annual Meeting & Symposium, Orlando, FL, October 25.
  • Lundblade, Kirk. 2023. “Technical Debt? Not Today!: Understanding the Hidden Long-Term Costs of Technical Design Constraints on Digital Humanities Projects.” Conference presentation presented at the Florida Historical Society 2023 Annual Meeting & Symposium, Orlando, FL, October.
  • ———. 2022. “Bending Toward Justice: Designing a Digital History Exhibit.” Conference presentation presented at the Florida Historical Society 2022 Annual Meeting & Symposium, Orlando, FL, October.
  • ———. 2011. “Hardware Acceleration of Sort Operations in a Modern Microprocessor.” Poster presentation. With Ahmed El-Sharif. TAMU Summer Research Colloquium, College Station, TX.

Public-Facing Scholarship

  • Lester, Connie, Geoffrey Cravero, and Kirk Lundblade. 2025. “Our Stories, Our History: Voices from Central Florida.” April 11.

Awards and Fellowships

  • UCF College of Arts and Humanities Outstanding Dissertation Award (2024)
  • Presidential Doctoral Fellowship ($80,000), University of Central Florida (2017)
  • Fellowship for Technical and Professional Communication ($1,000), Auburn University (2012)

Courses Taught

Undergraduate (instructor of record)

  • Server-Side Scripting
  • Writing for the Technical Professional

Graduate (teaching assistant)

  • Introduction to Web Development

Professional

  • National Instruments: LabVIEW Core 1
  • National Instruments: LabWindows/CVI Core 1
  • National Instruments: Developing Test Programs Using TestStand
  • National Instruments: Architecting Test Systems Using TestStand
  • National Instruments: Automating and Customizing Data Processing Using DIAdem
  • National Instruments: Exploring Data Interactively Using DIAdem

Additional Teaching

Guest Lectures

  • Lundblade, Kirk. 2023. “Playing [Preposition] the Past: A Research Trajectory.” DIG6436: Playable Texts.
  • ———. 2023. “Gaming Natures: Philosophies and Affordances of Virtual Worlds.” PHI3640: Environmental Ethics.
  • ———. 2022. “Gaming History: A Ridiculously Brief Introduction to the Study of Historical Games.” AMH4644: Viewing American history in the twentieth century.
  • ———. 2021. “Gaming War: A Brief History of Tabletop Wargaming.” EUH3651: War and society.
  • ———. 2021. “Designing Wargames: A Brief Primer on Designing Your First Tabletop Wargame.” EUH3651: War and society.
  • ———. 2021. “Gaming History: A Ridiculously Brief Introduction to the Study of Historical Games.” AMH4644: Viewing American history in the twentieth century.
  • ———. 2020. “Gaming History: A Ridiculously Brief Introduction to the Study of Historical Games.” AMH4644: Viewing American history in the twentieth century.
  • ———. 2020. “Games in History, History in Games.” AMH4644: Viewing American history in the twentieth century.
  • ———. 2020. “Gaming War: A Brief History of Tabletop Wargaming.” EUH3651: War and society.
  • ———. 2020. “Gaming Natures: Colonialism and the Environment in Digital Historical Games.” AMH5636: Colloquium on Environmental History.
  • ———. 2020. “Paper Time Machines: An Introduction to Historical War Gaming.” EUH3651: War and society.
  • ———. 2018. “This Is a Test: Introduction to Unit, Integration, and Acceptance Testing.” DIG4503: Rapid application web development.
  • ———. 2018. “Git Gud: Tooling and Professionalization for Web Developers.” DIG3134: Server side scripting.

Service to the Profession

    1. Peer Reviewer, Foundations of Digital Games conference
    1. Peer Reviewer, Electronic Literature Organization conference
    1. Peer Reviewer, International Conference on Interactive Digital Storytelling
    1. Social Chair, Texts and Technology Student Association
    1. Secretary, Texts and Technology Student Association

Technical Skills

Agentic and Generative AI Systems

  • OpenClaw, Claude Code, MS 365 Copilot

Programming Languages

  • Scripting: JavaScript (jQuery, NodeJS, Vue.js), PHP (Laravel, WordPress), Python
  • Compiled: C# (ASP.NET MVC), C++
  • Embedded/Hardware: C, VHDL, Assembly (MIPS), LabVIEW, TestStand
  • Selected tools, packages, and frameworks: Vuex, Eloquent, Webpack, npm, composer, git, gulp, grunt

Markup Languages

  • HTML, XML, CSS (LESS, SASS)

Database Environments and ORMs

  • MongoDB, MySQL/MariaDB (Eloquent)

DevOps

  • Docker, Git/Github

IT Infrastructure

  • Ubuntu, CentOS, Apache

Hardware

  • Communications: GPIB, Serial, CAN, I2C, SPI
  • Platforms (NI): cRIO, cDAQ, DAQ, PXI
  • Other: Xilinx FPGA, Raspberry Pi

Electromechanical

  • Equipment: MM, Oscilloscope, FGen, power, precision mechanical
  • Practices: soldering, assembly, wiring, basic repair

Software Suites

  • Development: Visual Studio (NI Measurement Studio), Visual Studio Code, LabWindows/CVI, NP++
  • Data Visualization: DIAdem, ArcGIS, D3, Leaflet.js
  • Engineering: MATLAB, SPICE, LabVIEW, TestStand
  • Design & Usability: Adobe Photoshop, Premiere, Illustrator

Professional Positions

  • Applications Programmer I, University of Central Florida (2019–Present)
  • Web Developer, self-employed (2016–2019)
  • Information Architect, Orange County Clerk of Courts (2018)
  • Applications Engineer, National Instruments (2015–2016)
  • Web Developer, Auburn University Office of University Writing (2014)
  • Technical Writer (intern), Johnson Controls (2013)

Research Positions

  • RICHES Intern (2018–2019), University of Central Florida
  • LUCIA Graduate Assistant (2013–2014), Auburn University
  • IDEA Lab Graduate Assistant (2012–2013), Auburn University

Creative Works

    1. Tio Pelon’s Salsita (website design)
    1. NI DIAdem/Fitbit Tracking Application
    1. Auburn University Office of University Writing (website design)

Courses Available to Teach

Graduate

  • DIG5487: Programming for Digital Media
  • DIG5831: Computational Media
  • DIG6436: Playable Texts and Technology
  • DIG6605: Physical Computing
  • DIG6647: History and Theory of Dynamic Media
  • DIG6817: Contemporary Topics in Interactive Media
  • DIG6835: Humanistic Data Analysis
  • ENG6624: Social Media Research for Humanities
  • ENG6806: Humanities in the Age of AI
  • ENG6819: Critical Making for Humanist Scholarship
  • HIS5925: History in the Digital Age
  • HIS6094: Seminar in Curation and New Media
  • HIS6165: Digital Tools for Historians
  • HIS6938: Special Topics [Digital Games as History]

Undergraduate

  • AMH4644: Viewing American History in the Twentieth Century
  • DIG2000: Introduction to Digital Media
  • DIG3003: Adventures in Emerging Media
  • DIG3024: Digital Cultures & Narrative
  • DIG3043: Evolution of Video Games
  • DIG3134C: Server-Side Scripting*
  • DIG3146: Immersive Platforms
  • DIG3171: Tools for Digital Humanities
  • DIG3174C: Front-End Web Design
  • DIG3480: Computer as a Medium
  • DIG3602C: Physical Computing
  • DIG3716C: Client-Side Scripting
  • ENC3241: Writing for the Technical Professional*
  • ENC3258H: Honors Video Game Theory & Design
  • ENC3600: Literacies of Artificial Intelligence
  • ENC4218: Visual Technical Communication
  • ENC4265: Writing for the Computer Industry
  • ENC4280: Technical Writing Style
  • ENC4416: Writing in Digital Environments
  • ENG3392: Literary Gaming
  • ENG3616: Fan Studies
  • ENG3623: Social Media for English Majors
  • ENG3817: Digital Archives
  • ENG3860: Critical Making in the Humanities
  • ENG3861: Digital Humanities Approaches to AI
  • ENG3935: Topics in Digital Humanities
  • HIS4150: History and Historians
  • HIS4166: Spatial Histories, Digital Storytelling
  • HUM3830: Introduction to Digital Humanities

*Courses previously taught at UCF