Ryan Banfi holds a PhD in Cinema Studies from the Martin Scorsese Cinema Studies Department at NYU. He was a Hispanic Scholarship Fund Scholar, and he is on the Games and Culture editorial board. Ryan’s first book on Chris Ware is forthcoming with The University Press of Mississippi. His writing has been published (or will be) in JCMS, American Journal of Play, Journal of Anime and Manga Studies, Afterimage, ImageTexT, Design Issues, Critical Inquiry, Contexts, Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics, Television & New Media, New Review of Film and Television Studies, The International Journal of James Bond Studies, Games and Culture, Game Studies, Mediapolis, Flow Online Journal, Studies in European Cinema, and In Media Res. Ryan currently teaches video games, film, TV, and American literature at MassArt and Emerson College.
About
- Department Visual & Media Arts
- Since 2023
Education
M.A., University of Southern California
M.Phil., New York University
Publications
"Teaching Game Studies."
2025Journal of Cinema and Media Studies (JCMS), Teaching Media. Edited and introduced by Ryan Banfi.
"Public Pinball: A Photo Essay."
2024Contexts.
"Chris Ware's New Yorker Covers: Reading the School Shootings Triptych."
2024"'Is this where the Jew butchered that poor woman?': Antisemitism in Alan Moore's From Hell."
2024Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics.
"Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem as Metacommentary: Direct Address in Video Games."
2025Jump Cut.
"Disco Pinball: Declining Games and Depression in Disco Elysium."
2024"Unplayable: Why Video Games Can't and Won't be Played."
2024"Becoming Bond: The Player's Perspective in 007 Electronic Games."
2024"Guilty of Being a Dwarf: Peter Dinklage and American Fantasy Television."
2024New Review of Film and Television Studies.
"Gaming I, II, and III: Arcades, Video Game Systems, and Modern Game Streaming Services."
2023"'Authentic' Cityscapes and Violence in The Last of Us Part II."
2022"Ellie's Journal: Para-Narratives in The Last of Us Part II."
2022"Toward a Study of Pinball."
2022Games and Culture, vol. 17, no. 7-8, 931–953.
"Unplayable: Why Games Can't and Won't be Played."
2022"Pinball Playfields: Mapping Heavy Metal"
2025In Mark J.P. Wolf's book Navigating Imaginary Worlds: Wayfinding and Subcreation.
"Genesis in Lincoln, MA: The Creation of Bill and Frank in 'Long, Long Time'"
2024In Theology and The Last of Us: Violence, Ethics, Redemption?