Staff Profile
Caitlin Veal
Academic Associate
/prod01/yorksjacuk/media/content-assets/staff-profile-images/img_7179.jpg)
I am an Academic Associate and Doctoral Researcher in Sociology at York St John University. My research interests include the social value of video games, spatial structure of digital spaces, online identity, and digital culture. I completed my MA in Sociology (by Research) at the University of York where my research investigated social norms and behaviours surrounding cases of high-profile death that manifest on social media. I then joined York St John as a Research Assistant in the investigate.games Research Group where I worked with the group researching the educational, social and mental health value of video games, which inspired me to pursue a PhD looking at the social and spatial structure of online social video game experiences.
- School – York Business School
- Email – c.veal@yorksj.ac.uk
Research
My interest in conducting research developed during my Master's in Sociology (by research) at the University of York, where I conducted a year-long project into sympathetic reactions to high-profile deaths on social media, with the goal of observing the impact socially contentious deaths had on social media behaviors, and social norms around discussions of the dead.
I started my PhD at York St John University in 2022 after working as a Research Assistant for the Interactive Games Research Group (IGRG) within the Sociology department for little over a year. My research as an RA focused on the educational and mental health benefits of video games, from which I developed a personal interest in the social benefits of video games for young people. This role allowed me the opportunity to author my first lead-author paper looking at social interactions and symbolic interactionism in young people's gaming experiences, with hopes to publish within the next year. This personal interest in the social aspects of video games developed into my PhD project, for which I am focusing on digital cultures, digital social spaces and social behaviors within online video games.
