• Althea Delwiche (Ph.D. University of Washington) is a Professor in the Department of Communication at Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas. She teaches courses on topics such as virtual world development, transmedia storytelling and mobile gaming.

    Delwiche's research is driven by the recognition that our world is being rapidly transformed by participatory knowledge cultures in which people work together to collectively classify, organize, synthesize, and create ideas in radically new ways. The co-editor of the 2012 Participatory Cultures Handbook, her recent publications include a chapter on transmedia storytelling in the anthology The Rise of Transtexts: Challenges and Opportunities, a book chapter about the history of computer bulletin board systems in The Sage Handbook of Social Media, and an article about digital comics preservation for the journal First Monday. Althea is currently working with an undergraduate Mellon recipient to investigate how virtual worlds can be used to promote empathy and capture oral histories that might otherwise be forgotten. 

    In 2007, Althea served as co-chair of an international, interdisciplinary conference (State of Play: Building the Global Metaverse) that explored the implications of transnational virtual worlds. With support from the Martha, David & Bagby Lennox Foundation, she organized the 2010 seminar series "Reality Hackers: The Next Wave of Media Revolutionaries" and the 2017 seminar series titled "Propaganda and Political Persuasion."

    • Ph.D., University of Washington
    • M.A., University of Washington
    • B.A., University of California at Berkeley
    • "Early social computing: The rise and fall of the BBS scene (1977-1995)" in Sage Handbook of Social Media. 2017.
    • "Still searching for the Origami Unicorn: The audience question" in The Rise of Transtexts: Challenges and Opportunities, Routledge. 2016.
    • "The players they are a changin': The rise of older MMO gamers, with Jennifer Henderson, Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media. 2013.
    • Co-Editor of Participatory Cultures Handbook, with Jennifer Henderson, Routledge. 2012.
    • "The New Left and the computer underground: Recovering lost antecedents of Participatory Culture," Participatory Cultures Handbook. 2012.
    • "From the Green Berets to America's Army," The Player's Realm: Studies on the Culture of Videogames and Gaming, MacFarland and Company. 2007.
    • "Massive multiplayer online games in the new media classroom," Journal of Educational Technology and Society. 2006.
    • Emerging digital media, big data, and political propaganda
    • Promises and pitfalls of participatory culture
    • Virtual worlds as a tool for education and persuasion
    • Redefining media literacy in an era of ubiquitous computing
    • Comic Books in American Popular Culture
    • Media Interpretation and Criticism
    • Mobile Gaming
    • Propaganda and Political Persuasion
    • Transmedia Storytelling
    • Virtual World Ethnography
    • Web Design
    • Mellon Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship, 2015, 2016, 2017
    • Trinity University Junior Faculty Award for Distinguished Teaching and Research, 2007
    • MacArthur Foundation (with Beth Simone Noveck): $50,000 grant for State of Play V, 2007
    • Chair, New Media Minor
    • Chair, University Curriculum Council (2016-2017)
    • Faculty Committee on Information Technology
    • Board Member, KRTU-FM, Trinity University's Radio Station