Why Is Steve Bannon a Keynote Speaker for a Gaming Conference?

The International Conference on Advances in Computer Entertainment Technology, a relatively niche academic symposium in its 15th year, is embroiled in a white-hot controversy over its keynote speaker: Steve Bannon, the former White House Chief Strategist and founding member of the right-wing publication Breitbart. According to the conference organizer, Bannon--who has no academic background in computer science or interactive design but whose policy ideas have been embraced by white nationalists--will give a speech about how he believes "economic nationalism" will allow for a higher number of minorities to get jobs in sectors like computer science and gaming. The conference, also known as ACE, is scheduled to take place at the University of Montana in December. Since Bannon was added to the conference's roster last week, academics, scholarly associations, and university departments around the world have called for boycotting the conference, including the Milieux Institute for Arts, Culture and Technology at Concordia University, the Canadian Game Studies Association, and the Australian Digital Games Research Association. "Nothing of what Bannon can say represents the ACE community, or the games research community at large. His is a marginal discourse that should stay where it is, marginalized. And that's why we ask our community to #boycottACE," Miguel Angel Sicart, a games, art and interactive design researcher at the IT University of Copenhagen, told WIRED in an email.