The Trustees of the Society for the Study of Sound and Music in Games, on behalf of the Society’s Executive Committee, are very pleased to announce that Dr Michael Austin has been confirmed as SSSMG’s new Executive Director, effective November 1, 2023.
Michael is a highly respected scholar of game music and sound, and he has been deeply involved with SSSMG’s mission and goals since the Society’s founding. Michael has served as Secretary of SSSMG’s Executive Committee, and as a Trustee of the Society. Michael brings to this position a wealth of experience in administration as well as scholarship, and we are excited to continue to grow and advance the Society with Michael’s leadership.
Michael has been a longstanding presence in game music and sound research. He is Senior Lecturer at Edge Hill University, and was previously the Founding Director of the School of Music at Louisiana Tech University. He is the editor of Music Video Games: Performance, Politics and Play (Bloomsbury, 2016), and his articles include ‘From Mixtapes to Multiplayers: Sharing Musical Taste through Video Games’, which was nominated for a Video Game Music Online award. He has presented regularly at Ludo and NACVGM, including delivering the keynote at Ludo2018 and co-hosting NACVGM 2022. His work draws on a wide variety of disciplinary perspectives and includes themes such as game music and representation.
Michael steps into this role as SSSMG’s second Executive Director, after Dr Mark Sweeney, who has led the Society in this role since its founding. We are extremely grateful for Mark’s service to the Society, and Mark will continue to serve as a Trustee.
SSSMG Executive Committee & Trustees
Stephen Baysted
Karen Cook
Melanie Fritsch
Lidia López Gómez
Elizabeth Medina-Gray
Alia Miroshnichenko
Aaron Price
Jennifer Smith
Tim Summers
Ryan Thompson
Weida Wang
