Mark Sample

I am the founding chair and professor of Film, Media, and Digital Studies at Davidson College. My teaching and research focuses on digital culture, computational creativity, and interactive media, with particular interests in creepypasta, digital horror, and AI. In my classes, I strive to historicize technology while pushing students to question everything they think they know about internet culture.

My most recent publication, “Walking Away from the Black Box of Social Media” proposes a framework for resisting the inherently exploitative nature of social media. I am also a co-author of 10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10, a collaboratively written exploration of creative computing and the Commodore 64 (MIT Press). Other research has appeared in Debates in the Digital Humanities (University of Minnesota Press), and the journals Game Studies and Digital Humanities Quarterly. 

My creative work, such as The Infinite Catalog of Crushed Dreams and No Time to Discourse, has been exhibited internationally. Michigan Quarterly Review recently published A Million Random Acts, my futile attempt to capture the chaos of modern America. In this and other pieces, such as my widely-taught Content Moderator Sim and 10 Lost Boys, I use the procedural rhetoric of video games to critique contemporary culture. 

I have been the recipient of multiple grants, including the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and the National Humanities Center. I’m also on the board of directors of the Interactive Fiction Technology Foundation.

You can find my full portfolio at samplereality.com.

Teaching

DIG 101 - Introduction to Digital Studies
DIG 210 - Data Culture
DIG 215 - Death in the Digital Age
DIG 225 - Transmedia and Vast Narrative
DIG 220 - Electronic Literature
DIG 275 - Critical AI Studies
FMS 321 - Interactive Digital Narratives
DIG 340 - Gender and Technology
DIG 350 - History and Future of the Book
DIG 401 - Hacking, Remixing, and Design