My name is Jean Ketterling (she/her); I am an interdisciplinary researcher who specializes in the study of sex and videogames. I hold a PhD in Legal Studies from Carleton University in Ottawa, where I was also a Vanier Scholar.

I have held academic appointments in the Feminist and Gender Studies Program at Mount Allison University (2023/24, limited term) and the Department of Culture & Media Studies at the University of New Brunswick (2024/25 limited term).

My interdisciplinary work on videogames is rooted in legal, game and porn studies and is informed by feminist and queer theories. I am particularly interested in sexual video games: how they represent sex, their ability to make space for experimental sexual play, and how sexual content in video games is promoted, controlled, and regulated by platforms. Recently, my work has appeared in The Bloomsbury Handbook of Sex and Sexuality in Game Studies, Surveillance & Society and Feminist Media Studies.

I am dedicated to research-driven, innovative pedagogical approaches. Most recently, I published “Ungrading Game Making: Incentivizing Creativity and Risk-Taking for Inexperienced Makers” in the JCMS Teaching Media Dossier. In 2023/24, I served as a faculty mentor in Mount Allison University’s first-generation student mentorship program, and was awarded a J.E.A. Crake Humanities Projects Grant for a workshop I developed entitled Clay / Bodies: Feminist and Queer Theory and Craft.

Before my work in academia, I worked as a sexual health educator and in sexual and reproductive rights and justice advocacy. From 2012-2014, I was the Executive Coordinator of the Youth Coalition for Sexual and Reproductive Rights. My interest in feminist law reform and advocacy informs many of the courses I have taught.

I am an avid ultra trail runner. In 2021, I became the first woman to run the Gatineau Park Perimeter Loop. I also make pottery.